My sister recently moved into a 10-year-old house that's had a couple of previous owners. The house had new carpet installed right before it was listed for sale. Now, in a couple of bedrooms, there's a strange crinkling noise when you walk on the carpet, almost like there's plastic underneath. This noise hasn't changed over the years, which is puzzling since the rooms are used a lot—one has kids jumping off bunk beds and dragging stuff around. She's suggesting I might need to pull up the carpet to figure out what's going on, but I wanted to see if anyone here has ideas about what could be causing this noise and why it hasn't gone away. Thanks for any tips or insights!
2 Answers
It’s also possible that the previous owners used plastic under the padding to cover up pet odors. I've encountered this in a remodel before. It could explain why it’s still crinkling even after the new carpet was laid down.
It sounds like the installer might have skimped on the carpet pad or maybe forgot to remove a slip sheet, which is often a plastic layer from the old pad. This plastic can cause that crinkling sound. You can easily check this by pulling up a corner of the carpet and taking a look underneath.
If I pull a corner up and look along the wall too, can I just yank some of it out, or should I be careful?

I think they actually had it recarpeted right before selling, so it could be anything under there.