Beveling & Hand-Binding-

Upon creating our web-site a handful of years ago, it was important to make sure to write accurate and informative information. Keywords were a must. After having our site built our web-master, Demetri, kept telling me, "Kelly, we need more keywords... We've got to get the googlebots to pick your site up!" and I would think "How many times can I say carpet binding, serging, fringing, sisal binding, etc. in one paragraph?!" 

While I was coming up with all the information needed to build the web-site I checked in on other binding shops to see what they posted. In doing so , I found something I found intriguing. One of the sites posted that they too have serging machines that bind and serge simultaneously. They followed this information with saying that the simultaneous action of binding and serging means that the carpet wouldn't have to be power beveled. I have to say that this isn't true at all. If a carpet is thick and needs power beveling in order to bind, the same would hold true for serging. In the past we have had customers tell us "No, it doesn't need to be beveled." or complain about the small up-charge that they accrue because of power beveling. So, I recently ran a test. We had a thick plush carpet in house for binding. I decided to see what happens if you DON'T bevel the fibers, prior to binding. Guess what happened? The binding didn't catch to the backing of the carpet, rather the stitching was on the carpet fibers. If the work were not double checked, a binder may not pick up on this. The truth is that because of where the stitching was, I could pull the binding right off with no effort. If a carpet is thicker in nature, than it will need to be beveled in order to proper fabricate the piece, whether binding, serging, fringing or what-have-you. The simultaneous action of binding and serging (on certain serging models) does not change where the stitching occurs. This is why beveling, although an additional cost, is imperative in order to properly bind a piece.

Thick shag carpet- beveled to serge. Notice the difference of fiber lay-out with beveling vs. without.

 Another important factor is the clearance of the folder. Our sergining machine only has about 1/4" clearance for a piece to pass through. If it is thicker than that, the machine would get stuck and stitch in the same place repetitively.

Serging machine: showing folder clearance, carpet has to fit into to fabricate.

 We bevel A LOT of carpets. Typically most plush and shag carpets will be beveled, as well as friezes. You can see in the picture below that we bevel a lot of carpet. The pile of carpet fiber is accrued throughout the day, multiple times a day. Is sweeping the warehouse annoying?! Yes. Is doing the proper job annoying?! Not in the slightest. This is why we are proud of our business name: Done With Precision Carpet Binding!

Pile of carpet fibers swept up: this is about a half-day's worth!

The next topic of conversation will be hand-binding. This is something we do for custom shaped pieces that have radii or multiple small cut out areas. If it were 90 degree angles, we could relief cut the carpet, bind or serge it as needed, than re-glue the carpet back together. However, when there is am interior radius, we have two options: hot-glue the base of the carpet fibers to prevent them from fraying over time or hand-bind. Hand-binding is a quite a process and is billed at an hourly figure. We recently had a job in here that had multiple areas that required hand-binding. The unfortunate side to hand-binding is the element of human error. Our machines stitch in the exact place with every stitch making a crisp clean line. When hand-binding you have to eye-ball where to staple the binding. This often translates into a little bit less of a crisp look. Hand-binding includes, stapling the binding in place, folding the binding over the carpet and hot-gluing it to the backing. It takes a bit of time because of the 3-steps it takes to complete.
Below are some examples of the most recent job requiring hand-binding:

Hand-binding; Interior Radius

Hand-binding: Interior Circle

Hand-binding: Interior Radius, horseshoe shaped.

 Although you can get a line of site with the first couple of staples, the curves in the carpet make it difficult to keep that line consistent throughout. Again, the biggest factor here is the human error element. Although we try to be as exacting as possible, it's not always perfect ... Hey, I didn't say we were "Done with Perfection Carpet Binding!" . [haha]

There you have it, beveling & hand-binding 101. 
We will be quizzing you on Monday! 


As always, we would like to say THANK YOU our customers who come in and see us. Without you, we wouldn't be here! Have a great weekend, everybody!