Carpet: durafit 650 or felt underlay

samizdat

I'm having some new carpet laid in three small bedrooms.

Like all good Moneysavers, I have been trying to negotiate on price.

I have noticed that in these negotiations, the price keeps coming down, but there is always a caveat, e.g. "I have specified lower quality door bars".

The latest one is "I have changed the fitting method which is a slightly cheaper alternative".

Now I don't want to fall for a bit of patter, but that one does make me wonder what I am missing out on!

The first quote said:
Solid Polished Chrome Feline 1 Z Bar (secret fix) 900mm (3x)
Installation of carpet inc' durafit 650 underlay and adhesives

The latest says:
Z Edge Simbrass 3' Length (3x)
Installation of carpet via stretch fit including gripper and felt underlay

So it seems they have swapped durafit 650 underlay and an unspecified installation method for felt underlay and a "stretch fit" method.

Is this bad?

The carpet's technical details are:
flat woven looppile
pile composition 100% pure wool
pile weight ca. 650 g/m
total weight ca. 2150 g/m
pile height ca. 3 mm
total height ca. 4 mm
backing PES/cotton, jute & action back
knots ca.48000/m2
width 4 m

oldskoo1

Where is the carpet going? If downstairs on concrete subfloor it is normal to spray the adhesive to get it to hold better.

If its upstairs on wood boards, they should just staple the underlay down.

Duralay is considered by some to better, I don't think it's worth 30% more. Cloud 9 is a cheaper but very good underlay http://www.tradepriced.co.uk/cloud9_contract_carpet_underlay.html - it's thicker than the 6.5mm duralay. Just choose a thickness that is suitable for your door heights, unless you want to cut them all.

They have put brass door bars in, do you want these? You can get them for £3 single, or £5 double from B&Q in chrome I think, just make sure you get the right finish.


Oh and stretch fit is normal, onto the grippers, as I mentioned, on concrete they normally spray an adhesive between the underlay to get it to stick a little better (when going onto concrete). It's hard to say about the underlay but you normally save by buying it yourself along with the door bars. Normally off the Internet, even eBay.

samizdat

oldskoo1 wrote: »

Where is the carpet going? If downstairs on concrete subfloor it is normal to spray the adhesive to get it to hold better.

If its upstairs on wood boards, they should just staple the underlay down.

Duralay is considered by some to better, I don't think it's worth 30% more. Cloud 9 is a cheaper but very good underlay http://www.tradepriced.co.uk/cloud9_contract_carpet_underlay.html - it's thicker than the 6.5mm duralay. Just choose a thickness that is suitable for your door heights, unless you want to cut them all.

They have put brass door bars in, do you want these? You can get them for £3 single, or £5 double from B&Q in chrome I think, just make sure you get the right finish.


Oh and stretch fit is normal, onto the grippers, as I mentioned, on concrete they normally spray an adhesive between the underlay to get it to stick a little better (when going onto concrete). It's hard to say about the underlay but you normally save by buying it yourself along with the door bars. Normally off the Internet, even eBay.

Thank you so much! Very helpful. The carpet is going on top of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) that has been fitted as part of an effort at acoustic insulation. The acoustic "solution" is ultimately supported by wooden joists.

My flooring guy tells me I have 11mm to work with for an underlay if I use 4mm carpet (as I have chosen), although he says 8mm would work OK. Doors could be cut if necessary, but I don't want to have to "step up" to my bedrooms.

You are right, I don't want the brass door bars! I used to have wooden bars, which I think I can put back (there is a wood floor next to the carpeted areas) but if using metal I would choose some sort of chrome finish.

oldskoo1

Ah we'll staple method perfectly fine here and stretch fine is normal.

Sounds like you have a good idea of what's down. It shard to match floor heights. Do you know your height of the wood floor. If its engineered wood it might be 13-15mm including underlay. I assume the osb is underneath this and level across both rooms, or is it just in room with carpet?

If that's the case and it isn't level with the base of the wood floor it's going to be hard to match the heights. 2 mm or so isn't noticable but 10mm is.

samizdat

oldskoo1 wrote: »

[...] Do you know your height of the wood floor. If its engineered wood it might be 13-15mm including underlay. I assume the osb is underneath this and level across both rooms, or is it just in room with carpet?

If that's the case and it isn't level with the base of the wood floor it's going to be hard to match the heights. 2 mm or so isn't noticable but 10mm is.

The OSB is just in the rooms to be carpeted, and yes I do think it might be hard to match levels.

I note that the Durafit in the original spec. is 6.5mm (hence "650"), and I presume the carpet guy, who did come to measure up, must have chosen that in an attempt to match levels.

Don't really fancy 7mm felt though. I might have to see if we can squeeze some Cloud 9 in there. I see it is specced at 43db noise reduction and "5 star" for comfort - sounds good if we can manage it.

Otherwise, I might have to spend on something like Tredaire Technics 6 http://www.tradepriced.co.uk/tredaire_technics_6_underlay.html, which is 6mm and gives 31db. Low tog is also good, but Comfort is only "3 stars". Has anyone used that stuff in bedrooms - what is comfort like?