It’s hard yakker, but he loves it
Laying carpets is heavy, exacting work, but Mark Butwell has it down to a fine art.
MARK Butwell can pack 200 kilograms of carpet on his back in the line of business. It is a hefty sort of weight but it’s safe and non-injurious, being all about the technique and his soft shoe shuffle, skills he’s mastered after two decades in the business of laying new carpet in thousands of homes.
At 43 years old, Mr Butwell is a quiet and superfit bloke who prefers to get on with the job rather than waste time in discussion. No matter how big the home or how difficult the access, he says he treats every job with the same professional approach, packing the carpet rolls on his back to move them into place and sets about the lay, five days of every week.
‘‘Carpet hasn’t changed much in weight terms since I’ve been laying. I started in 1986 and I reckon today’s carpet is pretty much the same weight as it was when I started out. The only thing that’s changed is the colour and today, wool has become pretty much unaffordable and carpet made from corn is the new thing.’’
Carpet widths and roll lengths have stayed the same too. A full roll is 30 metres, and usually 3.66 metres wide. At most Mr Butwell can backpack a half metre roll, that’s 15 metres of carpet weighing between 150 and 200 kilograms, depending on quality of weave.
‘‘These days some people don’t like joins, they want their house carpeted in one continuous roll, so often there’s more carpet required on a job to accommodate.’’
It’s a detail he finds somewhat amusing given his industry knowledge.
‘‘I’d challenge anyone to pull a join apart, the carpet will fall apart before any join, they’re done with heated wax tape.’’
And it’s the joining of carpet in a seamless way that is one of the many skills that makes Mr Butwell a sought-after layer in the domestic scene. Every bit of carpet needs to be stretched before attaching, and under the entire lay is a thickness of foam set out and seamed together before rolling out the carpet in a carefully pre-planned and cleverly jigsawed manner.
‘‘Foam doesn’t break down like rubber used to. Over years rubber would just disintegrate to dust. Foam is great, it’s a recycled product and it holds the heat.’’
Indeed it’s the ability of foam to retain heat and not allow it to dissipate into the concrete slab or wooden flooring beneath that occasionally causes problems.
‘‘There have been times when I’ve had to lift carpet up again because the foam is too thick and doesn’t allow the underfloor heating to work properly.’’
Not that decisions about foam thickness and carpet quality are generally his to work out with a property owner. Mr Butwell historically contracts to retail carpet outlets and large property owners like Housing New Zealand.
‘‘I am happy to consult directly with house owners and that is a growing part of the business, I can talk through their requirements, show them a range of samples, get in the product and lay it.’’
It’s the latest development for Mr Butwell and his Top Mark Flooring company, a far cry from the young 13 year old who started out helping in the local carpet store in his school holidays.
‘‘I think the boss saw me as a good little worker, and when I turned 15 he took me on fulltime. ’’
His skill to manoeuvre rolls vastly bigger than himself was quickly recognised and within months of leaving school he was taken on as an apprentice in flooring installations.
‘‘It was a three year apprenticeship or 6000 hours. It’s a bit different now but I learnt the hard way and one year out of my apprenticeship, I was confident and skilled enough to launch my own business.
‘‘We’ve had some hard times, the last couple of years have been the hardest I’ve experienced, in fact the work dried up so much I went back to also laying vinyl.’’
About the only change of pace was time spent as an outdoor education instructor in the South Island, but it meant too much time away from his partner Vanessa.
Today things are much more buoyant and Mr Butwell is much in demand among flooring retailers and government contract providers. But it’s been a career path not without incident.
‘‘Even as an apprentice I experienced my first fire. The boss was laying vinyl in a kindergarten in Khandallah – he’d glued it all out and we were using a gas bottle to heat the vinyl for coving, but the vapour from the glue was still there and it ignited, flames shot up the wall, I got a bit of a rush!
‘‘But the best time was when the boss was spraying on contact ahead of us and we were rolling out and laying the carpet behind. It was a commercial job and the carpet was being stuck directly down. The static electricity from the carpet set fire to the glue because of the fumes. All the contact glue went up in flames, it was quite cool to watch. We rolled out the carpet over the flames and smothered the fire and yelled to the boss to stop gluing.’’
There has also been lighter if somewhat testing moments. Like the time Mr Butwell was laying carpet in a Housing New Zealand home. When he started the clients were in bed in the bedroom, he did most of the house and only managed to get the tenants up when he actually had to lay the carpet in their bedroom.
‘‘I’ve had a few threats. There was one occasion with a gang member. We think he was coming down off drugs, he had all the windows blocked with furniture, he told us it was to stop Molotov cocktails getting into the house when they were thrown.’’
Mr Butwell lays about 170 to 180 metres of carpet a week, which, averagely turns out to be about a house a day.
‘‘Most people walk out the door having moved nothing, often not even having picked clothing, books and stuff off the floor and they expect to arrive back home to a newly carpeted house. But there’ve been some amazing people along the way. I had one house where the owner was a lovely old lady. I was doing her lounge and hall in Naenae, she offered me cup of tea and lunch. She disappeared and turned up a while later to say lunch was ready. She’d made a three course dinner . . . all shewanted was to share lunch and have a chat.’’
‘‘If I’ve been lugging big carpet rolls and doing a lot of carpet stretching I do get a bit tired, but the response from home owners is always rewarding. You can make a big impact with a new carpet, it changes their home, effectively changes their lives.’’