"Are You Happy?" - DWP's staff

Typically, when we have customers walk in for "service-while-you-wait", we make sure they are happy with the finished product. We ask them, "Are you happy with this?" To give them the opportunity to speak up, if in fact they didn't like what they saw. The usual response is, "Oh yes. That looks great." Which obviously would make us equally as happy with the final product.

This is just one example of the level of service we have here at DWP Carpet Binding. From there, it expands into explaining how we differentiate ourselves by quality of product and why the products we use are better. One-and-a-quarter inch polyester binding is used because it gets a better grab on the backing of the carpet and offers a crisper, neater look. Nylon thread, because even if you were He-man you wouldn't be able to rip it apart. Checking the sides for skipped stitching and making sure the binding is properly fastened to the carpet. All of these are factors that help us provide not only a quality service, but a quality product as well. Some folks are interested in learning about all of this. Some are not. For those who do show interest, we continue the discussion further; providing more answers to their questions of interest.

In other news:
Something horrible happened. A few months back I was asked by a good friend to make a custom piece for his daughter. Of course I was thrilled to do so. I enjoy being able to use my creative mind to make something special, for someone who is special. I underestimated the amount of time it would take me to finish the job, but was perfectly happy with the final outcome.

Custom Carpet for Mackenzie!

Que new puppy into the equation-

Custom Carpet chewed up by rambunctious puppy. [Sad face]

One day I visit my friend's house and he points to the carpet, which was now missing a few pieces. He had taken on a new puppy and the puppy went to town on my masterpiece. My friend was heart broken. At first glance I though "simple fix" then opted that I would fix it free of charge. Once again, I underestimated the job that entailed the repair. Although, I did come up with a solution. 4.5 hours of labor led me to the new custom piece.

Repaired Custom Carpet!f

Though it's nothing like the original, it still have the life and value of a dad who truly loves his daughter. Since I didn't have any of the original pieces left to make the repair, I chose a beautiful baby blue carpet to fill in the gaps, also adding in a lilac looped carpet, so that the once 3-toned carpet (four if you count the field carpet) is now a "well-balanced" 5-tone piece.

Below is a picture showing what was actually worked on.

Before & After

I had to add in more design to the original in order to get the new colors to fit in just right. I think it came out pretty good for a repair! I'm hoping the little one, Mackenzie, still loves it, as I know it means the world to my friend who ordered it.

Happy weekend, everybody! 

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

-The Team of DWP

Some People Run Miles, DWP Stitches Them!

DWP Carpet Binding has been fortunate these past couple of weeks to have had great jobs in house! There were two jobs in particular that were huge. The linear footage involved in one job was over a mile! The other big job was equivalent to a quarter mile in linear footage.

These were great binding jobs to have in house, because they kept us busy for a two week period. The time frame is mostly due to the jobs coming in segments, but DWP was so happy to have the jobs come to us!

We also received a call from a New Jersey store asking about job-site work in Syracuse, NY (the job's linear footage is over 2.25 miles). Of course they're merely calling for a job quote as they are bidding on the job as we speak, so it may or may not come into fruition. Whether or not we get the job, we were happy to receive the phone call. The truth is that we have done job-site work in the past, but it was always within Connecticut.  Having the ability to do job-site work out of state shows one facet of how seriously we take our binding business. As a two-man team you would think that we would decline to make a quote. However, our resources and our business connections that Dan has built over the years, really puts an Ace up our sleeves. The truth is, that many people like and respect Dan. Having the ability to call different people as resources only shows how far we are willing to go to provide solutions to problems. Dan keeps one phrase in mind, "We don't say no to anything!"

Aside from the big jobs and potential big jobs, we have had a lot of serging work, binding work for area rugs and carpet base jobs as well. In the past two weeks we have pumped out a ton of work. Yesterday, was the last day where we finally caught up with everything and are prepared for the next segment of work to come into our hands. DWP Carpet Binding would like to thank our customers for their loyalty. If not for your trust in us, we would not have had such great business opportunities!

Now, I'd like to give a little 4-1-1 for the readers:
In previous blogs I've talked about having to use latex on certain types of carpets. The prime example would be woven rugs. When you cut into a woven rug, typically it will unravel until you have sew on the secure binding option of choice (poly binding, serging, fringe, etc.). Some people may frown at the extra cost to latex a piece of carpet prior to cutting, however it is the best preventative maintenance for your carpet (and in most cases absolutely necessary). Below are pictures we recently received from a piece that was cut, bound & fringed without being latexed prior to cutting. Although the carpet held up after being cut, the fabrication work was too much strain on the carpet, ultimately causing for the carpet to pull away.

Top facing: Carpet began to "pull apart"/unravel right beyond stitching of fringe.

Back facing, same carpet.

As the carpet is woven it is done so in rows. You can see in the pictures that there are distinct rows that are being pulled away from the rest of the carpet. This could happen for a number of reasons, however, in this case the main factor was that the carpet needed latex on each end.

As mentioned in previous blogs, latex is a liquid adhesive that is applied to the carpet's edge then rubberizes as it dries to really solidify the perimeter where applied. Adding latex to the perimeter of a carpet really aids in the longevity of use. It is also a great application for older rugs that are not woven. Most carpets have what is called an "action back". It's the standard backing of a carpet whether it be a plush, frieze, commercial loop, etc. When a carpet is used for a number of years, that backing begins to break down which is known as "delaminate". If there were a piece that was in decent shape from the front facing, yet the backing had began to delaminate, latex could be used in order to keep the carpet in a useful form without the cost of replacing the carpet. There have been many times that DWP Carpet Binding received an area rug, where the binding needed to be replaced and we have applied latex to the perimeter in order to give the carpet a better chance at holding up against time and wear.

In regards to the blue woven carpet pictured above, we used latex on each end , bound and fringed the ends. The edges are now solid as a rock with that latex. The customer should have no further problems anytime soon!

This concludes your Binding 101 portion of class today.

As always DWP Carpet Binding says THANK YOU to all of our customers!

We are very happy to be your full-service carpet binding shop!

Have a great week, everybody!