Hi All -

I am a longtime lurker, sometimes contributor, on the Kitchen Forums. Thanks to the generous spirits and collective wisdom represented on these forums, we have made some very good decisions regarding our remodeling projects.

I believe we have narrowed our choices of carpet cushion to the four below. Our carpet is a dense nylon plush 50 oz face weight that will be installed on a concrete slab in our home in Arizona. We hope to install sometime late spring/early summer. Based on your knowledge and experience, could you advise, of the four choices below, which would be the best when considering carpet wear, comfort, and value.

1) Tred-Mor #2568 Sponge Rubber Carpet Cushion, 1/4" thick, 22 lb density. We already own several rolls of this cushion. We bought it several months ago at a great price with the plan to use it for our family room laminate floor. (Read somewhere, maybe here, that a dense slab rubber carpet pad was a good underlay for laminate.) We have enough to do the laminate floor as well as the carpeting in our living room. A sample of the cushion under our carpet felt firm with almost no bounce or cushiness, but still comfortable.

2) Full House synthetic rubber 3/8" 23 lb. This is stocked locally and we would probably purchase it through the installer. I do not know what our cost would be, but I believe it would be less than the Healthier Choice Green (my third consideration below). The Full House sample under carpet had an initial bounce when first stepping on it and then felt firm and comfortable.

3) Healthier Choice Green 7/16" 10 lb visco-elastic memory foam. This has been my first choice for a while but I think it would be the most expensive, based on the online prices plus freight charges I have seen. But if the Healthier Choice pad is highly recommended, we would consider making the investment. The Healthier Choice pad under carpet felt thick with a firm softness (if that makes sense).

4) And finally, Sunburst 10 lb 15/32 rebond pad made with a "unique blend of ultra-plush memory foam and first quality prime foam." I do not have a sample of this padding and know very little about it, only that which I gleaned from a few websites. It is/was manufactured by Foamex (Sunburst Family of Memory Foam Products). We were not considering rebond padding at all, but a local flooring retailer has several rolls that he is selling at a price that is less than the Full House or Healthier Choice.

Thank you for any advice or recommendations you can offer. I tend to research things to the Nth degree and maybe overanalyze that which should be a simple decision.

Rita