Tried a 6 inch seam roller on a commercial job and got weird results

I was doing a 3000 square foot office lobby in Austin last week and figured a bigger seam roller would save time. Rolled the whole thing and the seams looked flat but next day there were bumps everywhere. Learned the hard way that heavy roller on glue down carpet can push the glue into the backing and make it swell. Anyone else had this happen with commercial glue down jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_miles11d ago

Rolled the whole thing and the seams looked flat" - that's the key detail right there. I actually think your issue might not be the roller size itself but how you used it. A 6 inch roller is fine for commercial glue down if you're only running it along the seam lines, not mashing the whole field. The problem is you rolled the whole carpet, which pushes glue sideways into the backing and causes those bumps. I've done jobs with a standard 2 inch seam roller and gotten clean results because I only hit the actual seam, not the surrounding area. Next time try keeping the roller on the seam line and off the main field, see if that helps.

young.michael11d ago

Heard a few old timers say the same thing about rolling seams only, not the whole carpet.