Why does new carpet padding feel lumpy and uneven?
New carpet padding can feel uneven, lumpy, or hard in certain spots due to inconsistent materials like mixed foam pieces, or because tack strips were improperly covered. This uneven texture leaves homeowners feeling the subfloor or tack strips underfoot, completely ruining the uniform comfort a new carpet should provide.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1considering paying extra to replace the carpet and switch to a different brand of padding
- 2paying the installer to swap the carpet while keeping the existing pad
- 3Unrolling the carpet in a garage and setting up fans to dry it out
- 4Having the carpet cleaned after installation
- 5Proceeding with installation assuming the dampness is similar to regular carpet cleaning
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We picked it up and the shrink wrap has tears and the carpet roll is definitely wet in spots.”source ↗
“I’m so pissed but not sure we should even put carpet in our house that got wet from I’m assuming rain.”source ↗
“Anybody know if we should dump it or will it be alright?”source ↗
“recently had Dreamweaver 40 ounce carpet installed , beach club (seaglass). 625 sq ft , 1700$ the picture is of the pad they installed.( can feel all the tack strips by the way) long story short I’m not happy with color , and pad.”source ↗
“Feels soft and feels hard in places. Memory foam mixed with rebond pieces I’m guessing.”source ↗
“The floor just feels uneven in areas”source ↗
“this pad don’t seem bad. But in some areas it feels like a subfloor under the carpet and others , sorta soft actually , just don’t feel uniform and it bugs the hell out of me”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 3Why is my apartment flooring bubbling and getting gaps after cleaning?
- 2How to fix an H-pattern in installed flooring without tearing it all up
- 4How to fix dull worn spots on laminate flooring