I am about to get dragged around the shops to help choose some carpets :-( I am looking to buy the gripper and the underlay on ebay if its cheaper. Is it a case of the thicker the underlay the better or what should I be looking out for, also is all the gripper strips pretty much the same.
Underlay thickness is really dependant of the use of the room and traffic levels. A bedroom would use a thicker underlay than a lounge and lounge thicker than a busy hallway. Thickness provides softness and comfort but allows a lot of carpet movement which means the carpet wears out quicker if traffic levels are high.
Don't go for the rubber crumb stuff it falls apart after a few years the recycled polyurethane foam stuff is reputed to last longer and perform better from the insulation and noise transmission basis. I'm very pleased with 10 mm Cloud9 in a couple bedrooms. The excess is currently "temporally" in use under carpet in a dining area, it too soft for that area really.
Who is going to lay the carpet? If not you best ask them what they prefer and how far from skirtings they want it fixed, if you are going to do that.
To be carpeted: Lounge, Hall, Stairs and 2 other rooms. The 2 other rooms I will do. The others I will get the fitters to do them and glean any info I need for the other 2 rooms, I am ok with straight forward rooms as I have done a couple for my son, he already had the material so I just used what was there. Only me & mrs in the house so not heavy traffic.
My personal preference is for a traditional 22oz felt, which IME doesn't age over a 30 year period.
If you're going for a decent carpet and expect it to last for some time, don't get the cheap rubber/fabric backed stuff. It will fall apart before the carpet is worn out - and speed that up.
I've replaced mine with Cloud 9 - which seems to be lasting well.
That's an interesting one. That logic says no underlay at all would give the longest life?
There might be a crossover point between wear due to excessive movement and damage due to crushing against a hard surface. I was tought that underlay reduced wear - in the days before 10mm luxury.
Any thoughts on 10mm Thick Wool/felt Underlay.
It's the traditional underlay and likely as good as any - but costly?
When I bought some decent quality Axminster four or five years ago, I spoke to a very knowledgable person at the manufacturer, Brinton. Their advice was to avoid rubber waffle and thick, soft, PU crumb, because they allowed the carpet to be stretched too much by high local loads, like chair legs. I asked about felt, which they liked, but since we'd had problems with carpet beetles, I didn't want to feed them any more than I had to. There are many underlays sold under the broad "Cloud 9" label, and the one I went for was their "Contract" 9mm. Very happy with it.
I'm in the middle of doing my hall, stairs and landing, and looked into it again. This time I used Cloud 9 Cirrus, 9mm, bought from ebay seller moreforyourflooruk for £39.50 for an 11m x 1.37m roll (15m^2). It's much softer than Contract, so I used some left over Contract for the stairs - I wanted the carpet tightly round the stair nosing, not "waterfall". Cirrus also has a paper-like upper surface and thin non-woven fabric on the underside. The plastic film on both upper and lower surfaces of the Contract underlay was much more flimsy on some which was recently-bought, compared with some six year-old stuff.
With a bit of luck, we'll have moved long before it wears out.
Manufacturers, if not retailers, will quote densities of their different grades, and there's a wide variation.
Places like carpetright are like builders - they make their money on the extras, like grippers, door bars, and underlay.
Thanks Kevin.
I've been very pleased with Cloud 9 Cirrus (9mm) which I've used in a few houses now.
Incidentally, don't feel obliged to lay the grippers/underlay yourself - all the fitters I've used have expressed their preference to do it themselves and not charged any extra.
How do you get that effect? Gripper rods directly under the nose?
(I notice that Cloud 9 Contract now comes in 8mm and 10mm, but there is no
9mm.)
Lounge "medium", Hall and stairs "thin", other rroms depends what they are...
"Heavy traffic" really refers to areas where you walk a lot like the hall and stairs. The carpet will just last longer on a thinner underlay compared to the same carpet on a thicker one.
Sounds like you'll be buying a lot of carpet, I hope you have your wallet on a strong leash so it can't run away when you are pricing up...
softness
would
That would be my view and a thin underlay will even out floorboard joins/gaps to stop them showing through, by wear, over time.
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