Homeowners often put tape on damaged carpet to prevent further damage to the carpet. Hoping that the cat or dog will stop digging or chewing on the loose ends, praying the vacuum won’t take the loose exposed portion of the carpet sticking up and have it zipper across the room. What these thoughtful homeowners are not aware of is that the tape is only making the repair and long term appearance of the carpet worse.
When the carpet repair guy comes along and removes the tape it has usually been there awhile, and the effort it takes to remove the tape without further damage to the carpet is impossible. Because the fibres are weak around the place the tape was intended to protect, removal of the tape causes alot of other fibres to come/rip out too, and there is no way around it. This makes a small easy carpet repair into something which is usually much bigger.
If the tape is removed successfully, usually on a very tightly looped carpet, there is so much glue residue left behind on the carpet that the solvent that must be used to remove the residue causes damage to the glue used to hold the carpet together, requiring another repair in the same location.
Moral of the story . . . keep tape off the carpet! You are much further ahead to trim the damaged piece with a pair of scissors. This stops further damage and makes your repair faster and easier.
Chris
