Building components · Paving & Decks
Shockpad Layer
Explains the shockpad as a distinct position within a surfacing build-up, separate from the surface laid over it and from the load-spreading layers beneath it.
Educational reference entry. What this element has to do, and whether any particular arrangement of it is adequate, depends on the whole assembly, the loading, the exposure, local requirements, the manufacturer's instructions and qualified professional design.
Overview
What a shockpad is
A shockpad is a resilient layer laid between the constructed base of a sports or play area and the surface that is played on. It is neither of the things it sits between: it deforms under load and recovers, it spreads nothing, and it disappears from view the moment the surface above it is installed.
Its significance follows from being buried. It is the layer of the build-up that cannot be changed without taking up everything above it, and the one whose condition can only be inferred from the surface. It is laid either as prefabricated sheet or roll or mixed and laid in place, and either way its behaviour depends on the base beneath being true, since a resilient layer follows the surface it is laid on.
Boundaries
How it differs from nearby elements
The distinctions that keep this entry from being a restatement of its neighbours.
- It is not the playing surface. Surfacing materials — artificial grass, in-situ rubber surfacing, sports court coatings — are published material entries laid over the pad; the pad is beneath them and is never played on directly.
- It is not a sub-base layer. A sub-base is granular and compacted and spreads load onto the ground; a shockpad sits above the constructed base, is resilient by design, and carries out no load-spreading role.
- It is not a floating floor layer. A floating layer is an interior construction isolating a floor from the structure to control sound passing into a building; a shockpad is an external surfacing layer whose purpose is how it deforms under load.
Terminology
Common names and aliases
These names describe the same element. The library keeps one entry per component so that a trade term or a regional name never becomes a second, thinner page.
- shock pad
- e-layer
- elastic layer
- resilient base layer
Dependencies
What it depends on
What has to be right elsewhere for this element to do its job.
- The base beneath it, since a resilient layer conforms to what it is laid on and does not correct what is under it.
- How it is jointed or laid continuously, because laps and joints in a buried layer are what later appear as lines in the surface above.
- Whether water is intended to pass through the build-up or to run off it, since a permeable construction and a sealed one place the pad differently.
- The surface laid over it, which is installed onto the pad and may be bonded to it.
Considerations
Topics that genuinely apply here
Subjects worth discussing about this element. These are discussion topics, never measured values, ratings or performance claims.
The pad is covered immediately by the surface above, so whatever is left in it, under it or on it — debris, a lap, a step in the base — is sealed in with it.
Where the build-up is designed to let water through, the pad is part of that path; where it is designed to shed water, the pad sits inside a sealed construction. Which applies is decided for the whole build-up rather than for the pad.
The pad is loaded repeatedly for the life of the surface and is never inspected, so its condition is inferred from the surface above rather than observed directly.
Replacing the surface at the end of its life is in practice the only opportunity to see the pad or to change it.
Materials
Commonly formed from
Material families this element is commonly realised in. This states common practice only — it is not a statement that any of these materials suits this component in a particular building, which depends on the whole assembly and on qualified review.
Assemblies
Building systems this element is met in
The role this component fills inside each assembly. A role describes what the element does there — it is not a statement that this component suits that system in any particular building.
Clarifications
Commonly misunderstood
- That the shockpad is part of the surface. It is a separate layer with its own installation, and a surface can be replaced over a pad that stays where it is.
- That a shockpad can take out an uneven base. A resilient layer laid over an irregular base reproduces that irregularity in the finished surface.
Conversations
Questions for qualified professionals
Questions worth asking someone with the project in front of them. This page cannot answer them.
- What is the pad being laid on, and has that base been checked for level and regularity?
- Is this build-up permeable or sealed, and where does surface water go?
- How is the pad jointed or laid continuously, and how will those joints behave beneath the surface?
- What design and testing basis is this build-up specified against, and who is responsible for it?
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Planning guidance behind the decisions this element involves.
Preparation
Related planning checklists
Owner-side preparation before the conversation where this element comes up.
What this entry does not do
- This entry describes a position in a build-up. It states no thickness, material specification, performance value, test result or standard, and none can be inferred from it.
- Sports and play surface build-ups are specified and tested against requirements set for the use in question by the relevant governing or approving body; nothing here indicates what any construction achieves.
External Works & Paving Elements
The laying course, wearing course, edge restraint, deck framing, guarding posts and the enclosing and surfacing elements that make up the ground outside the building.
Browse all paving & decks entries →