Plywood on floor before carpet?

[Rick Sanchez]

I am about to have the second bedroom in my Victorian terrace re-carpeted. I have opted for thick underlay to go under the carpet. The original wooden floorboards are in decent enough condition, but I am wondering if there is any benefit to fitting some thin plywood on top of the floorboards before the underlay goes down? Is this ever beneficial for a more even surface\ noise reduction, or is it really only necessary in certain circumstances?

 

[JohnD]

In an old house like yours there may be gaps between the floorboards. These may cause ridges of wear in your floor covering. It is worst with vinyl and less bad when you have a thick carpet and thick underlay. Additionally, you may get dark dirt lines where draughts blow tiny dust particles up the gaps (also round the skirting). Look at your old carpets and you may see it.

 

[Tigercubrider]

you can buy a brown paper type stuff, or use newspaper.

newspaper provides entertainment years later

 

[JohnD]

Found this once

View media item 2635

 

[HERTS P&D]

Found this once

View media item 2635

Not much then.

 

[HawkEye244]

I would avoid laying ply simply for access reasons if you want to take up the carpet to tend to services, it adds another layer of work and it will not do much to stop noise.

I would screw down any noisy boards with flooring grade screws, and get the thickest underlay you can find for the carpet and it will sort the problem. I know because I've done it in mine and the underlay acts like a sponge for all foot traffic. I used the tredaire dreamwalk underlay, thickest they had. You will be happy with the results provided you go as thick as you can on the underlay. On staircases the underlay is thinner but still does the job perfectly well.