Carpet/Foam for Underlayment

[fishin4cars]

Not sure how true it is, but I read before that old carpet has one serious draw back. once wet is can grow all types of mold. It's not so bad if not disturbed but if someone is highly allergic to mold spores or if it is removed and the mold is disturbed it can be a issue. How true is this? Must be true I read it on the internet........ I know people have been using it for years but it makes sense and for the little cost of true underlayment I have decided to stay away from old carpet and padding. Dark moist areas are prone to mold and down here in the south black mold has caused some serious health effects from those that had to clean up after flooding and storms.

 

[addy1]

When my pond in arizona was pulled, I warned them about possible carpet mold. They said there was none. The carpet was dirty but still in decent shape. Disclaimer, not my eyes that saw the carpet

 

[Sheetmetalman]

I would put both down (carpet & foam)--I like the old saying; "its better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it", lol. The primary thing is to protect your liner from root infiltrations and sharp rocks so I used a lot of carpet and padding and oversized my hole in the bottom enough to add 6 inches of soft sand-so far so good here. One more thing that Waterbug touched on--foriegn objects in the old carpet (glass, needles)-- I would add 2 more, staples that were originally used to hold the padding down to the subfloor, and carpet tacks still stuck in the edge of old carpet--you want to look closely at this before useing them.

 

[Sheetmetalman]

theres times were I would add this stupid computer to my pond landscaping

 

[HARO]

That old computer could make an interesting artificial reef! :wink: But seriously, the mold problem on old carpet? Isn't it the dry spores that are inhaled, causing problems? I have only seen mold on an underlay once, but it was quite wet. And when I enlarged my pond a year ago, the old carpet used for that purpose still looked the same as when it was installed..... about 15 years ago!
John

 

[falconut]

I'm about 45 minutes from the shore and not in a flood zone, so I should be good with that. Yeah, the old junk in the carpet is also another reason I'll probably use the foam. Maybe I'll double it up. I assume the foam would remove the possibility of mold too.

 

[Sheetmetalman]

Sorry but no--mold will grow on any surface under the right conditions--darkness plus moisture plus oxygen is usually all it takes. That being said it thrives on organic materials best so your foam pad may be o.k., especially if its closed cell foam and it may have been treated with a fungicide since you said it was made for a swimming pool underlayment, goodluck

 

[sissy]

well if it is only on the bottom and really the only place you need ,usually things don't poke through the side walls of a pond .Unless you have extremely rocky soil