Ball & Young underlay sits directly under your flooring, providing a layer of support and protection that prolongs that new floor feeling, extending the lifespan of your flooring. A Ball & Young underlay improves how your floor feels underfoot and brings numerous additional benefits to the performance of your flooring.
Ball & Young premium underlay provides a thick, spongy yet dense layer of additional cushioning underfoot. Our luxury ranges add an unmistakable layer of cushion and spring, absorbing the impact as you walk - giving that luxurious feeling of premium flooring across the whole of the room.
Our range of high tog rated underlays add a layer of insulation to help reduce the warm air escaping through the floor and to act as a barrier preventing cold air getting in. If you have a naturally cold subfloor such as concrete, or draughty floorboards the extra layer of insulation will make a significant difference - maybe even reducing the cost of your heating bills.
Adding a Ball & Young underlay to your floor can reduce the noise within the room by up to 30%, with the added benefit passed to any rooms below. Sound insulation is much desired for dwellings where the reduction of sound is required such as apartments, allowing you to continue with everyday life without the worry of disturbing the people below.
A high impact Ball & Young underlay will add extra protection to flooring across high footfall areas of your home such as stairs and hallways. By acting as a layer of shock absorption it helps retain the spring of your carpet meaning you get the bounce-back sensation for longer.
A Ball & Young underlay will help to preserve the appearance of your carpet for longer.
You can feel good about your Ball & Young underlay by knowing it has been produced with a sustainable process, by a company with a forward thinking outlook on the environment and sustainability. As part of the Vita Group we operate a responsible, resourceful and safe business. We commit to – and invest in- reducing waste, increasing recycling and reuse of raw materials, and conserving natural resources in pursuit of a net zero footprint. We are proud of our achievements, and will continue to push forwards.
There are different types of underlays and we’d like to ensure that you make the right choice for your home:
PU stands for Polyurethane which is a type of foam. The seating and cushions for the car, aviation and furniture industry are made from PU and any left-over foam that used to go to landfill is shredded and made into Carpet Underlay!
The main differences between underlays are the Quality, the Thickness and the Density.
Quality
Ball & Young are best known for producing quality underlays and continue to win many awards for Best New Product from when Cloud 9 was launched over 25 years ago. All Ball & Young’s underlays pass the British Standards BS EN 14499:2015.
Thickness
Ball & Young supply underlay from 3mm all the way through to 11mm; the thicker the product, the more travel of compression there is, which makes the product feel more comfortable and gives better heat insulation.
Density
Ball & Young supply underlays of varying densities. Density is measured in Kg/m3 and refers to how firm or soft a product is. It is a personal preference to how soft or firm or thick or thin you like your underlay, but hopefully, we can help you make a more informed decision on what underlay is the best underlay for your needs.
Underlay acts as a cushion between the carpet and the sub-floor; choosing the correct underlay for the correct installation is important. There are many benefits from using an underlay.
Thermal Insulation
Heat loss through the floor can be up to 15% - underlay will reduce heat loss through the floor, but some underlays are better than others. Thermal Insulation is measured in ‘Tog’ - think duvets - for reducing heat loss, a high Tog rating is good!
Underfloor Heating
Still measured in ‘Tog’, but this time we do not want to insulate the floor, we want to allow the warm air to be able to pass through the underlay, so the lower the Tog rating, the better.
Ball & Young does not recommend an underlay with a tog rating greater than 1.5 Tog over underfloor heating systems.
Sound Impact Insulation
All underlays will reduce noise from foot traffic. Noise will be reduced within a room and between rooms. Impact sound insulation is measured in Decibels. A good underlay can give a high decibel rating.
Underlay for Carpet Stretch Fitting
This is where the underlay is laid on the subfloor, cut to the gripper around the edge of the room and the joints of the underlay are taped to form one piece of underlay, then the carpet is loose laid onto the underlay and stretched onto gripper and the carpet is put under tension.
All Ball and Young’s carpet underlays can be fitted with this method.
Double Sticking
This is where the underlay is fixed in place with a tackifier adhesive, which holds the underlay in place on the sub-floor, without completely sticking it. The carpet is stuck to the underlay with a permanent adhesive, which allows the carpet and underlay to be removed in one piece. The benefits are that they can be uplifted to gain access to ducting and then refitted; ideal for wheeled traffic; ideal for border and inlay work; no rucking or stretching and superior underfoot comfort and feel compared to direct stick with no underlay.
Laminate, Solid and Engineered Wooden Floors
Without an underlay, laminate flooring would be noisy. The underlay is fitted between the sub-floor and the laminate and fills the void (echo chamber) that would otherwise be empty.
Our recommendation is that you always check with your installation professional.
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DISCLAIMER: Great care has been taken to ensure the details contained in this website are accurate. Ball & Young Limited, together with the publisher, cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any inaccurate information.