Showing It Off-

Hey, we don't like to toot our own horns, but we don't mind if you do it for us!
This is just a quick post to show some of the recent pictures we received from customers who have bought carpet remnants we had in stock. With an inventory that is constantly revolving, you never know what we may have on hand, but we try to accommodate those seeking remnants as best we can.

Below are some pictures to show how small (or sometimes large) remnants can jazz up your living space.

2 ft. by 22 ft. floral runner

3 ft. by 5 ft. runner for door-way entrance

5 ft. by 8 ft. area rug

9 ft. by 12 ft. area rug (panoramic shot); note how it matches their dog!

8 ft. by 10 ft. area rug

5 ft. by 8 ft. area rug

And just for fun, here's a picture of my nephew doing something he loves ... vacuuming!
(I know. I know. Pretty surprising for a 6 year-old!)

Beneath those couch cushions and vacuum there's a 4 ft circular rug DWP fabricated!

That's all folks. Just a quick set of pictures displaying some of the remnants we have sold in the past.

(If you would like to help us show off our work, please fell free to e-mail us pictures of DWP stock pieces in use.) 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Thank You to all who have come and visit us these past couple of weeks!

Happy Friday!

Dan has piled as much as possible into his 16 ft. trailer to get ready to head out to Stormville, NY for a great flea market!

This time around he's bringing more pieces including:

 large area rugs, custom pieces, small mats and long hallway runners of all colors, styles, patterns and sizes!

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, check out the

 Stormville Airport Flea Market this Sunday, April 28th, 2013.

http://www.stormvilleairportfleamarket.com/

https://www.facebook.com/StormvilleFleaMkt

Thank you to everybody who has stopped in and visited
 DWP Carpet Binding this past week!

Happy Weekend, everybody!

Spring Has Sprung!

Although we haven't hit record highs, the Spring season is back! Flowers are starting to bloom, birds of all types are singing their love songs and the weather is creeping higher and higher each day. This is a time when everybody has a little more pep in their step and their smiles are just a bit bigger than usual. Let's face it, even as New Englanders, the winters seem far too long at times. The team of DWP is happy that the weather is changing over for a few reasons:

1. The flea markets are starting up and Dan is making his go-around with our stock pieces.
2. Business in general will start picking up; which is always a good thing!
3. Warmer weather also brings in new faces to our shop and it's always a pleasure meeting new people. 

With that being said, we have received a handful of phone calls from people all over the state of CT asking when Dan will be back at certain flea markets. The truth is, we don't know. Typically, his flea market visits are spur of the moment based on availability. He tries to circulate them so he makes at least one every six weeks, but sometimes that doesn't always happen. So, if you're one who is eagerly awaiting his arrival, thank you, but it's up in the air where he'll go and when he'll be there. I will try to update his next stops on here as much as I can, but sometimes he goes on a whim and I don't get the chance to fill everybody in.

So, let's talk about the various jobs we've had in house over the past few weeks:

We had one very enthusiastic couple in (Hi Chick & Judy!) to have a carpet, which was a wall-to-wall, re-sized to two different area rugs. They were redecorating a room in their home and wanted to expose their hardwood floors, but keep the carpet as an area rug under their furniture. We cut the carpet to approximately an 11 ft. by 14 ft. & a runner 2 ft. by 12 ft. It was a super thick carpet, so it also needed to be power beveled, then we finished it off with a nice polyester binding to match.
Coincidentally, I just received a phone call from a young woman who is looking to do the same exact thing! We can do it and it's a great way to reduce the cost of buying a new carpet all together!

We had a woman (Hi Judy!) come in with a very nice piece to cut down because it had gotten water damage. It was a woven wool she picked up from Pottery Barn and wanted to salvage. We cut it back after latexing the perimeter and serged all four sides with our cotton serging yarn. It came out lovely and she was able to remove most of the noticeable stains while keeping her carpet useful!

