Hit 500 square feet in a day for the first time, now I get why old timers brag about it

Been installing for about 4 years mostly residential stuff in the Phoenix area. Yesterday I managed 500 square feet of plush carpet with padding and tack strips all in one 9 hour shift. Usually I'm around 300 to 350 with door cuts and closets. The house was a straight square ranch with zero obstacles, so I know the layout helped a lot. But still, that number felt huge to me. My buddy who's been doing this since the 90s said that's just a normal Tuesday for him, no big deal. I guess my question is, what's a realistic daily number for you guys on a standard room? And did anyone else hit a specific square footage that made them feel like they finally knew what they were doing?

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faithbaker1mo ago

Hold on, let me push back on that number real quick. 500 feet in a day sounds great on paper, but I bet you left a ton of mistakes hidden under that carpet. A square ranch with no cuts means you barely had to think, and that speed is gonna bite you the second you hit a weird hallway or a closet with a tricky angle. I've seen guys who brag about 500 a day leave wrinkles and loose seams that take twice as long to fix later, so that number doesn't impress me much. The old timers who say it's nothing are right, but not because they're faster, it's because they know when to slow down and do it right. Give me 350 with clean corners over 500 with sloppy work any day. That's the real skill, knowing your limit is part of the job.