Carpet pucker

I have almost 10 year old cut pile carpeting. It was the builder's standard offering, but I upgraded to the top end padding because between higher grade carpet and higher grade padding, they said that padding would be the best place to put my money.

At about 8 years into the life, we started to see ripples or pucker areas like the carpet was stretching in certain areas. I have been using carpet stretching tools to get them out, but they do not stay out. I never had this happen in the other 2 houses I owned and I have had numerous carpet installations.

Since the carpet looked fine for about 8 years, I don't think I can blame the installers.

I don't have the carpet cleaned very often (average of about once every 1 1/2 years) and it is always done by a professional.

Several questions:

Is it better to up the grade of padding or upgrade the carpet to get longer life?
What is the general reason (besides installation) that would cause this puckering?
When I go for new carpet next time, what are the things I should look out for. I like cut pile carpet.

Thanks for any insight you can give me. I never what this problem again.

W/O being able to see and examine it can't tell for sure, but certainly sounds as either one of two problems.

Don't say what the subfloor and fastening was used, but assuming it was a standard tack strip nailed to a subfloor it's unlikely it is moving but I have seen instances (like one or two) where that is a problem. Those happened to be where an adhesive was used which failed eventually so the carpet didn't stretch, the tack strip moved under tension (until they actually mostly just came completely loose).

That being a quite unlikely event, I'd say it is evidence the carpet backing itself is stretching. Eight years for an inexpensive contractor grade isn't that far out of line.

Actually, for life the extra padding doesn't help all that much -- cheap carpet doesn't get any less cheap when laid over a better pad. Primarily what it does is gives a plusher feel giving the impression of more carpet than what is actually there. The more "bang for the buck" argument is basically a truism for the initial impression and satisfaction and has some merit from that viewpoint but very little imo from the actual length of wear, etc., to be expected. Some, but not a lot. A really cheap pad can deteriorate very quickly and lead to dissatisfaction and a early failure, but after that you're buying mostly the feel--which isn't all bad if that's what you want.

Weave count, weight and fabric are the most telling quality factors still.