Question regarding modding a soft pad (also new!)

Modding your softpad

Taken from DDR Freak's guide section, article written by PitterPanda, with extra information and editing done by 8ftmetalhead.

Many users who do not wish to build a home pad, or cannot afford to often instead try to mod their standard softpads instead.
The most common way of doing this is to cover it with some form of plastic, such as hardwood floor covering. This guide uses hardwood floor covering, although it's possible to do it with almost anything really. Vinyl, plastic sheet, whatever you feel is appropriate. The only thing that really changes is how you fix it to the baseboard.

This helps your pads last longer and allow you to slide more on the pads much like at the arcades, aswell as increasing the responsiveness to a degree.

8ft – Note that if you want to give your pad a raised step panel feel, similar to the Red Octane Ignition pad, then you can add layer upon layer of duct tape underneath where each arrow will be placed on your board, so as to give the pad a bumpy feel. One plus here is it can also increase the responsiveness of your pad.
Try to be consistent about it though, you will want to have a smooth mound, as opposed to a lumpy mess under your pads. If you are low on duct tape, you can use fabric folded over a few times and tape it into position (you do NOT want it moving, so make sure it's well secured).

Also note, however, that you will get varying results depending on what you cover your pad with. If it is flexible material, you will likely get a good result and will be able to feel the bumps. If you use flat cover material that does not flex very easily, you will probably not be able to feel the bumps through the covering, and worse still, it may cause your sensors to be always pressed down, due to the increased pressure.
It would be wise to test first by simply following this guide, but only stapling half of the staples require. If you are using screws, it is not as important as you will be able to remove the covering to remove the material under the pad anyway.

Instructions:

First, you'll need to get some materials. The most important of these is a softpad, 3rd party or official Konami, it doesn't matter too much. As long as it's responsive to begin with, and isn't a foam insert pad.
You'll also need a wooden board that is at least 36x33. Try to get one that is of decent density so that when you're stepping on it, it doesn't just snap in half. Plywood is often the most used, and thick MDF is another possibility. Try for about 0.4” thick or thereabouts.

You'll also need some packaging tape(preferably the clear kind), a staple gun, and about 6 feet of hardwood floor covering per pad. You can get all this stuff at Home Depot. Try to borrow someone's staple gun if you don't have one. Failing this, short screws will also work.
The hardwood floor covering will run you about 10 bucks. In total, this will cost about 20-25 dollars to mod each pad. Bargain.

Lay your wooden board down and place the dance mat on top of your board.
Use your packaging tape and tape along the edges of the mat so that half the tape is covering the mat and the other half of the tape is along the wooden board. (make sure you pull your pad out flat so that it's not all puffy in the middle after you tape it down) Do it around all four edges of the mat.

Take the hardwood floor covering and lay it over the top of your mat with some of the covering extending past the width of the mat.

Now take your staple gun and staple down the hardwood floor covering to the side of the wooden board. Now cut the hardwood floor covering so that it is long enough to hang over the other side. Now staple the other side down with your staple gun. (NOTE: DO NOT STAPLE THROUGH THE PAD. STAPLE THE COVERING DOWN TO THE WOOD). The staples should be about 2 inches apart.

If you're getting the hardwood floor covering at Home Depot, it's not going to be wide enough to cover the entire mat. What you need to do is use another piece of hardwood floor covering and overlap a small section of the already stapled down covering and repeat steps 3 and 4. Then cut the excess covering off the bottom edge and staple the covering down on the bottom side of the wood.

Now take your packaging tape and tape over the section of the hardwood floor covering that overlaps on the other piece. Just use one or two pieces of tape and tape from one side to the other. This will keep your feet from getting caught on the lip where the two pieces overlap.

If you find your pad then slides around because of the board, you can either purchase some rubber feet (if you're playing on hardboard) or some sort of foam base to sit it on.
If you are on carpet, then you can use grip plates to cling to the carpet. (similarly found in Devout Stealth's design)