New carpet over draughty floorboards?

sparkiemalarkie

Hi we are planning to replace the carpet in our living room.
We have ripped it up and have now remembered about the big gaps in between the floor boards.
This has always been a cold room- north facing and gets very little warmth from the sun.


Will a good quality underlay be enough to stop the draught through the boards or would it be better to fill the gaps first or put a membrane type cover down first?


Where's a good place to buy quality underlay at a reasonable price?


thanks


sparkie

casper_g

Hopefully someone will have a suggestion for you actual question in a minute, but can I just ask: does the room have a gas/coal/wood fire or solid fuel stove in it? If so there'd a possibility that the gaps in the floorboards are providing ventilation. I only mention it because we had our chimney swept a few weeks ago with a view to starting using the fireplace again, and the sweep mentioned that if we were going to carpet the room we should have an additional vent installed in the floor.

Sorry for the fact that was probably not relevant!!

sparkiemalarkie

casper_g wrote: »

Hopefully someone will have a suggestion for you actual question in a minute, but can I just ask: does the room have a gas/coal/wood fire or solid fuel stove in it? If so there'd a possibility that the gaps in the floorboards are providing ventilation. I only mention it because we had our chimney swept a few weeks ago with a view to starting using the fireplace again, and the sweep mentioned that if we were going to carpet the room we should have an additional vent installed in the floor.

Sorry for the fact that was probably not relevant!!

Thanks... we have central heating.


sparkie

Southend1

Hardboard or ply would stop the draughts

globalds

I think a good breather membrane would do the trick if it was put down prior to the underlay going down and was taped on the joints and edges

something like this
https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/product/dupont-tyvek-housewrap-100m-x-14m-roll.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwpaqvBRCxzIGoxs6v2TkSJADel-MIQQZuWY-OawdGbqBP6Onxo1JVE2-2-bQ-QPSqzvtSWRoChrPw_wcB

This will allow any moisture getting on the timber to evaporate but stop any drafts from blowing through and taking your warm air away .

JP08

Hmm ... we just bought some cheap foam draught excluder from Lidl intended for doors and rammed it into the gaps before laying the underlay ...

moonpenny

A few years ago I bought rolls of paper for the use of putting under the carpet underlay.
It was for that purpose but can't remember what it was called. It came in rolls a bit like wallpaper.
I laid it across the floorboards and just overlapped it a bit then laid the underlay and then the carpet.

Sunshine62

It is a good idea to put a membrane over the floorboards regardless of draughts! This is to stop draught marks coming up through the underlay and floorboard cracks. You can ask for this when buying a carpet but best to observe they do it. The underlay joints should also be sealed, in my experience not all carpet layers can be bothered to do this. Years ago I had this problem with a carpet laid by Carpetland, they had to send round Servicemaster to roll back the carpet and seal, relay it and clean the marks off.


As its money saving expert....make sure you use an independent carpet company, where you can haggle over the price.....Carpetright are definitely not cheap whatever they claim!!! I've saved a couple of thousand over the years.

A_Frayed_Knot

Bought Dreamwalk underlay for whole house, luxury at its best, so recommend this to everyone. Got it from the auction website, they do have shops on there as well. Just compare prices from them and shop prices - huge difference.

When my carpet fitter came to lay my carpets, he asked where I got my underlay from, said it was much better quality than the stuff they sell (and thats a carpet shop). He was well impressed.