Lumps Under Carpet Padding

Carpet padding is typically sold in rolls containing 270 square feet of padding.

Lumps under carpet padding.

If you can feel a soft spot in the floor under the carpet the subfloor has likely been weakened or damaged. The pad is made up of various foam peices and youa re feeling the hard peices as the rest of the pad compresses. Over time your carpet can develop lumps bumps and wrinkles that are unattractive and potential tripping hazards. Not only are lumps unattractive and cause eye sores but they are a hazard that causes trips and falls.

Unfortunately because of its composition some of the recycled chunks are very hard and dense compared to the rest of the chunks. Good neighbor is right time to replace the carpet. Typically carpet is attached to floors by tackless strips or double sided tape. My only guess is that it is a floor board of somesort that has somehow pushed its way up which is pushing up the carpet about 1 2 an inch in a 4 foot strait line.

In any event the the carpet has to move first. Lumps generally occur in carpeting from poor carpet installation severe humidity affecting the carpet adhesive or carpet seams buckling from wear and tear. I recently had a client with a home in contract that had little bumps under the carpet in several different spots in the living and dining room which was about 15x30 feet in size. Trust me if feels as hard as a rock.

Since the buyer was an engineer he decided to investigate the situation himself rather than call an inspector. At one big box home retailer recent prices for a roll of carpet padding ranged from 50 19 per square foot for a recycled foam padding with a density of 5 to about 300 1 11 per square foot for a top quality memory foam padding with a density of 10. If the carpet moves the pad can move if it wasn t stapled properly causing bunps in the pad and carpet. Instead a dip in the carpet could mean that a floor joist has sustained.

No under pad should have lumps in it call for a concillation anyway. The bumps may appear when the carpet padding wears down enough to create slack in. This isn t the same as having a floor squeak when you step on it which simply indicates that the subfloor isn t tightly fastened to the floor joist in one area. You may not beleive this but the hard bumps are the carpet padding.

Is the bunching in the high traffic areas like doorways and halls if yes carpet is not stretched enough.