Just realized I installed 500 yards of carpet in a single house last month

I was tallying up my work for May and saw I did a 5,000 square foot job for a new build in Austin. That's about 500 yards of carpet, all in one house, took me and one helper almost a week. I've been doing this for 8 years and never really paid attention to the total numbers before. It hit me that my knees and back are feeling that kind of volume now compared to when I started. Has anyone else tracked their yardage per job and been surprised by the final count?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant_ross2728d agoMost Upvoted

Whoa, yeah that's a wild number to see all at once! I had a similar moment a couple years ago doing a 4,200 square foot spec home in Frisco. Me and my brother knocked out 450 yards of padding and carpet in like 5 days. I remember standing up after the last room and my knees just cracked like old wood. Nobody talks about how the body changes after a decade of this work. I tracked it all in a notebook once and was honestly shocked how fast it adds up.

thomas8328d agoTop Commenter

@grant_ross27 did the notebook track footage or just the physical toll?

karenf4028d ago

Totally get that knees cracking thing lol. It's wild how we just accept that as normal after a certain point. Makes me think about all the other invisible wear and tear people just absorb in any trade or job without really noticing until it hits a breaking point. Like how no one talks about the cumulative effect of just sitting in a bad office chair for years until your back is shot and you can't remember the last time you stood up without wincing. We're all kind of walking around with these quiet counts of mileage we don't think about until some random moment makes us look back at the total.