Carpet..

It comes in various qualities and various prices. It will cover up *slight* irregularities. For anything more, lay a sheet of hardboard under the underlay, and staple it to the floorboards.

Is height a problem? You may have to trim the bottoms of the doors, but carpet with proper underlay has a nice feel.

I wouldn't touch foam-backed carpet with a barge pole. The foam will stick to the subfloor, and come off in chunks when you try to lift the carpet - if it hasn't already disintegrated into powder by that time!

What you do is lay newspaper on the floor, so it sticks to that insted.

Rick

What is hardwood?

I am thinking its just sheets of cheap flat wood - but on search it looks to be like the laminate flooring stuff which probably comes in rolls (makes sense I guess?)

I guess by the fact you say I can staple it means it must be pretty thin - and put underlay on top as well?

Where can one get hardboard - B and Q?

Cheers.

Who said anything about hardwood - do you mean hardboard?

Hardboard comes in flat sheets - the largest of which is about 8' x 4'. It's a sort of compressed cardboard - with one smooth and one textured side. It's easy to cut to size with a sharp saw.

It's about 1/8" (3.5 mm) thick - so 1/2" staples fired from a staple gun will hold it on a wooden floor. Then put carpet underlay on top of the hardboard if you're using normal carpet. [You can lay carpet tiles directly onto the hardboard - like I have done in my bathroom].

Yes - any shed or BM.

Indeed I did. Thanks.

Any idea on costs before I even think about it

Also how bumpy do you think the floor boards can be for these to work.

For example - width wise my boards are about 15cm acrross... say on a bumpy bit its like this..

--__--

the bottom one being about 1cm deep - will putting hardbord over that sort of gap be ok, or is it likely to perhaps 'cave in' if stepped on (probably not likely with carpet and stuff over it?

In th 60s and 70s EVERYBODY seemed to sell hardboard - often cut into sheets designed to cover up panelled doors after you'd chopped off the beading and totally wrecked your internal doors :-(

You then added plastic pull handles and roller-catches... Yuk!

Yes - B&Q sell hardboard, but it's a bit dearer than the 6d a square foot that it used to be.

I haven't bought any recently - but I paid £3 + VAT per 8 x 4 sheet from a Builder's Merchant a couple of years ago.

I'm not sure whether you are talking about a narrow gap between two boards - or about a whole board being lower than those either side. If it's just the shrinkage gap, hardboard will span it perfectly well. If the whole board is lower - particularly by 10mm! - you'll need to pack that board - maybe with one or two strips of hardboard - before laying a larger sheet of hardboard over the top.

I've laid it on my landing to even out the irregularities in the boards. Before I did so, you could see where the individual floorboards are, through the carpet - now you can't.

Thanks for that - the problem basically is the boards are uneven - some of the boards ar slightly lower than others (there is one that is very low but i will replace that) - 10mm is probably an exageration but it is noticeable under a thichish layer of carper - which is why i wnated some soft underlay so that coupled with carpet will probably make it feel flat?

I suppose covering the whole floor with hardboard with totally flatten it and maybe there wont be a need for underlay depending on the carpet I choose.

Is this with ribbed rubber underlay which is quite old? It disintegrates with time and you then see the floorboards through the carpet - even with floorboards in reasonable condition.

The best underlay is felt - but it's not cheap.

Any carpet 'feels' better with a good underlay.

Cost/type vary. It can be OK on very slightly uneven floorboards, but, if there's a question about them, cover them with hardboard. I like 42oz. or better felt underlay, but some of the modern foam ones are cheaper. See Mr. Faulkner's posts. I dislike the ribbed rubber underlay.

It really ought to have underlay, and won't work well on uneven floorboards. "Felt-backed" carpet is far better, and not much dearer. It still ought to have some underlay, for best results. Why is "height" a problem?

Set Square wrote: > ( hardboard )

Hardboard pins are a bit better, IMO!

Better in what respect? Staples are easy to apply and hold it down adequately. What more do you want?

They are a stronger fixing, available in several different lengths to suit circumstances, go in flush with the surface (if that might matter), are more resistant to rust, and you don't have to buy a stapler or staplers to put them in.

1. Don't use foam backed carpet (ever!)
2. Use a good quality underlay and a woven carpet.
3. If you are going to use hardboard, make sure there is nothing (e.g. copper pipes, electric junction boxes, voids etc.) that you might reasonably expect to have to get access to. If there is, make it easily accessible. (i.e. a smaller piece of hardboard in that area)

Cheers

Peter

If you don't already have a staple gun, pins are a *cheaper* option (provided you've got a hammer ). Staples also come in various lengths - believe it or not - and are pretty flush if tapped with a hammer after operating the gun. There's also less risk of hitting your fingers.

Staples are strong enough to do the job. What advantage is it to have something which is even stronger? With pins, it's more difficult to take up the hardboard non-destructively - should you wish to do so at a later date. If you lay carpet in places where rust may be a problem, the wet ain't going to do the carpet a lot of good!

Does one stapler take sizes of staple from 12 to 25mm?

Dunno - mine takes 5/16" to 9/16" (approx 8 - 14 mm) which is an adequate range for holding hardboard onto floorboards. If you use 25mm pins, they'll stick out of the bottom of the boards - and may damage pipes or wires!