Cutting a Line

I’ve had my share of coincidences working most of my life on my knees installing carpets and other floor coverings. This one time, after cutting a couple of pieces of carpet, maybe one about 14 feet and another 29 feet, I laid both out on the floor.

The first carpet started against an east wall and ran from the north to south wall in the living room. The second piece had to line up with the first so they could be seamed together.  This piece was longer in order to avoid a seam between the living room and the hallway.

Once the carpet was adjusted to make sure I had enough overhang, a couple of inches to trim the seams, I just needed to get rid of a few inches from one side of the second piece and maybe six feet wide on the other because it was going to drop down a 4-foot-wide hallway.

After the carpet was rolled, lined up, and folded so that the back could be cut to drop into the hallway and there was enough to meet the floors in the bedrooms and doorways, I was ready to cut.

I usually follow a “groove” in the backing of the carpet when cutting the length.  I choose one and just do it. This time I was making sure to measure more than once, and I noticed that what looked like a blue ink pen line drawn not even a quarter inch on my tolerance of a half inch that helped me just cut it out, drop it in, and finish the job.  Coincidences like these save a lot of time and effort.