Carpet Underlay – Basic Information
I’m sure most people are aware of what carpet underlay is, but how often have you actually really thought about it? You probably never have unless you’re laying new carpets.
To tell you the honest truth, carpet underlay is not a mysterious object that needs to be talked about in chat rooms around the country, but knowing some general information might come in very handy one day when you’re building that brand new home or renovating your ‘fixer upper’.
Let’s start from the very beginning. What is Carpet Underlay?
Carpet underlay, carpet padding and carpet cushioning are three of the most common names for the layer of ‘padding’ that lives directly underneath your carpets. You might have seen some before without know what exactly you were looking at. It is normally around half and inch thick and mostly resembles sheets of compressed foam.
Look, I’ve even found a picture of a reel of underlay for you to see.
So now that you know what carpet padding is; I’ll tell you what it is mainly used for.
Heat Insulation
If you have wooden floors you may notice your house can have a bit of a draft (unless you have special under floorboard heating), this is because there is nothing stopping the outside air coming up from under the floor. “But I’ve got pink batts under the house” you might say. Great! That will definitely help with your heating insulation, but adding that extra couple of layers on top of your floorboards will make a huge difference.
Why isn’t the carpet alone sufficient? Well carpet isn’t very dense. Sure having carpet on top of your floorboards is better for heating insulation than nothing, but it’s not as good as having that extra layer of underlay.
Sound Insulation
Have you ever been in a sound proof room? If you have you’ll have noticed all the padding they have all over the walls and ceiling. This dulls the sound waves so they don’t travel. This is exactly what carpet underlay does, but on a smaller scale. So if you’re looking to noise proof your house, you should seriously look at a good carpet underlay.
Wear and Tear
A good carpet underlay helps keep your carpet and good condition. It does this by allowing your carpet to stretch and move under the weight of things like foot traffic and furniture.
I’ll be writing many more articles going in depth about various types of carpet underlay and their uses so stay tuned!
