Hi houzzers.
We're having carpet fitted in our newly decorated living room next week. It's a wool carpet with 9mm high density foam underlay. We will obviously check our floorboards for damage and protruding nails etc but I'm not sure about the gaps between floorboards. Given the huge and cold void beneath this floor should the gaps be taped over? Which is more important, insulation or ventilation? Would it be wise to tape some but not all? Or just leave it as it is with the gaps?
As Sarah says, you shouldn’t be too worried about small gaps. In the olden days, people used to lay newspaper down on top of the boards before the underlay. You can still do this (it’s cheap, and it’s also a nice thing to look at years later when you eventually change the carpet) - however you can now buy rolls of floor lining paper to do the job! Here’s an example https://www.underlay4u.co.uk/accessories/floor-lining-paper/floor-lining-paper-paper-felt.html. You can also get thermal underlay - we’ve used it in one of our rooms.
I have laid underlay and wool carpets over floorboards in my bedrooms, landing and stairs and they still look good. You could always ask your carpet provider for advice if you need it.
Make sure you have decided what you want to do because your carpet fitters won’t take on extra jobs on the day.
If it were mine I would see if there is a draft coming through….. if there is then I would speak to your carpet supplier and add an extra layer of insulation or upgrade your underlay. If there are no drafts then I would just make sure there are no creaks because you can’t easily fix that after the carpet is laid.
to prevent the draught and even out the floorboard gaps, paperfelt can have some affect but 4mm Harboard or Ply would be even better although there is of course a time/cost implication. It all depends how perfect you need the floor really. Speak to your floor fitter and ask their advice, they may be happy to hardboard/ply the room when fitting the carpet (they will need to use new grippers)
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Angie