Two other gentlemen came in at separate times (Hi Mike & Mark!) to have remnants cut and bound with polyester binding. Both small jobs that we were able to complete while they waited, to save time and money.

Last, but not least, we had a gentleman (Hi Alex!) come in with a very complex job. He manages a local sky-diving company and needed replacement carpet for a plane that was being worked on. He brought in the old carpet as a template and the new carpet for DWP Carpet Binding to work on. It was a complicated job because of the intricate cuts that the piece had. The custom shape was because the carpet had to go around certain bolts for the seats and have slits cut and stabilized for seat belt buckles to come up through.
What we ended with was this:

Custom shaped carpet for airplane: cut & bound with polyester binding.

This was about a 4.5 - 5 hour project for us. The majority of each small cut-out was hand-bound (by yours truly) yet, even at the perpendicular angles that our binding machine was able to pass through, there were inside corners to put back together. Quite an extensive project, but luckily he was very happy with the end results!

On a side note: While I was finishing up the seat belt areas he and Dan were chatting. He kept inviting Dan to visit his place of business and check the whole operation out. Dan kept joking, "I don't know. I think I like it on the ground, personally." Haha. 


In just a few weeks we've already met several friendly faces on top of our regular day-to-day customers. As always, DWP would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who uses us for their carpet binding needs! We look forward to the "busy season" and the intricate work tasks that will come our way next!

Happy Easter Weekend!

Not everybody celebrates Easter, but we do! 

So, we would like to wish a Happy Easter to any and everybody who celebrates it.

(Happy Passover to those of you who celebrate that!) 

Bobbie (the VP) and myself spent Sunday afternoon coloring eggs for Easter.
:)

We will be open today until about 2 pm. 

(Regular business hours will resume on Monday morning.)

In other news:

This past week we received a set of custom car mats to be serged. One of the pieces was very intricate and required hand-serging in small cut-out areas. You can check out the pictures below:

Custom hand-serging.

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

Serged by hand. (Old school, needle and thread.)

The customer was pleased with the work, which was a huge relief for me, considering the amount of time that had to be put in. Each square took about 40 minutes a piece, then another 2 hours was spent to make sure that any voids were filled. It was quite an extensive project! 

As always, we'd like to say 

THANK YOU 

to our customers!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Extra Charges -

We had a huge undertaking for a serging job recently. It was a nice job, two custom shaped pieces we had to bevel and serge the perimeters of. Check out one of the pieces in the pictures below:

Custom hallway in for serging.

Custom piece; different angle.

 It may not look like a hard task, but believe it or not this one piece took nearly 3 hours to complete! Custom pieces like this require a lot more time and effort to complete. The inside corners on this piece took about 45 minutes in itself to finish. Inside corners are the perpendicular angles that happen at the junctures of the cut-outs. We relief cut them in order to get our serging machine to by-pass the areas, then we have to glue them back together, almost as if they are seams. Due to the extra time involved, there is an extra charge applied to the cost. Dan and I double teamed this job, so as I was working on the inside corners of this piece, he started the serging on the second piece (you can catch a glimpse of it in the top corner of the second picture). The second piece was not as intricate, yet it still took a good 2.5 hours to complete. With two people working on the project, it didn't take as long as it could have. However, the time and extra labor cost more money. Simple as that.

In addition to custom shaped pieces, such as the ones above, we charge additional fees for handling used carpets. DWP Carpet Binding had a customer bring in two used area rugs for serging. They were surprised when they heard about the up-charge. The fact of the matter is, handling used carpet is a health risk. On the back of these particular carpets there were multiple stains, which could be from anything. We try not to guess what the potential causes of the stains are, imagination can lead you to very disturbing places sometime.  As we were working on these pieces, we used our leaf blower to clean them of excess carpet fibers. Literally a cloud of sand came up upon doing so. That's horrible for our serging machine. Sand can get into every orifice of the machine, which if not properly cleaned, can and will ultimately break parts or ruin the calibrations of the needle and looper, which results in poor stitching quality. With that being said, the health risk of handling unsanitary used carpets and the sand factor, we charge more when working with used carpets. It's only fair.

