A carpet underlay also acts to absorb moisture, heat, and sound. It cushions the impact of many different people that walk all over the carpet every day, thus helping preserve your carpet longer.

There are lots of different types of materials that are used for carpet underlay, one of which is waffle rubber. This kind is the most common and comes in multiple thicknesses and weights, depending on the type of carpet you’ve got installed. Many carpet salesmen advise buying the heaviest underlay you can afford, although the thickest is not always necessarily the highest quality. The most expensive kind of waffle rubber underlay is flat rubber, which is guaranteed to last as long as your carpet does. Even when your carpet is due for replacement, your flat rubber underlay will still be intact and in good condition.

Another kind of carpet underlay is bonded polyurethane chips underlay, it is made out of recycled furniture. If you are an active environmentalist, this type will surely be the one for you. Nimbus underlay, on the other hand, is easy to clean and handle, while Cirrus underlay is a good heat and sound insulator. It works best for homes during cold weather, and if keeping the noise down is a priority for the homeowner.

If prefer your underlay to provide  comfortable carpeting, Cumulus underlay gives good cushioning, and if you have a frequently walked-on carpet that sees a lot of people trodding all over it, a Silver Lining Underlay is the best one to buy. For offices and other commercial buildings that require industrial strength carpeting, using Contract and Super Contract underlay will cut down on the carpeting budget.

Purchasing carpet underlay is a great way to insulate your home by effectively trapping the warmth and keeping the chill out of your rooms.. This will save you a lot on your heating bills during the cold winter months. Sound proofing your home is also one of the many advantages that carpet underlay provides. So if your downstairs neighbor throws a lot of noisy parties, or if you are a budding rock musician who practices on your drums each night, a good carpet underlay will keep the neighbor’s noise out, and your noise in, giving you peace of mind every time.

Here are a few answers to some of the most asked questions.

Does every type of carpet need underlay?

Secondary backed and woven carpets are the most commonly used carpets in homes today. The backing has no built in padding making carpet underlay essential.

Felt backed carpets have a thin layer on the back which is why people often say they have built in underlay. This however is not nearly sufficient underlay to have any real benefits so additional underlay should be used with these types of carpet.

Foam backed carpets are the only type of carpet which you do not need to buy additional carpet underlay for.

Can I use carpet underlay if I have under floor heating?

Yes absolutely you can, but you are limited to a few different types and styles depending on the tog rating. The total tog rating for both your carpet and underlay should not be more than 2.5tog.

A tog is a measure of resistance to heat flow through material. 1 tog = 0.1m2K/W

You should talk to your under floor heating specialist about which underlay would be best suited to the system you have installed.

Can you use existing underlay when laying new carpet?

Well no one can tell you what you can and can’t do, but we can tell you it would be foolish. Carpet needs the support of a firm underlay. If you’re replacing the carpet then chances are your underlay needs replacing too as it would have become flattened from previous use.

What is the best underlay for a concrete floor?

The higher the tog rating the better. So try and buy the best that you can afford. The higher tog underlay will help combat the cold by providing great thermal insulation.

Eventually their topic of conversation turned to their flooring. They had already decided on the carpets, a lovely grey woollen one which is lovely and soft. But now they have to decide on the carpet underlay.

Bob doesn’t want to spend much money; he doesn’t think carpet underlay is important, nobody sees it so why waste money on it?

Sally has a differing opinion. She’s done some research and knows that carpet underlay isn’t just for comfort and having soft spongy carpets, but that it helps to insulate your house for heat and noise as well as ensuring the carpet keeps in good condition.

She is on a mission to convince Bob.

Sally tries the traditional approach bringing him a range of brochures detailing the benefits of insulation. Bob argues that is what they have under floor and wall insulation for. No dice.

So she tries a different tactic. Sally explains about the wear and tear of the carpets. How general foot traffic and the weight of furniture will end up wrecking the carpets much faster if they don’t have carpet underlay.

But Bob has an answer for that too; his parents don’t have fancy underlay and their carpets are just fine. He thinks Sally is just getting caught up in a buying gimmick.

Sally decides to try one last time to convince Bob of their need for good quality carpet padding. It’s time to fight dirty since every other way hasn’t succeeded.

The next day Sally prepares a romantic picnic to eat in front of their fire in the living room. Armed with gourmet food and a bottle of champagne she lays out the blanket in wait.

Bob comes home from work and is surprised by Sally’s romantic gesture. He comes and sits in front of the fire with her to eat. Sally notices he’s looking a little uncomfortable sitting on their hard floor and smiles to herself.

The evening progresses and Sally can see Bob is becoming more and more uncomfortable, he has tried to move their romantic evening into a more comfortable spot but Sally persists with the hard floor.

Finally Bob breaks and says “Sally, this is such a wonderful idea and I love lying with you in front of the fire, it’s so romantic, but I can’t take sitting here anymore, it’s killing me!” Sally smiles sweetly and says “You would be much more comfortable if we had thick carpet underlay”

Bob rolls his eyes and finally surrenders. Sally has her way, they can get top quality carpet underlay and never have to worry about lying on a hard floor again!

There isn’t one cut and dried answer to this question because there are a number of different types of carpet padding each with their own special use.

I’m sure you would have noticed the differences between your carpet at home and that at your office or workplace? Domestic underlay is a lot different from commercial underlay; they are made from completely different materials which have different benefits for their separate uses.

Let’s look at our domestic grade carpet underlay first.

Domestic carpet underlay is technically called PU Rebond underlay or waffle underlay. It is made up of manufacturer waste from factories in the furniture industry. It is basically the foam which is used to stuff couches and car seats. The foam is then chipped down into little pieces then moulded together into a sheet of foam.

The best thing about this type of underlay is the fact it is so light and easy to handle. You can get it in different thicknesses so depending on how much you want to spend and what kind of insulations you need you can choose the most appropriate size.

Commercial carpet underlay is called crumb rubber underlay. While not solely used in commercial environments it is not normally used in homes unless you have a wheelchair. The crumb underlay is perfect for hard wearing environments as it is much harder and can resist compression much better than the waffle underlay.

Crumb underlay is made from ground up car tyres. Like the PU underlay the tyres once ground are formed into a sheet of underlay. They also come in varying thicknesses for you to choose from to get the best product suitable for your needs.

Felt Underlay is the third type of underlay which you can get. This is hardly used these days because it doesn’t offer much insulation at all. It is also a serious dust trap, so if used it shouldn’t really be in a home, especially if you have a tendency to suffer allergies.

The one good thing felt underlay is good for is for sound insulation. So if you’re looking for underlay for that purpose only then felt is the way to go.

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!