Enjoy Comfort Underfoot with Quality Carpet Padding

For those lucky enough to have experienced it, getting home from a long day on your feet and walking on your home’s plush new carpeting is one of the most enjoyable moments in life. Part of this experience is obviously a result of the carpet itself, as there’s a substantial difference between top-quality carpeting used in homes and the industrial-use products in offices and rental properties that’s closer to sandpaper than carpeting. But there is more to a carpeting system than the top layer we walk on. Out of sight, carpet underlayment is sandwiched between the floor and carpeting, and is just as important as the carpet itself for giving you comfort.

Carpet padding is almost exclusively manufactured from recycled or scrap foam that is shredded and glued together to make sheets of resilient, high-density padding. Underneath your carpet, you could be walking across a sofa cushion or mattress, for example. Known as bonded foam or rebond foam, this padding product is a blend of many others that come together to form a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The density and firmness of this specialty bonded foam is the key to its effectiveness, as it needs to hold up to everything that walks, rolls, or drags itself across the floor.

But as anyone who has never needed to replace worn-out padding knows, these materials don’t last forever. This is why it’s important to select underlayment that is greater or equal in quality to the carpet it will be going under. Spending money on premium carpeting only to penny-pinch on padding will give you an end product nowhere near the quality and comfort you expect, essentially wasting your money. Because carpeting featuring padding that flattens after only a couple years is no longer comfortable, the quality of a carpet can only be as good as the padding placed beneath it.

Carpet padding also offers benefits beyond carpet comfort. Foam sheet padding protects the carpet’s underside from damage as it wears against the room’s floor foundation, offers insulation, and assists in deadening sound and footfalls. Whether you’re planning to re-carpet your entire home or just browsing replacement carpet padding, going with the highest quality padding your budget permits is an investment you will be glad you made for years to come.