Hi people (again)

I'm being given some hand-me-down carpet (hessian-back type) and
grippers, and I plan to buy underlay. (and then fit the lot myself,
with help from friends, but that's another story)

I like the look of the felt stuff, mainly because my impression is that
it's likely to last considerably longer than the crinkly-rubber variety.
(I was vaguely guessing 50+ years versus about 20 years - I'm sure
someone here can tell me if that's about right or way off.) Haven't had
personal experience of the "poly foam" type which I've seen mentioned in
archives here, & would welcome comments on the pros & cons of that
versus felt, esp w.r.t. longevity.

I was looking at this:
http://www.tradepriced.co.uk/envirol..._underlay.html

As you can see, it comes in various thicknesses 8mm to 14mm, and this is
what I was mainly puzzling over.

On the one hand I am imagining that the 14mm stuff would feel noticeably
more pleasantly squidgy than the 8mm underfoot (though possibly less
squidgy than 14mm of the rubber type), as well as obviously better at
disguising any slight unevenness of the floorboards. It's also
allegedly more durable. If it does feel more squidgy then I quite like
that idea, so I was considering getting one of the thicker ones even
though it's more expensive. Feedback on the reality of that is welcome.
(I realise one possible issue is how much, and how quickly, the felt
compresses down over time.)

On the other hand, when I imagine 14mm felt underlay sitting next to
ordinary grippers, how that looks to me in imagination is that the
grippers might not work very well because the carpet would be sort of
held off them on one side by the height of the underlay. My picture of
how those grippers are supposed to work is that the underlay comes to
about the same height as the gripper wood and the pointy bits stick up
above. But I don't recall ever seeing a thing about different thickness
gripper wood to match the underlay, or padding underneath the grippers.

So, carpet laying expert people, please clue me in - does this problem
exist only in my imagination, or if not, what's the usual solution?

(as usual please feel free to refer me to archives if this has already
been discussed - have already been reading back following a search on
"underlay", but there's a lot :-) )


I also wonder at what point 8mm-14mm it becomes high enough for the
change in level when moving from carpet to non-carpet areas to be
annoying. (The carpet currently transitions to cork tiles at one
point.) I realise "annoying" in this case is subjective, though, so I'm
not really expecting someone else to be able to answer this... but
related anecdotes are welcome...


thank you!

--
Jennifer * * * * original music: www.single-bass.co.uk *
* * everything else: www.uncharted-worlds.org *
* * * * * * intuition . imagination . integrity *
* * * * * * * * * love counts more than gender *