My old boss said skip the expensive knee kicker... he was WRONG

Tom told me a $60 knee kicker works just fine, so I bought one and it broke on my third job in Phoenix last month. Now I'm out the money and had to borrow a $200 one that actually grips the carpet tight. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.brian9d ago

a $60 knee kicker works just fine" yeah that's a load of crap lol. I learned this one the hard way too back when I first started laying carpet. Bought a cheap one from a hardware store and it snapped the prongs off on the second room. Had to finish the job with a hammer and a block of wood which took forever and looked terrible. Now I only use the good ones from the rental place my buddy runs. Sometimes you gotta pay for quality or you'll end up paying twice honestly.

eva_moore9d ago

Oh man, that's rough... I think the real issue nobody's talking about is how the heat in Phoenix probably made that cheap plastic even more brittle than usual. @lewis.brian is right that sometimes you gotta pay for quality, but also the environment you're working in matters a ton. I've seen cheap tools fail way faster on concrete slabs in hot climates versus wooden subfloors in cooler places. That $60 might work fine in a mild climate but completely fall apart somewhere like Arizona. It's not just the tool itself but where you're using it that decides if it'll hold up.

felixlane9d ago

Oh wow, I actually read somewhere that the heat in Phoenix basically turns cheap plastic tools into garbage in no time. Totally makes sense why that thing gave out on the slab.