Carpet Pad Weight

You may know the importance of installing carpet pads together with your carpet. In a nutshell, carpet pads add years to the life of your carpet. It serves as an extra foundation and also creates a soft cushioning effect, adding comfort as you walk on it.

Carpet pads help prevent the carpet fibers and threads from wear and tear. It acts like an armor that protects your carpet and helps maintain the premier quality and value of your carpet. In addition, carpet pads also absorb noisy footsteps through its sound-insulating properties.

Now that you have been refreshed about the importance of using carpet pads, the next thing to decide is which carpet pad is right for your home. There are numerous varieties of carpet pads that you can choose from aside from the ones that your carpet installer offers. The key here is to know the right carpet pad for you. Carpet pads come in different weights and are made from different materials. Depending upon the manufacturer, the cut and style of your carpet, you may want to choose a carpet pad that is meant for that carpet. Contrary to what you might think, being thicker and softer isn’t necessarily the best qualities that you should look for in your carpet pad. Excessively thick carpet pads can cause your carpet to lift off from the tack strips underneath while too soft carpet pads tend to wear out sooner compared to firmer pads.

Determining Carpet Pad Weight

Did you know that the best way select your carpet pad is to look at its weight? You can even make calculations so that you can choose and compare among the different carpet pads available. Here’s how:

• Carpet padding is rated in pounds and manufacturers use this number in two ways: as a density value measured in 10 pounds per cubic foot or a more accurate measure using pounds per footfall area.
• Remember to use the same units of measurement when comparing padding and figuring its weight. Carpet pads that are rated in pounds per cubic feet should be converted first if you are comparing it against a carpet pad rated in pounds per cubic yard. To compute this, multiply the pounds per cubic yard by nine to get the pounds per cubic foot or divide the pounds per cubic foot by nine to get the pounds per cubic yard.
• You can also convert the pounds per footfall rating to feet to know the weight of the padding to serve as comparison since some manufacturers use a pound per square inch rating and a pound per 6-square inch rating. Convert these ratings to pounds per square foot by dividing it by 144.

Another tip: Don’t forget to bring your trusty calculator when you are choosing your carpet pads especially if you are afraid of math. You don’t want to have a wrong computation, right? Happy shopping!

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