The Floor Room guide to choosing underlay and flooring accessories

Fabulous new flooring is more than what you see on the surface. The right underlay and flooring accessories can change how it looks and feels, and how it performs over time. The Floor Room underlay buying guide is designed to demystify some of the technicalities around underlay and accessories and help you make your new flooring even better.

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Underlay is the foundation for your flooring. It’s invisible after fitting yet its effects are huge. The right underlay can improve everything from how flooring feels underfoot, to how it wears and how well it maintains its looks over time. 

8 reasons your new flooring is better with underlay 

1. Underlay helps to insulate your room by trapping heat under the floor. 
2. Underlay can help reduce your energy bills by keeping your room warmer. 
3. Underlay provides a barrier against sound, keeping in-room noise to a minimum. 
4. Underlay adds a layer of cushioned comfort underfoot.
5. Underlay protects hard flooring by reducing how much tiles or planks flex.
6. Underlay acts as a shock absorber, protecting the integrity of your home’s floor from impact and pressure.
7. Underlay can increase the lifespan of your flooring by 30 to 50%.

While underlay is an obvious choice, it isn’t always an easy one. There are a surprising number of underlay options available and the one you need often depends on your flooring choice.

Underlay for carpet

The carpet underlay you choose depends on your carpet and the room or area you’re carpeting. For high-traffic areas like hallways, consider an underlay that’s dense and durable. For stairs, look for an underlay isn’t too spongy to ensure your stairs stay safe and sturdy. For a bedroom, you might want the luxurious feel of a more cushioned underlay.

Underlay for hard flooring

Hard flooring underlay acts as a moisture barrier between the subfloor and the actual flooring. It can also protect floor joints from warping and flexing. 

Every underlay has a tog rating based on its thickness, density and composition. The tog rating that’s right for you depends on the type of heating in your home.

If you have an underfloor heating system, look for an underlay with a lower tog rating as it will allow the heat to rise and warm the rest of your room. 

If you have more conventional heating in your home, an underlay with a higher tog rating can help insulate your home and reduce energy consumption.

Choosing underlay by type of underlay

Underlay can be made from a wide range of natural and synthetic materials. 

Polyurethane (pu) underlay

 
In the past, most underlay was made from rubber. These days, however, the material of choice is polyurethane, which is also known as PU. 

PU underlay is made from offcuts of foam or recycled foam, so it’s an environmentally-friendly option. As it comes in different thicknesses and densities, there's an option to suit every flooring type and every budget. 

Best for: laminate flooring, carpet, engineered wood flooring, luxury vinyl flooring.

Sponge rubber underlay

Sponge rubber underlay is a synthetic material that has the durability of rubber combined with a spring-like texture for flexibility. 

Best for: carpet, on top of concrete floors.

Crumb rubber underlay

Crumb rubber is carpet underlay that’s designed for high-traffic areas. It’s dense, durable, and ideal for use in hallways, staircases and landings. It's made from recycled car tyres so it’s hardwearing, rugged and environmentally friendly. Crumb rubber underlay is typically available in thickness of between 6 mm and 9 mm.

Best for: carpet, high-traffic floors.

Felt and crumb rubber underlay

Felt and crumb rubber underlay combines the comfort of felt with the resilience of crumb rubber underlay. This combination of materials makes it excellent for both sound and heat insulation around the home. It’s a good all-rounder that’s suitable for use in all rooms.

Best for: laminate flooring, carpet, engineered wood flooring, luxury vinyl flooring.

Flooring accessories are the finishing touches and trimmings that complete your new floor. Any room and any type of flooring might look better and be safer and more durable with the right flooring accessories.

5 reasons to finish your floor with the right flooring accessories

1. They can give your new flooring the perfect finishing touch.
2. They can keep your flooring securely in place.
3. They can provide a seamless transition between two rooms.
4. They can connect different types of flooring.
5. They can provide extra protection for your floor.

Some flooring accessories are must-haves because they hold your new floor in place or make sure it’s a safe, stable surface, and some are nice-to-haves because they make your new floor look even more finished. 

For more on the specific flooring accessories required for laminate flooring, take a look at our laminate flooring buying guide.

Carpet gripper

Carpet gripper is designed to keep your new carpet securely in place, ensuring that it won’t loosen or lose tension over time. It comes pre-nailed to thin strips of plywood in multiples of 1 metre and is easy to cut to size for a precise fit. Carpet gripper is suitable for use on wooden floorboards and most concrete subfloors.

Single edge door bars

Single edge door bars join the threshold between a room and an open area of hard flooring. They’re available in aluminium and a brass-effect finishes to suit all styles of décor. 

Double edge door bars

Double edge door bars join two carpeted rooms together, helping to hold the carpet taut and in place and ensuring a neat and tidy look with no lumps and bumps. Importantly, they ensure that carpet edges don’t become a trip hazard.

Z-section door bars

Z-section door bars are used to neatly join carpet in one room to hard flooring in another room. 

Luxury vinyl flooring door bars

Luxury vinyl door bars are designed to sit across a threshold, covering any expansion gas and protecting your floor. They have a clear central space for a strip of your luxury vinyl flooring which makes the room-to-room transition between your luxury vinyl flooring and another type of flooring almost invisible.

Hard flooring door bars

Hard flooring door bars sit across thresholds and create a smooth transition between rooms with laminate flooring, luxury vinyl flooring or engineered wood flooring. They’re available in a choice of colours to complement your new hard flooring.

Beading

Beading is designed to fill the expansion gap between the planks of your engineered wood flooring and the wall or the skirting board. Beading comes in a choice of colours and shades, and styles include scotia beading and quarter round beading. 

Stair rods

Stair rods – the horizontal metal-finished rods that sit between the stair tread and the stair riser – are a simple yet effective way of transforming your stairs. Originally designed to hold stair carpets securely in place, they are now a purely decorative accessory that gives any carpeted staircase a very finished look.

Be sure to check our FAQs page for answers to some popular underlay questions, or visit your local store and chat to one of our flooring experts about the type of underlay and flooring accessories that you might need. 

And if you’re choosing between different types of underlay, you can make life easier by requesting up to four free samples delivered to your home.

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