panel boards which provide adequate compressive strength particularly for an ironing board pad such as the pad assembly described herein satisfactory individual supporting panel units 36 and or 38 have been fabricated from conventional sheets having thicknesses ranging from 3 16 th inch to 1 inch fig6 a is illustrative of a conventional plywood substrate with a reflective surface 32 c fig6 b exemplifies a solid substrate known as u201c gatorboard u201d multilayer composite or u201c fireflex u201d multilayer composite with an exposed heat reflective surface 32 c a synthetic wood substrate with a heat reflective top surface 32 c may also be selected from products known as u201c synply u201d cross band products u201c gatorply u201d backer products or u201c luxcell u201d backer facer products as well as conventional panel board made of multiple corrugated cardboard substrate or composite material with a heat reflective top layer 32 c some of these materials are flame resistant or may be treated to be flame resistant all of them have high tensile and compressibility strength thicknesses may vary from 3 16 th inch to 1 inch thick an example disclosed in fig6 a 6 b and 6 c these would be considered rigid solid core materials whereas example shown in fig6 c would be semi or rigid open cell.