A Guide to Selecting the Right Carpet Cushion/Pad

A carpet isn’t usually very comfortable without a good cushion or pad. Also, if you have ever looked at the foundational flooring of any home, you will see that it is very rough with all sorts of sharp edges. That rough contour can damage your carpet as you walk on it without a pad. Plus you could cut your feet too.

So to get the most comfort and resiliency from your carpet, you should buy the appropriate padding or cushioning to stand between the foundation and the carpet. And it’s not just about carpet either. Good cushioning also provides acoustic qualities in the room plus insulates from the cold.

Carpet cushions and pads are made of polyurethane foam, fiber, and rubber and come in all sorts of constructions for whatever will suit your purpose. You will need to evaluate the traffic in all areas of your home to determine just what kind of thickness you will need. The not-so-heavily-used areas in your home such as the bedrooms, dens, and lounge areas can use a thicker pad. The high traffic areas should use a thinner pad underneath the carpet.

Why would you use a thinner carpet cushion or pad in the high traffic areas of your home? One would think that thicker is better. But actually, if you have very thick carpet cushion/pad in your high traffic areas and the carpet is of standard quality, the constant walking over it will flex it significantly because of the thick padding.

The result is that the excessive flexing can begin wrinkle the carpet and the wrinkles cause more wear faster. When you go to your carpet retailer, you can ask for a Class 1 carpet cushion to be used in the light traffic areas or a Class 2 carpet cushion for use in the heavy traffic areas.

The recommendation for most carpets is that the cushion or pad be 3/8 to ½ inch thick and have a density of 6 pounds per cubic foot. If more cushion effect is desired then you want to increase in density and not in thickness.

In the high-traffic areas such as halls and stairways, the density should be 8 pounds per cubic foot and thinner. It is best to always by unattached pads because the separation between carpet and pad actually provides some insulation because of the air pocket.

The FHA has a minimum standard for carpet padding and that is 6 pounds per cubic foot under the standard residential cut pile and 8 pounds per square foot under the thinner Berber low pile carpets. The Berber carpets have large wide loops and a low-flexing and stable cushion seems to do best with it.

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