of the pressure roll against the back of the fabric and this would in turn force any coating material inadvertently pushed through the fabric back down into the fabric conventional rolls 14 will provide a guide structure for the fabric there is provided a method for coating an open weave fabric wherein the coating apparatus has an applicator roll 6 for applying the coating to the fabric a metering roll 8 will control the thickness of the material on the applicator roll a pressure roll 12 will hold the fabric 10 against the surface of the applicator roll the fabric will be coated on basically the lower side of the fabric the fabric is made with an open weave having approximately 10 u00d7 10 strands per inch of weave the fabric may be jute or some other type of conventional carpet backing made from synthetic material such as a polypropylene backing material the invention herein includes the steps of applying a coating to the applicator roll this is done by simply passing the applicator roll 6 through a bath 4 of coating material the coating material when one is working with a carpet material can be a conventional latex coating material or a special adhesive material the applicator roll passes by a metering roll which will control the thickness of the coating on the applicator roll the metering roll is moved with a tangential speed which is 10 to 15 of the tangential speed of the applicator roll so as to provide a wiping action of the metering roll relative to the applicator roll both the applicator roll and metering roll are moving in the same direction at the nip between the two rolls the applicator roll then moves into contact with the open weave fabric to be coated.