In a completely unrelated side-note, check this out:

We just BARELY had enough serging yarn to complete the two area rugs!!! The total footage for both area rugs was 130 linear feet and I had guessed that we'd have enough. This is pivotal. There was maybe enough yarn for another 6 inches or possibly a foot. As we worked on the last side, Dan and I were cheering the machine and serging thread on, in high hopes we'd have enough yarn. We did! Then we danced in celebration.

In other news:
I was recently e-mailed a picture of a custom piece I recently made! I wrote a blog about a month ago in regards to this particular piece, as it was made from samples into a "patch-work quilt" area rug.
Below are pictures of the piece in our shop as well as it's final destination in the owner's home!

Custom "patch-work quilt" area rug, in our shop.

Custom piece in place in the customer's home!

  I'd say the customer did a great job working a unique piece into the decor of their home! I noted (for future endeavors) that I could have followed the brick work pattern of the chimney to really pull the room together. The customer said he likes it the way it is and wasn't worried about matching patterns between chimney and carpet. Regardless, I couldn't have been more thrilled to see it in use! It certainly is a piece that I'm proud to have been a part in the making of. The customer also had a big 30th birthday celebration, with 30 - 40 guests; all of which raved about the carpet (this is what I'm told at least). Which is just another feather in my cap ... as I said before, compliments are always welcome! [smiley face.]

On that note, this has been your 101 on why we charge extra for certain job tasks.

Thank you to all who have come to see us in the recent past!!!

Cotton Binding

   When DWP Carpet Binding started up in 2004, one of the products we offered was cotton binding. Though the volume was low, a handful of jobs requested the product. With several attempts ultimately being failures for multiple reasons, we decided that we wouldn't offer cotton binding anymore. The major component of this decision was that we would waste more material and time than the job was worth. The cotton binding frequently sewed on with wrinkles in the material, which ruined the aesthetics of both the carpet and the binding. Whether we ran a 12 ft. side once or five times, we were only going to get paid for it once. Having less than desirable results, we opted to eliminate cotton binding as an option.

   Well, recently a woman came in with two Stark carpets. She had her mind set on cotton binding. Dan showed her a sample of our cotton serging as an option, but she wasn't a fan for serging. She said she "could have lived with it" if there was nice fringe on both ends. Dan explained to her that with past attempts the cotton binding rarely ever worked out. They also went over the option of the sisal/wide-border binding. She felt that it was too informal for her pieces. She associated the wide binding with outdoor sisal carpets and didn't want to ruin the overall style of her pieces with something which may be presented as informal. What she left with was 3 options:

1. Have us cut the carpets to size, then ship them to another binding shop that offers cotton binding.
2. Serge the carpets.
3. Use sisal/wide-border binding.

She said she would think about it over night and get back to us the following day. It was clear that she was disappointed in hearing that we didn't offer cotton binding. One of Dan's famous lines is, "You can be a part of the problem, or you can be a part of the solution. I prefer to be a part of the solution." So, he started thinking about how to be a part of the solution. He went through some of the extra miscellaneous spare parts we have for our table model binding machines. In doing so, he found a couple of random folders (this is the part where the binding is fed through, prior to being stitched). These folders looked different than ours, which set a light bulb off in his head. Maybe these folders are meant for cotton binding versus polyester binding? 

   Dan put them to the test. He set up one of our table models with one of the folders and began running cotton binding onto scrap carpet. After finagling for a chunk of time, he was finally able to get the right setting so that the cotton binding stitched flawlessly! (Eureka!)

He called the customer and let her know that he was going to attempt to bind her rugs with the cotton binding she chose. There wasn't one problem in the process. The end result? Check out the picture below:

Cotton Binding application
(Of course I remember to take a picture AFTER the carpet is wrapped. Tsk. Tsk.)

  The customer was in today and she was beyond thrilled about the results. She absolutely loved it saying, "How rare that the producer and the buyer of something both end up happy with the result."

