Underlay for laminate flooring

conorsomahony · 31-07-2014 07:48AM #1

Hi,

There are a few different threads on here to do with underlay for laminate flooring but I still can't figure out what is the best thing to do.

We are going putting down some laminate flooring, QuickStep Largo which is 9.5mm, in three different areas.

1. on the ground floor on top of level-ish concrete floor.
2. on the ground floor on top of concrete floor that is fairly uneven.
3. on the first floor on top of existing plywood sub floor.

Does anyone have any advice what to do in each case?
For the ground floor someone suggested 5mm "rubber" underlay but I'm not sure what product this is?
For the first floor we want to have some underlay or some setup that would have a good level of sound-proofing.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

tenbob1 · 31-07-2014 03:39PM

Acoustica better if you can go that expensive is one of the better products on the market. It is 3.25mm with a foil top, and has a 23db impact sound reduction, it will also help out to some extent with the roughness of your floors. Remember it is not just about the depth of the underlay, but a combination of the depth and density, if you don't have enough density then you will get too much of a "bounce". Most flooring retailers should have around 10-12 different underlays that they can show you.

If you are unsure of the roughness of the floor then post a pic.

Quickstep Largo is a top notch floor

Admldj · 31-07-2014 03:45PM

Do yourself a favour op and get some levelling compound for the ground floor, timber floors don't respond well to uneven surfaces no matter which underlay you use

conorsomahony · 31-07-2014 04:05PM

tenbob1 wrote: »

Acoustica better if you can go that expensive is one of the better products on the market. It is 3.25mm with a foil top, and has a 23db impact sound reduction, it will also help out to some extent with the roughness of your floors. Remember it is not just about the depth of the underlay, but a combination of the depth and density, if you don't have enough density then you will get too much of a "bounce". Most flooring retailers should have around 10-12 different underlays that they can show you.

If you are unsure of the roughness of the floor then post a pic.

Quickstep Largo is a top notch floor

Thanks tenbob1,

you would recommend that underlay for both on top of the concrete floor and upstairs on the plywood floor?

tenbob1 · 01-08-2014 10:19AM

Yep , same underlay . Otherwise the floors will feel different to walk on in different areas, no ideal. Also you should get a professional to have a look at the rough floors before you fit anything onto it.

conorsomahony · 27-08-2014 11:18PM

So we have our floors delivered, but no underlay yet.
This is the product that the flooring people are recommending -Elka-QT-Lay

tenbob - in your opinion does it compare favourably to acoustica better? looks to be similar but at 5mm instead of 3.75 for acoustica better?

Also, we are considering that one of the upstairs bedrooms would double as a mini-gym, so maybe some jumping up and down on the flooring, would the 22-23 db soundproofing advertised by acoustica better/elka qt would be enough sound proofing for this?
another recommendation we got was to put down acoustic slab, but i think i read somewhere (possibly on another thread here that I cant find now) that the slab would eventually disintegrate under foot?

tenbob1 · 28-08-2014 08:51AM

Elka-QT-Lay is an excellent product, it has a 22dB rating vs acoustica's 23. The main reason we would recommend one product over the other is that teh Elka product is not as dense, so its ideal if your sub-floor is not 100% level. The disadvantage of the extra thickness is that the floor has more of a "bounce" than than the acoustica once the job is finished. As I said though, both are excellent products, and the price is similar.

Look no underlay will soundproof 100%, it just deadens the sound, as a test when these products were relatively new, I was flooring the upstairs bedrooms in my own house, in one of the rooms I put a basic 2mm foam, vs a 23dB product everywhere else, I can tell when the kids are in the room without the soundproofing. The acoustic slab's that I've seen come in at an 18dB rating, there is an underlay that has a 40+dB rating but I would have to go looking for a supplier, its not currently on any price lists in the office.

conorsomahony · 29-08-2014 08:57AM

Thanks tenbob for your help - we are going to go with the elka-qt-lay now for downstairs anyway, the floors will be levelled using levelling compound first.

We will have a think about upstairs - we will probably go for the Elka-QT-lay upstairs too unless we figure out something else in the meantime.
Would you recommend putting something (a slab or otherwise) over the floorboards upstairs before putting down the underlay and flooring?

tenbob1 · 29-08-2014 08:58AM

Not unless the floorboards are roughly installed. The QT underlay will be enough on its own.

Underlay for laminate flooring

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