Do I Need a Spill Proof Pad for my Carpet?

Steve Knisely, Owner of Wholesale Carpets & Flooring in Fox River Grove:

Let’s talk about spill proof pad.

We get a lot of customers that come in and ask: do I need a spillproof padding? And we think the answer is no.

So spillproof padding, here is a spillproof padding that you could use; nothing wrong with this one, this is a nice one actually. But what happens when they install the padding is that this membrane that they put on the top here, in most cases if you have wood subfloor, we are going to staple this putting down. And so the staples obviously are going to make some holes in your spillproof.

Let’s say we don’t do that. Let’s say we glue down the padding, we take the seams of the padding because the parent comes in six-foot goods and so every 6 feet you would have a seam so we tape those seams; now you’ve got a totally impenetrable shield for any spills or accidents that might go through the carpeting and into your pad.

The trick with all spills and accidents is really that you want to catch it fast. You want to be there as soon as you can to blot that up and this is just supposed to be and aid really to help you in that blotting.

The caution, the reason we don’t like spillproof pads is because they are more expensive and the danger is that if that liquid or whatever it is sits here on the top of your padding for very long, here is your carpeting, it’s going to sit there in between the padding and the carpeting.

This carpet backing cannot handle water for very long and in fact when carpet’s made, there is a primary and a secondary backing and the fibers wove in between those two backings. If water sits there for very long those two parts can come apart. The backing of the carpet will break down and as those come apart, now your fibers can fall out, you can have ripples in your carpet and a lot of other things like that.

So we try to steer you clear of doing a spillproof pad for that reason. It’s not necessary, it’s more expensive and if you do have a spill and it sits for any length of time, you can end up with this situation.