  Not only are we happy with the result, but we're ecstatic to offer another product for people's binding needs. We no longer have to worry about wasting material and time, nor worry about whether or not we can get the desired result. Dan often says, "You have to have the right tool for the job." Finding the cotton binding folder for our machine allowed for us to have the right tool for the job ... now and for future cotton binding jobs!

  DWP Carpet Binding is ending its work week on a delightful level. We made a customer happy and solved an ongoing obstacle in the process.

Side story: In the past a customer referred to Dan as "Pad-a-Genius", since his last name is Padegimas. He'll use that nickname from time to time when making phone calls. Well, in this case it's a well deserved nickname. His genius came through to help solve a problem and finish a task at hand.

Thank you to all of our customers!

Have a great weekend!

Textures and Loops:

  For some reason, people are always asking about Berbers. I often wondered if it's because they know the name of the style. Berbers can go a long way in some cases, in other cases they would be a bad choice of carpeting. I do not care for them personally, for a multitude of reasons. One of the main reasons is they don't bind very well; especially not thick ones. What happens with Berber carpet is that the binding tends to form to the shape of the carpet loop. This makes for an illusion that the binding is not sewn straight. Today, we worked on a thick Berber carpet. The binding looked very erratic to me. It didn't seem as if the machine stitched a straight line, even though it did. I don't like when our binding doesn't look good, it gives a bad impression on the consumer. Alas, I will write about it in attempt to dissuade people from thinking it's the binding versus the real culprit- the texture of the carpet.
  Below are a few pictures of a Berber carpet without any binding:

Image 1: Berber  carpet without binding.

Image 2: Berber carpet without binding.

Image 3: Berber carpet without binding.

   In the first image, you can clearly see the variances of carpet loop. The edge has a tiny/discrete loop that turns into a very bulbous prominent loop and so on and so forth. When you bind an edge like that, the binding forms to the carpet (as previously stated) creating an unsightly visual.

   In the second image, you may have noticed all the loose fibers protruding out (no, it isn't a bad hair day). This is what happens when you cut Berber carpet to width. They rarely, if ever, cut well to width. When they are manufactured, Berbers are looped in rows, to the length of the carpet. You can pull just one little loop out and continue pulling that same strand until the whole length of the roll is reached. At which point, you will see the carpet backing.  This is how many people ruin their Berber carpets; a small snag turns into a big loop that's no longer fastened to the back, so they keep pulling at the yarn until there is nothing left to pull (nor any carpet loops left). Which would look like this:

Berber carpet not bound; carpet back shows when loops are pulled completely to length.

    The third image is merely a different angle of the same carpet, again the loops cut to width just fray out. Which is where binding is necessary! When binding these Berber carpets, we use a pair of 12 inch scissor-shears and trim all of those fiber prior to running any binding machines. When the edge is cleaned up from all the snaggly yarns, we can then bind them. However, just as it is to length, the binding will form to the shape of the carpet. 

   So, what am I getting at here?

When purchasing a carpet, it is important to be aware of the texture and what it may or may not do when it is bound. Really thick Berber carpets that are bound rarely have the same crisp look that a cut-pile carpet will have. This only matters if you're a picky consumer. Texture, loop size, pile-height and thickness are all factors that make or break a binding job. That's why you can use the same binding on two different types of carpet and end with two very different outcomes aesthetically. 

  I won't end this with so much negative connotations against Berber carpet. There is some benefit to them. Multi-colored Berbers hide stains well; they are frequently used in apartment complexes for that reason. If they are cared for properly, they can last a long time (don't even think about wearing stiletto spikes and walking on it though). Lastly, they are cost effective, depending on the quality. If you're looking for a quick replacement on a low budget, one of the super stores (Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc.) will most likely have Berber carpet in stock, already bound and ready to go home with you. Just remember, the texture of the carpet will impact the final aesthetics of the binding! 

DWP Carpet Binding would like to say 

"Thank You" to all of our customers!