On Monday, 22 October 2018 16:00:13 UTC+1, alan_m wrote:
I have a 3m x 4m bedroom to carpet at a relatively low cost.

I'm looking at a "heavy domestic" quality felt backed carpet at around
£8 square metre (a better quality than the felt backed carpet the same
retailer sells for 2/3 of that price).

I'm aware that this type of carpet can be fitted without an underlay and
stuck down around the edges. However the floor in this room (1900
build) has gaps between the floor boards an is slightly uneven.

I'm NOt going to start taking up the boards to re-position them to
eliminate the gaps of up to 5mm wide.

I have a enough cloud 7 11mm underlay that has been lying around for the
past 2/3 years that I can use. I'm thinking of using this under the
carpet either stapled down or glued down.

Has anyone had any experience with this arrangement.

I'm assuming that the underlay is fitted to the wall (no border gap) and
the felt backed carpet glued at the edges to this. Traditional grippers
are not used with felt backed carpets.

Felt backed seems to be the modern equivalent of foam backed carpets.

Felt backed is indeed the modern day rubber backed, designed to not need underlay. The usual solution to gaps is to line the floor with 3mm hardboard.

If you do use underlay, the best way is to fit grip rods. The underlay sits within the grippers, it doesn't go to the wall. There is then no advantage to the felt backing, you can just as well use unpadded carpet.

You can economise by using old carpet as underlay. It voids guarantees but I've not run into any problem doing this. Just ensure it's cleaned & doesn't whiff.

Glue or tacks instead of grip rods does work, but not as well and isn't worth the trivial saving. And tacks can hit pipes.


NT