Bathroom Carpet and Underlay

andrew-b

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Slinky_Malinky

No experience of the fitting technique you describe, but I just wanted to say that in my last house we laid ordinary carpet with underlay in the bathroom. My ex-husband still lives there, the carpet has been down for 13 years and is still in excellent condition.

I had a rug with that waffle type backing when my son was small, the backing perished and flaked off. I don`t know if this would be likely to happen with bathroom carpet too.

underlay_guru

Hi,

The double stick method of fitting involves firstly sticking the underlay to the subfloor with a tackifier (which is basically a non permanent 'post-it note' type glue), and then adhering the carpet on top of that with a flooring adhesive. This is mainly used for contract-type jobs where heavy loads/ wheeled furniture/wheelchairs are present, and requires an impervious underlay, such as cloud9 contract or Durafit.

I would not recommend using a double stick method on a domestic waffle backed carpet. The backing is manufactured from a mixture of synthetic rubber and chalk, and is designed to be loose-laid only. It will not withstand being adhered down, but will simply crumble away after a short period of time. It will also be a very messy job to take the carpet up after its life.

If your adament you want an underlay, ask for either a polypropylene carpet with an 'action-backing' (This is a synthetic woven backing which will not rot like jute will). Be aware though, this will not create a waterproof protection over your subfloor.

underlay_guru

Hi again,

There may be a cheaper way to resolve this problem:

It would be easy to simply raise the floor level by a few millimetres by boarding it out with a flooring fibreboard (This is usually used as a floor-raising underlay for underneath laminate floors). You can then purchase either a thick saxony-type waffle-backed carpet or your flotex to lay on top.

I have also seen the Aquastep plastic laminate, and it comes very highly recommended.

Flotex is quite a hard floor underfoot, but is virtually indestructable, and their wear guarantees are genuinely honoured.......When working in flooring retail some time ago we had a customer complaint on some damaged flotex which had been laid 14 years previously: the manufacturer replaced it within 24 hours!!

underlay_guru

Hi,

Ive just had a thought that fibreboard may not be suitable for a damp area such as a bathroom, therefore you may need to use a plyboard instead - this is a little more expensive however...

Provided the plyboard is screwed/fixed properly to your subfloor, I cannot see there being any problems perimeter sticking Flotex on top (The backing of Flotex is completely waterproof), and this will also eliminate your 5mm skirting gap problem. The manufacturer recommends perimeter-sticking the Flotex with a double-sided tape.


Regarding your guarantee, the Flotex will be honoured if it is fitting according to: http://www.flotex.co.uk/pages/fitting/. This says the guarantee is honoured if it is fitted on top of plywood.