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Hot take: I almost quit a 12x15 berber stretch job over a 1/4 inch hump, and a $9 tool saved me
So last Tuesday I'm in a split level out in Beaverton doing a 12x15 berber for a retired couple, and the subfloor has this hump right at the doorway that I somehow missed on the measure. I laid the pad, got the carpet tacked on two walls, and the minute I stretched it in I could feel the ripple coming. I stood there for probably 20 minutes doing the math on pulling the whole thing back up and eating the day, because I've had humps like that turn into a callback two weeks later when the seam cups. Then I remembered this old guy I worked with in 2019 who kept a cheap 4 inch hand planer in his bucket just for subfloor, not for wood. I hit the high spot with maybe 6 passes, feathered it out maybe 18 inches wide, swept up the dust, and that carpet laid flat on the first stretch. Total fix took me 15 minutes and the couple never knew. Biggest lesson for me was that I've been treating subfloor prep like it's somebody else's problem on every job. Anybody else keep a planer on the truck, or do you just float it with patch and hope?
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skyler_fox7210d ago
A 4 inch planer probably worked fine on that berber but I've seen guys take that same trick to a glue down vinyl plank job and now you got a dip nobody can hide. I'm not saying don't ever touch the subfloor but the hump is usually telling you something, like a joist crown or the slab heaving, and planing it down just hides the problem until it moves again. Patch and float gets a bad name because people sling it thin and don't let it cure, but if you mix it right and feather it past 18 inches you get a fix that moves with the floor instead of fighting it. That retired couple might call you back in 8 months when the planer dip telegraphs through the backing. I've pulled up enough of my own work to know that the fast fix is usually the one that bites you later.
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