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Do you want to make your flooring comfortable underfoot and also help save some money on your heating bills? Then you need to consider an underlay underneath your flooring. Available in a variety of thicknesses and materials, underlay is essential for carpet and laminate flooring. We always recommend that you hire a professional fitter to fit your flooring, including underlay, and we have an incredible fitting service that you can take advantage of when you buy flooring from Tapi.
For the keen DIY enthusiasts out there, you may want to fit your underlay and flooring yourself, so we’ve gone through some of the different types of underlay that you may want to fit and gone through the steps of fitting each.
Carpet underlay is used underneath carpets to make them softer and warmer underfoot. They help to give carpets that ‘sinking into’ sensation, and they are made of materials that naturally create barriers of insulation, helping you to keep the heat in and the cold out. Find out more in our guide to underlay, or read on to find out how to fit your underlay. To lay carpet underlay, you’ll need to follow these steps:
As with carpet underlay, you’ll follow the same process for laying laminate underlay – this is also the same process you would use for luxury vinyl tiles that and engineered wood, both of which tend to be fitted in the same click-profile manner.
Start by cleaning your subfloor and ensuring that it’s completely even. This is even more important for laminate flooring, which clicks together in separate boards, as any bumps or unevenness will result in poorly fitted laminate and potentially bigger issues like laminate floor lifting.
However, underlay does a great job of covering any minor imperfections, which is why it’s so important to include underlay underneath your laminate flooring. it also helps to make your laminate flooring feel more solid and less bouncy. There are different types of underlay you can use for laminate flooring – foam, fibreboard, and foil underlay.
Now you can fit your flooring – We have a really handy how to lay laminate guide with steps on fitting your laminate flooring.
Fitting underlay on stairs can seem like a more daunting task than a square flat room, but it’s a very similar process and can be done with a little extra effort. First things first, you’ll need to take measurements of all the areas that you want to carpet – follow our how to measure stairs and landings guide to make sure you nail it the first time.
Alternatively, if you’re planning on using a stair runner instead of carpeting your entire stairs and landing, then you’ll want to find out a little more about how to do this in our DIY corner.
Concrete subfloors are a little more difficult to lay underlay on top of than wooden subfloors because they’re so strong, so using nails and staples won’t work as well. If you use special concrete nails then you can achieve this, but if you want to find a more cost-effective option, you should opt for concrete glue. This will ensure that you can stick down your underlay in every area, including tight corners or obstructions like a pedestal sink.
It's really important to use an underlay that is moisture-resistant when you’re working with concrete subfloors too because concrete subfloors can release moisture that will damage your laminate boards or carpet.
Whether you decide that you’d rather have a professional help you out, or if you get part of the way through and need a little assistance, our flooring experts are always on hand to help you out. You can pop down to your local Tapi store, or you can book a free video call to talk through what you need a hand with.
Published: 05-10-2022
How hard can it be? Save money and do it yourself with our simple step-by-step guide to laying an artificial lawn.
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