Rip Out The Old And Lay The New
Any work to do with home improvement requires good preparation and the better the preparation the better the final finish. This is obvious to anyone who has done any home decorating.
If new wall paper is required there is no way the old paper should be left on the wall. It may be tempting to leave it but the problem may not be apparent until the next day when the paste has lifted the old paper from the wall and bubbles are all around the place.
The same principle applies to the floor when fitting new carpets. It may be tempting to leave the old carpet or the old underlay to save a few bob but this is not only a false economy but it also means the quality of the carpet will not feel underfoot as good as it should.
Another problem is that the old carpet will have all the little dust mites and other bugs in it and this will transfer to the new and chemically treated carpet. No matter how thoroughly the old carpet is vacuumed it will never be anywhere as clean as the new one.
Compared to the price of a new fitted carpet the carpet underlay is a fraction of the price and yet a cheap underlay will increase the life of the carpet by around fifty per cent.
Once the old carpet and whatever lies beneath is removed it isn’t a bad idea if the house is old and the floors uneven to check whether it is bad enough to warrant a leveller.
This is normally only with old concrete floors and for every six square metres of floor it is necessary to buy the 23 kilo tub of special powder which is then mixed with five litres of water and applied with a trowel.
The mix is of such a consistency that if left alone should self-level filling in the various dips in the floor.
On top of this it is advisable to put down a under carpet paper to help prevent dust coming through.
There are many different underlays to choose from and it is best to ask the carpet salesman which is the best one for your new carpet bearing in mind the condition of the floor and whether it is wooden or concrete.
The amount of wear the new carpet will get may also have some bearing on which one of the underlays is best for your needs. A bedroom will generally have a lot less wear than the sitting room and stairways and passageways like the front door to the kitchen certainly get much wear.
What goes under the carpet is just as important as the work that should have been done before redecorating the room. There is the old story about a tramp sleeping rough outdoors on cold nights always putting two thirds of the available blankets, cardboard and whatever else, beneath him as a mattress and one third above. The same is true with hours it takes to decorate a room and with carpets it is sometimes better to have two thirds the thickness of what you walk upon to be below what you see on top.
For all your underlay choices look at underlay4u.co.uk.
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