Carpet on top of carpet?

[VISITOR1800]

So..Can we actually lay carpet ontop of another carpet. I know its not the modern thing to do but I'm looking to save money and sometimes see in house renovations that families did indeed do this once upon a time. Are there any negatives? I've noticed people are already putting their heating on and honestly I'm quite shocked. Who can actually afford to put the heating on from September? ..we are a family of 4 and still have the window open in October to sleep usually. Prehaps we are just a bit more warm blooded or we'll adjusted for the poorer lifestyle 🤣. I actually hate walking into houses with central heating in every room, make me feel ill. Please let know of you have layered a carpet without/ with issues.

I’m not understanding the link between central heating and doubling up on carpets?

For me, it’s worth doing a job properly. Using an old dusty/smelly/thread bare carpet as underlay isn’t acceptable. I’d rather wait another year and do it properly than use a shortcut.

But ultimately if you don’t mind doing it, do it. It’s your home and you can do things how you like. What’s the price difference?

No

do it properly.

I've never ever known of this. Whats the purpose? If you were to do it the under carpet would have to be 100% clean. Seems pointless to me and may end up being too high, or just not right in fit or look.

Why would you do this ? You’ll have all manner of problems fitting a new carpet over an old one and you won’t be able to stretch it effectively to fit perfectly. I don’t understand . Is it for extra warmth or to save on the cost of taking up the old carpet? (Which you can easily do yourself ? )You’d surely end up having to trim skirting and shave doors to accomodate the extra height?
If it’s about warmth invest in good insulating underlay which will help your heating bills further down the line.

I love walking into a centrally heated room and don’t sleep with windows open in October. What are you trying to say? How does this relate to carpets?

I moved into a house that had done this. All that happened is that the underlay on the original carpet disintegrated because of the friction of the two carpets.

Apart from under the bed because they had cut a square around the bed rather than move it out of the room to fit the carpet…

It takes about 10 mins to pull up a carpet and as others have said it’ll be an absolute bodge laying a new one ontop of an old one. You won’t be able to get the edges down, it’ll bulge and be god awful.

Carpet - is it in place of underlay? I would be concerned about doors opening over the thickness.

Windows - today I have both windows open (for freshness) and heating on (for warmth).

You can buy really good thermal underlay if that is what you are trying to achieve. Old carpet will just degrade and will be horrible to walk on and the lack of underlay will make the new carpet wear weirdly.

My landlord did this and you can’t tell.

Another one who is confused about the link between laying carpet over carpet and people putting their central heating on in September.
FWIW I put mine on yesterday because I was cold. We can afford it because… we just can.
Don’t lay carpet over carpet, it’ll look shit and you won’t be able to open your doors.

Laying carpet on top of carpet sounds like a nuts idea unless you mean a rug on top?
Issues that come to my mind..
How will you fix the carpet in place? Will you nail a new set of carpet grippers on top of the old carpet? New carpet grippers will add to your costs instead of reduce them!
A new carpet (plus grippers) will raise the carpet up higher - will the doors still open and close smoothly?
Unevenness, grit, dirt etc in the old carpet will increase wear on the new - causing wear on both sides instead of just one.

Honestly can't see what the benefit would be of doing this. The costly part is the new carpet - you could fit it yourself if you really want to save costs, but refusing to take the old carpet out has no benefit at all.

You might also have to shave all the doors if you put carpet on top of carpet

@Tupster I also wondered if @VISITOR1800 meant a rug, which also isn't ideal imo, but many people do it. Plus, a large rug is often referred to as a carpet....

We laid a rug over fitted carpet as a temporary measure after completion on the purchase of our latest project last Autumn. The fitted living room carpet we inherited was good quality but ancient and - having lifted a corner to inspect - had not only decomposing underlay beneath, but also hardboard which was nailed down. We decided it was easier to just lay our huge rug over the top to get us through Christmas before tackling the job properly in the New Year. However, whilst I can see the benefits, warmth-wise, I wouldn't want that setup permanently.

As for two actual carpets laid on top of each other - just why?!