
When it comes to flooring, we often focus on the visible surface—the carpets’ softness or the laminate’s stunning appearance. However, there’s a critical element hidden beneath the beauty: flooring underlay.
Often overlooked, this unsung hero plays a pivotal role in transforming your floor from ordinary to extraordinary. In this blog post, we will explore the lesser-known advantages of using flooring underlay for carpets and laminate.
From comfort and insulation to noise reduction and longevity, discover how this seemingly small addition can make a significant difference in elevating your home’s flooring experience.
Last Updated: 20/02/2025
At Easipay Carpets, we offer free underlay with our Pay Weekly Carpet or Laminate plans, and we’ll explain the benefits of using underlay with each. Vinyl flooring typically doesn’t need underlay in the same way carpet does, as the way it’s constructed includes a squishy base layer for added comfort. The materials it’s made from don’t require the type of underlay required for laminate either.
Enhanced Comfort
One of the primary benefits of flooring underlay for carpets is the added comfort it provides underfoot.
Underlay acts as a cushioning layer, creating a softer and more enjoyable walking surface. When you step onto a carpeted floor with a quality underlay, you’ll immediately notice the difference in its luxurious feel, making it a pleasure to walk on even for extended periods.
Improved Insulation
Flooring underlay acts as a natural insulator, helping to regulate temperature and keep your space comfortable throughout the year. During colder months, underlay traps heat and prevents it from escaping through the floor, providing a cosy and inviting atmosphere.
Conversely, in warmer weather, it helps to keep the space cooler by acting as a barrier against external heat. By improving insulation, underlay can also contribute to energy efficiency, reducing heating and cooling costs over time.
When you consider that 10-11% of a homes generated warmth can be lost to cold sub-floors, our free carpet underlay can actually help you save money on your heating bills!
Noise Reduction
Say goodbye to the echoing footsteps and the clatter of objects hitting the floor. Carpet underlay effectively absorbs impact noise, significantly reducing sound transmission between floors and rooms.
Whether it’s the pitter-patter of children’s feet or the noise from movie night, underlay creates a more peaceful environment by muffling unwanted noise and echo, ensuring a serene living space.
Protection and Longevity
Underlay plays a crucial role in both safeguarding your subfloor and prolonging the life of your carpet. It acts as a protective barrier, preventing sharp objects and debris from damaging the underlying surface. In high-traffic areas, underlay absorbs the brunt of the impact, reducing wear and tear on the top carpet layer. By adding this extra layer of defence, you can enjoy your carpets for longer, maintaining their pristine appearance for years to come.
Smoother Installation
Flooring underlay not only improves the performance of your carpets but also facilitates a smoother and more efficient installation process.
Underlay provides a stable and even surface for the flooring material, making it easier for installers to achieve seamless results. It also helps to minimize imperfections in the subfloor, allowing for a flawless finish without visible irregularities.
Laminate underlay and Carpet underlay are two different materials – where carpet underlay is more of a foam material designed to absorb each foot step and keep your carpets in good condition for years to come, using this type of underlay could actually damage your laminate. Laminate is a hard material, and having a soft material underneath could break the laminate flooring if you’re moving something heavy across the floor.
This is why laminate underlay is a thin material designed to keep water away. It’s main property is waterproof layer that acts as a barrier between the subfloor and the laminate – concrete subfloors can let tiny amounts of water pass through when it becomes wet underneath which can then pass through to laminate if unprotected. There’s also underlay with a small foam layer that can help mask imperfections in the subfloor too, which still gives you that perfect surface and a small amount of thermal insulation too!
Vinyl Flooring is one of our favourites – it’s scratch resistant, more waterproof than laminate and is an excellent option for families with young children or pets. It’s cleaner than carpets because you can wipe it down with your favourite chemicals, but it’s slightly warmer than laminate too which puts it in a special spot because it takes the great features of both laminate and carpet and combines it.
It’s slightly warmer than laminate because of how it’s made. A tough and durable top layer is added to a softer, spongy base layer and this is why you shouldn’t use underlay with vinyl – it already has it.
Having too much of a good thing can become an issue, and if you’ve got underlay underneath your vinyl flooring be it tiles or planks, as you walk across your floor it’ll have too much space to compress into, so you’ll feel it move under your feet.
It becomes an issue because it creates tripping hazards. You might catch your feet on another tile or plank after your weight has compressed the one you’re standing on. In the worse case scenario you’ll cause yourself an injury, but its quite likely you’ll also pull up some vinyl from the side as you do so.
This is why we typically don’t offer free underlay with our vinyl flooring, but it’s free with our carpets and laminate flooring!
In essence, underlay gives you warmer, quieter rooms that are more comfortable to walk across. It also protects your flooring both on the underside and on the surface. Flooring isn’t cheap, even if you are paying just £10 a week for it with our Pay Weekly Flooring services, so having underlay and extending your floorings life is always something you should opt for.
As well as getting your perfect flooring, you’ll also get underlay to go with it for free with Easipay Carpets, as standard across all of our carpets and laminate flooring ranges. Get in touch with us by filling out the short contact form below and we’ll get someone out to you to show you the flooring we offer and discuss how we can fit brand new flooring without breaking your bank.
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