Why is Pinnacle Eco-Comfort® rubber underlay such good value?
- Soft underfoot & flexible enough to smooth out any minor floor irregularities. Its anti-fatigue qualities are also ideal in the workplace.
- Quiet with great sound insulation.
- Long lasting - doesn't collapse over time.
- Warm & comfortable.
Did you know:
- We remove & recycle rubber tyres that clog up landfills and take centuries to rot down and turn them into a completely safe, environmentally-friendly product for your home.
- We only produce 100% recycled rubber underlay – no additives, just pure rubber produced in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Frequently Asked Questions
We think it's false economy to fit new carpet over old or used underlay. Carpet needs to have as firm a support as possible in order to perform at its best and last a long time. An old underlay will already be flattened and less resilient and will not give the carpet adequate support. (This is also true of poorer quality new foam underlay). Everyone knows that a new carpet feels springy. This is mainly due to the underlay, not the carpet.
People are often happy to spend a large amount on new carpet, with little consideration or understanding of what the underlay does. They never realise how important it is to choose good quality underlay.
Here are some good reasons why the right underlay is so important:
Comfort
Heat Insulation
Sound Insulation
Appearance
Dust Insulation
Comfort
Carpet Fitting
A top quality foam underlay has a density of 125Kg/m³. Eco-Comfort has a density of 325Kg/m³ (almost three times the density of foam underlay).
Eco-Comfort provides the perfect balance between underfoot comfort and feel, while providing the right support for your carpet. Ensure that indentations from furniture are less severe. Pinnacle Eco-Comfort® Underlay has good "memory" – when furniture is moved, the underlay returns to its original shape.
Customers who have installed Eco-Comfort love the feel. Eco-Comfort provides the perfect balance between underfoot comfort and feel while providing the right support for your carpet.
All good quality residential carpets have backing with no cushioning effect and require underlay. Lower cost carpets may have built-in underlay, which is usually foam rubber and does not require underlay.
Firmer underlays:
- Give added protection to the carpet against the hard sub-floor during normal walking
- Minimise indentations from furniture. Pinnacle Eco-Comfort underlay has good "memory" – when furniture is moved, the underlay returns to its original shape
- Prevent excessive vertical movement and stretching of the carpet and help prevent rucking problems.
Softer underlays:
– Can eventually collapse under excessive pressure and allow the carpet backing to be distorted, preventing good recovery and making furniture indentations more severe.
Foam underlay is lighter and therefore easier to cut and install than our Eco-Comfort underlay. Human nature being what it is, people will always look for the easy way out. Competent carpet layers have no problem installing Eco-Comfort Underlay and often comment on how good our product is.
Waffle rubber underlays gain their name from the pattern on the underside of the underlay. This waffle pattern creates small air pockets that help to provide both comfort and insulation. While waffle underlays make use of trapped air, crumb rubber underlays are constructed from small particles of rubber moulded together to produce dense and highly resilient carpet underlays. Crumb rubber is produced from rubber, which has been recycled from old car tyres, granulised and re-processed.
Check out our Where to Buy Pinnacle rubber underlay page and our preferred stockists located on the Google map.
A simple Google search is a good place to start (or consult your Yellow Pages directory).
Please check our preferred stockists. If there is no local agent in your area contact us directly.
Absolutely! When your underlay eventually reaches the end of its productive life, it can be reused.
Here are a few ideas:
- Use it for mulch mats around trees. Water will pass through, but weeds will be kept away from newly planted stock
- The material is easily cut with kitchen scissors so it can be cut to form car boot linings, insulation mats, pin boards – the list is endless!
- Find lots of other uses here for our recycled rubber underlay here.
VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) are given off by just about everything in your home, especially anything made from foam. As an environmentally responsible company we have completed comprehensive testing for VOC's in our factory to ensure staff safety. As a result we are convinced that there are no concentrations of VOC's produced in the manufacturing process, which are even close to prescribed guidelines. (Typical results are much less than 1% of the percentage allowed.)
For more information check out our VOC safety tests.
We also know that people who suffer from Asthma are acutely sensitive to VOC's. Our rubber underlay is installed in the homes of asthma sufferers – they have reported no negative reaction to our underlay at all!
There is no problem with using our underlay with underfloor heating; in fact it significantly improves heating efficiency. (We haven't completed any formal thermal testing on our underlay, so unfortunately can’t give you a U or R value - however, our research and informal testing indicates a thermal resistance of 1.6 togs for the 11mm and 1.1 togs for the 6mm). Dawood Latif, who owns 3E Energy Limited, a firm specialising in energy efficient building, loves our underlay and believes it is a great fit for underfloor heating.
We have also completed testing for VOC's during the manufacturing process, where the underlay was subjected to temperatures well over 100 degrees Celsius. There is no harmful discharge at this temperature and, as underfloor heating usually reaches a maximum temperature of 28 degrees Celsius, our underlay is completely safe.
In residential homes underlay is usually "loose laid" - it is rolled out across the floor and sits "loose" on top of the floor. The carpet is then placed "loose" on top of the underlay, stretched onto gripper bars (commonly known as smoothedge) around the edge of the room and held in place under tension. This is known as "stretch fitting".
In commercial buildings, where there is much heavier traffic (including wheeled traffic) the underlay is first stuck to the floor and then the carpet is stuck to the underlay – hence the term, "Double stick". This provides a much more durable, although less comfortable application.
Foam underlays cannot be double stuck. This makes our Eco-Comfort pure rubber underlay really cost-effective for double stick applications. When double sticking underlay the type of glue needed depends on the type of floor and carpet backing.
» Click here to download our Adhesives Specification Sheet.
It is equally important to ensure correct floor preparation, application techniques and rates for the glues.
