What is the purpose of carpet underlay?
Carpet underlay is one of those purchases that is usually just “added” to the carpet and based on price rather than knowing exactly what it can do for you, it has some great properties.
Although it may seem a waste of time and money if you don’t even see it, the underlay is just as important as the carpet itself and carpet fitting should never be carried out without an underlay and carpet gripper first – with the one extremely rare exception that your carpet has an underlay already built in, such as a “felt backed” carpet but you can still put carpet underlay down first.
Comfort
We have all been in that house and felt how lovely the carpet was, super luxury underfoot but why?
Underlay, underlay and underlay, getting the right underlay and you too can have that luxury feel no matter what carpet you put on it.
Longevity
Carpet Underlay ultimately offers protection against the inevitable wear and tear that comes with kids running, people walking and pets doing what they do best.
Insulation
Underlay can help reduce significant heat loss, combined with the carpet, the right underlay and carpet can be as insulating as a duvet on your bed! Therefore keeping your energy bills to a minimum and keeping the room warmer.
Noise reduction
Depending on how thick the carpet underlay is depends on the amount of noise reduction it will give. However, any underlay should help to reduce the noise of heavy footsteps or movement of furniture to some extent.
Minimal indentation
Heavy furniture can sometimes leave lasting marks on soft carpets, but with an underlay the chances of indentation marks are minimized, helping extend the life of your carpet even further, especially if you go for a crumb rubber underlay such as Wilsons Super Velvet Wool & Crumb Rubber Combination
How do I know which underlay I need?
So now you understand why you need to have carpet underlay, let’s take a look at which one you will need for your carpet.
Ideally what do you want it to do?
Hmmm……Feel really nice, could do with heat insulation and the noise of the kids running round drives me bonkers!
Okay so
Thickness…..10/11mm thick, the thicker it is the nicer is will feel
Heat Insulation….check out the tog value, anything between 0.1 and 1tog is really for putting on underfloor heating,1.1 and 2tog is a standard underlay ,2and 3tog your getting there,3tog plus and your top end!
Impact Noise Reduction…..Got a noisy kids? Kids running round? Check out Impact Noise Reduction which is measured in Db…the lower the number the noisier it is. So look out for products with a Db of 40db plus, such as Wilsons Plushwalk 12mm which has a 48Db reduction and Wilsons Plushwalk 10mm that features a 43Db reduction for examples…fab!
What now?
You don’t have to buy the underlay from the same place you’ve purchased your carpet.
Retailers usually only have a handful of underlay types and tend to sway customers to the product they have in-stock, so do you home work and ask yourself…How do I want it to feel and what benefits would I prefer to have.
