Putting carpeting under mattress

[afinepoint]

The surface beneath our mattress is plywood/pressed board. The exposed edge is carpeted. I plan to carpet the entire surface for additional sound proofing, insulation and to prevent touching a splinter nursery.

I can't see any issues doing this and presume the manufacturer didn't do it to reduce costs.

Reg

[carpetguy2]

Use carpet padding.Will give you sound proofing.Just use a box spring bed cover over that..

[afinepoint]

Gjac wrote:
I assume the noise that you are trying to reduce is your generator noise. If so 1/2 in of carpet will not have any noticeable effect as others have stated.

No generator. Just ambient noise. I didn't list the reasons in order of preference. The main reason is the plywood. Second aesthetics. Covering the exposed wood at the foot and surrounding areas should eliminate these two concerns. If the carpet knocks one dB off so be it.

We purchased a new foam mattress so I hope it's weight will keep it better planted.

I do need to think about air circulation since wood does breathe and the mattress will be covered. Just from the discussion here we'll make it a breathable cover.

I'll explore some of the great ideas you guys have given regarding air movement and mildew.

We appreciate all of the feedback.

[Carsong]

I've recently purchased a new high quality RV mattress. It's interspring and about 8 inches thick. A huge improvement from the old mattress but I've still been looking to soften the bed some more. Don't want to use a mattress topper as my wife hates them. I think a major problem is the fact that the mattress sits on top of a rock hard piece of plywood. So i've located a product named a natural bed rug. It's made by Savvy Rest and is about one inch thick. The product is made of latex rubberized coconut fibers. The manufacturer claims that it will help prevent mildew as it increases the airflow under the mattress. I'm hoping it will soften the bed a little and should also increase the life of the mattress. Has anyone tried this product? I plan to give it a try.

[dcmac214]

We've got that crapy chipboard under both the bedroom and loft mattresses. In bedroom I laid self-stick vinyl tile very specifically because it's really slippery, makes it so much easier to slide the mattress around when changing sheets & making bed (a real pia process with barely enough room on the bed sides to get in & out). In transit the mattress is firmly held in place head & toe. In the loft I cut to fit a couple of the cheapest sheets of wall panel I could find (and I do mean cheap: $2.97 each). The loft mattress is just a big, thin pad a couple inches smaller than the loft so it too doesn't move at all. For us it's as perfect a solution as we need.

[Gjac]

I assume the noise that you are trying to reduce is your generator noise. If so 1/2 in of carpet will not have any noticeable effect as others have stated. It will help the mattress stay in place and reduce splinters. I store 8 ins of blankets, pillows and throws on top of the generator under the bed and there is maybe a 20% reduction of noise. There are insulating materials made from lead that work much better to reduce noise.

[afinepoint]

$.49/ sq ft. carpet vs $4.76/ sq ft dri-dek. Easy decision.

[mlts22]

As an alternative to carpet, I wonder about Dri-Dek interlocking squares. This not just keeps things from sliding... but allows air to circulate so there isn't a chance of mold/mildew forming there.

[afinepoint]

amandasgramma wrote:
We did it in a 1986 5th wheel. Went to carpet joint and got a "leftover" for $40. and then told the woman what we were doing. She took us out to the storage and GAVE us the carpet padding. 🙂 🙂 Never had a bit of problem. DH stapled it on....

Got mine from the back of a store's remnant section. Was marked way down.

Just discovered that all I have to do is cut to length. The current carpet is folded under head to toe. Lucky for us the remnant's width is exactly right to go from front wall to opposite edge, under and back. Amazingly it is also a perfect match for the current piece. What are those odds?

Reg

[amandasgramma]

We did it in a 1986 5th wheel. Went to carpet joint and got a "leftover" for $40. and then told the woman what we were doing. She took us out to the storage and GAVE us the carpet padding. 🙂 🙂 Never had a bit of problem. DH stapled it on.... We ended up with enough carpet to do the area under the table, too!

[pira114]

You could just use carpet padding. Cheap, easy to cut, and easily replaceable. I'd cut an extra piece when I did it to have that second piece ready to use. Bet those two pieces last years.

[afinepoint]

scbwr wrote:
If you used a thinner carpet, you may be able to cover the edge of the plywood and staple it to the underside which extends beyond the storage area under the bed. I've never thought of using carpet to do this. I have thought of glueing insulation board to the underside of the platform.

That's the plan. The current carpet starts several inches in from the edge head to toe and the visible area outside of the walls it is folded under. The entire piece is glued.

This will require greater effort to remove than if stapled. I plan to cut the new to shape and cover the original and see how that looks. If OK I'll staple down. If not the old will be removed.

That's to all for the responses.

Reg

[myredracer]

afinepoint wrote:
The surface beneath our mattress is plywood/pressed board. The exposed edge is carpeted. I plan to carpet the entire surface for additional sound proofing, insulation and to prevent touching a splinter nursery.

I can't see any issues doing this and presume the manufacturer didn't do it to reduce costs.

Reg

Bare plywood or OSB is the norm. As above, I doubt carpet would provide much additional sound proofing. If you have an OEM mattress, consider getting a memory foam one which will add a lot of sound-proofing and insulation. Installing carpet on the floor inside the storage compartment under the bed would provide a little insulation from the pass-through compartment below that.

Adding more weight to the plywood might make it more difficult to lift it up to access the storage underneath and you could find it necessary to install stronger struts.

What bugs me is the way they hack the piece of plywood or OSB down to size without even sanding the edges. On a previous TT, I rounded the two square corners then used a router to make a rounded edge all the way around top and bottom. Going to do the same on our new one.

[hershey]

I can't see how any carpet under the mattress will add any more sound deadening than the mattress. But it certainly will keep the mattress from sliding around in transit.

[RoyB]

I came into a whole bunch of these 2-foot square stick down carpet that the office threw away for new ones. I carpeted the floor of my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer in BLUE Squares and put GREEN squares under both TENT BED ends. Did wonders for keeping out the cold weather.

Didn't do to well to keep from tracking in leaves and stuff from the woods however on the blue color main floor area ...

Overall it was a good idea...
Roy Ken