Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

Snowboard bindings, OK, most people have heard of those. The same goes for ski bindings. And most likely have experienced underwear binding now and again.

But what about carpet binding and the person who does it, the carpet binder? It's not a position ranked highly, if at all, on any occupations list mainly because there are so few around. Calgary has about four people who work as specialized carpet binders, said Les, a local carpet binder with Master's Touch Custom Carpet by Design.

"We cut carpet and put on edging to keep it from fraying," he said. If requested, he will also put fringing on the carpet as well. Using industrial sized carpet cutters and sewing machines, the former carpet layer has managed to carve out a successful niche in the city.

"A friend of mine and I saw it down in San Francisco," he said. "We thought we would give it a shot in Calgary and it worked out pretty good for us."

But he didn't just rush into things without any prior experience or knowledge. "You have to be a carpet layer first," he said. "You have to know how to install carpet so you know how to handle it and know what carpets do what. There are no courses. We created our own job."

He uses that knowledge of the many kinds of carpets, plus the everyday learning from years on the job, to complete work mainly for retail outlets that require specialty edging, or those that don't have their own carpet binding machine.

Long established in the city, Les enjoys being an entrepreneur working with carpet, rather than being a carpet installer. "The best thing is I don't have to drive around town all the time," he said.