Is it OK to fit laminate wood flooring on top of carpet??

Fulham_Mark

my friend has moved to a flat with laminate flooring, looks fine but turns out to be fitted right on top of the old carpet.

It has been fine for a year now and it theoretically suits the lease that says he has to have carpet fitted plus provides sound insulation.

So I'm thinking of doing the same. My carpet is average to thin thicknes with a very thin layer of underlay (not the proper type). Below this is chipboard on top of concrete so very little movement.

Should i be ok to do this?

Should i go for semi-solid engineered wood rather than cheap MDF to prevent any movement?

obv going on top of carpet will save me £100s on B&Q laminate underlay stuff

many thanks!!

Mark

edthedead

I've been to a house where they had done this and it made me feel sea sick walking round!!

Strangled

I would'nt really recommend it. I've put laminate on 'cord' carpet before and it was fine, but anything that is 'soft' underfoot will cause problems.

poppyolivia

EH? I honestly thought that wouldn't work!! Thanks for posting I'm gonna keep this in mind!!

gardnt1

It will work , but its not the recommended way of installing.
Laminate guarantees often take into account the type of underlay used and carpet is not the ideal solution due to it squashing, rotting and things that lurk in it!

When you say it will save £100's on underlay.........how big is the room??

A quality underlay sucah as boardwalk with the necessary Damp proof membrane for concrete can be as little as £35 for a 15m2 roll. It is probably 6mm -7mm thick and has sound reducing qualities.

dld2s

I did this, it wasn't really to save but more for noise, I had a good carpet underlay and a good carpet, did it work, yes to a extent, noise was kept to a minimium, but drawbacks were, walking on it I felt like Mr Soft, anyone who's seen the mint adverts with the Cockney rebel song will know what i'm talking about, also, tounges started splitting, so unless it's a thin underlay with a thin carpet I wouldn't bother which in the end means, unless you're skint, buy the proper underlay

Fulham_Mark

thanks for everyone's replies so far!

Obv the risk is that it may be spongey and feel like you're walking on jelly. The good news is that no-one has said that it's snapped or broken yet. But i'm not convinced about it now.

I've just pushed a metal ruler as far as I can into the carpet and it went down less than 1/2 centimeter so it's not very soft. I need to cover 50sqm in rought a big T shape. Reckon i'll spend £2k on the floor £400 or so on the insulation foam layer (if i took the carpet up).

Any thoughts on whether the more expensive and nicer engineered wood (ply with 8mm oak on top) would be less spongey?

cheers
mark

Strangled

If you're gonna spend £2k......do it properly. A good floorcovering is not only what you see, its preparation that counts.For example, I have Karndean throughout my ground floor,this cost me £2k trade price,but all the ply etc cost me £500....all of which you don't see.
Done a carpet for a friend last week, the carpet his wife wanted was £6 sq mtr, but retail, the underlay would have been £7.50 sq mtr if I had'nt bought it for him.
So.....go with all the recommended installation instructions.

Fulham_Mark

can't seem to log in today! But I think i'll bite my tongue and do it properly. As most replies are leading me in this direction.

Horrible carpet goes, and i'll get some proper underlay for the wood flooring.

cheers!

gardnt1

A good quality quickstep 800 with underlay will only cost around £750 if fitted yourself or based on my rates approx just over £1000. You would have to add any beading etc.....obviously different areas will have different rates ....but £2500 seems steep to me.

Fulham_Mark

Quick-step range looked like it only came in laminate? ("buy-to-let chic" as my friend once called it)

I'd rather have engineered wood as there is a lot of real wood, faux-japanese furniture in the rooms that may clash with laminate effect wood.

Have found Barlinek Oak engineered at £1,000 for 50sqm. this is a click system too. Also £50 for barrier green underlay (for ply subfloors) no Damp-proofing as i'm not fitting onto concrete but the plywood layer.

Total = £1,050 from ukflooringdirect.co.uk ex vat

could be a winner. Off to compare B&Q and Homebase