Floor insulation for laminated flooring

Blizzard

Hi all,

We will be replacing the old laminated flooring in some ground floor rooms of our appx 25 year old home--and we'll be laying a new laminated floor down on top of the concrete floors. With regard to the old laminated floors, there appears to be the usual 3mm underlay down and we haven't experienced any issues with it since we moved in about 5 years ago except that the floor is very cold:eek:. We think that we could improve on the underlay by getting an insulated underlay but are not sure what we should go with. We've heard varying recommendations from getting superior, insulated underlay at €80 a roll to just advice on getting the usual regular underlay as the expensive ones are just a waste of time. Anyone have any advice as we keep hearing conflicting stories and don't want to waste a lot of money on underlay that isn't really going to help us with our insulation issue. Thanks!

ccsolar

Hi
When I put down floors in my old house I used 1" polystyrine insulation and had no problems.
you might have to watch the floor height at the doors.

CC

katana1

I got laminate with the insulation already attached to the back of the board--(about 6-8mm thick). It was 12 euro per meter square --I also used the white underlay with this and the sitting room in now nice and cozy as it holds the heat well.
I bought this 5 years ago and I would say it's still on the market .
It's a bit harder to lay and you would probably need a second person helping with it.
it is very hard wearing compared to other laminate I have down.
if youre interested let me know and I will go through my files and find out where I bought it.
Hope this helps

Kashkai

The usual 3mm stuffcis less than useless at keeping in the heat. Plus it gets compacted very quickly and might as well not be there.

I used polystyrene boards from B & Q under most my laminate and it's worked a treat at heat retention and noise reduction. Would use them again if I ever take up the existing laminate that's laid on the cheap 3mm stuff but that's a lot of hard work

Blizzard

katana1, we have already decided on the flooring and its not one that comes with the insulation already attached to the back of it. That said, i think we'll have a look at polystyrene mentioned by the other two posters - thanks for the advice! Hoping to have floors installed just after the May bank holiday, if all goes according to plan.

paddy147

polystyrene boards or a large roll of the stuff will do the job nicely.

Blizzard

Hi all,
I've mentioned the polystyrene boards to my husband and we've checked them out online at B&Q as Prosperous Dave mentioned above. This is what we've seen online (we will make another trip to B&Q but wanted to verify that this is the product some of you have mentioned) - see link - http://http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9415189&fh_view_size=150&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=polystyrene+flooring&fh_eds=ß&fh_refview=search&ts=1271612792376&isSearch=true
Question: some of these seem to be quite thick - 50mm, 75mm, 100mm...we have heard that laminated flooring shouldn't be laid on top of carpeting and such, however, with the thicknesses of these types of floor insulation we're just unsure as to whether they cause any problems (ie, floors moving, etc.) since they aren't laid on something relatively thin and flat. I'm thinking that those of you who've recommended this haven't had any trouble with yours, so do you have laminated floors laid on top of the polystyrene boards on your ground floor level/concrete flooring?
Sorry if I'm overstating the obvious but I just want to be sure we put down proper insulated underlay when having the floors done and not find out about something we could have done/bought after the fact. Again thanks for all the help and advice.:)

paddy147

Roll of polly sheeting placed under flooring.Simple as that.

Blizzard

Paddy, is your photo showing the 3mm underlay that is usually recommended? If so, we were hoping to get something a little more insulated than that.

paddy147

Blizzard wrote: »

Paddy, is your photo showing the 3mm underlay that is usually recommended? If so, we were hoping to get something a little more insulated than that.

Yes.

The flooring is 22mm thick 189mm plank engineered white oak flooring.

Kashkai

I put down thick polythene sheeting to guard against dampness (about 5m x 4m). Then I laid the polystyrene boards (about one metre by 60cm in size each) in a staggered brick shaped pattern. These were about 8mm thick btw, anything thicker than this might mean having to shave some wood off the bottom of your doors depending on how thick the wood flooring itself is. Then I laid the 9mm laminate on top.

There is a huge difference between this method and using the cheap stuff. The rooms that have the cheap underlay are cold underfoot and the boards echo when the kids run on them. The good stuff is warm underfoot and really dampens the noise. Little bit of extra work but really worth it.

I was in B&Q recently and didn't see the polystyrene boards I used. They had a fibreboard underlay which I would have my doubts about in case of a water leak as it would soak up water like a sponge. They also had a foil backed underlay but it seemed to be very expensive.

Blizzard

Thanks, Prosperous Dave. That's the info I was looking for.

soldsold

Just a correction to Blizzards B&Q link:

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9415189&fh_view_size=150&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=polystyrene+flooring&fh_eds=%DF&fh_refview=search&ts=1271612792376&isSearch=true

Do any of you that have 50mm insulation down under laminate notice any movement or bounce in the floor?

Cheers

S

Blizzard

For those of you who have had experience with the underlays - what do you think of these (see link below) - both are supposed to good for heat insulation and noise reduction.

You'll see both of these in the link:
- Timbermate Laminate/Wood Flooring Underlay - this is the first product listed on the link. We can get something identical to this for €4 p/sq. meter;
or Tredaire Boardwalk - this is the 3rd product listed on the link - we can get for €6.50 p/sq meter. I'm sure for both we could haggle on the price but until we know what we want there's no point doing this yet.

If we go for one of these underlays it'll add on €250-350 to our costs but we're not bothered about that IF it does what its supposed to - we want added heat insulation....anyone heard of these? Do you think they could help?

http://www.discounted-carpet-underlay.co.uk/laminate_underlay.html

ccsolar

Hi
I also used the fiberboard from B&Q and have had no trouble with it.
It has insulation qualities and is good for sound proof if used upstairs.

CC

Overheal

Not a big fan of attached backing myself; always tends to be cheaper than Roll Goods, quality wise. Also you arent really creating any sort of Seal, with it.

We use a bunch, a bunch of Lamipro here. Basically a rubber underlay a few mm thick, with a foil moisture barrier. Made for the purpose

http://www.lamiproinc.com/underlay.html

rolion

Both products looks good...i'll check tomorrow with a friend that is working in the sector and if he confirms i might be able to order one of them and we can share the delivery cost !
i need some good heat insulation for hall and kitchen,where the floor is very cold !

Blizzard wrote: »

For those of you who have had experience with the underlays - what do you think of these (see link below) - both are supposed to good for heat insulation and noise reduction.

You'll see both of these in the link:
- Timbermate Laminate/Wood Flooring Underlay - this is the first product listed on the link. We can get something identical to this for €4 p/sq. meter;
or Tredaire Boardwalk - this is the 3rd product listed on the link - we can get for €6.50 p/sq meter. I'm sure for both we could haggle on the price but until we know what we want there's no point doing this yet.

If we go for one of these underlays it'll add on €250-350 to our costs but we're not bothered about that IF it does what its supposed to - we want added heat insulation....anyone heard of these? Do you think they could help?

http://www.discounted-carpet-underlay.co.uk/laminate_underlay.html

Overheal

^ both linked products look very similar to lamipro.

Either would give you better insulation than that basic cheap attached pergo ****.

Of course if you really wanted to go high tech you could do the underfloor heating. Have a friend up in the hills around ennis - it heats both floors. Powerful stuff. If dear. You'd never need to run the radiators again.

rolion

i've looked at UFH,at prices here,in UK and EU...is just not affordable now for me.So,i'm sticking with the wooden floors and a good heat insulation.

Blizzard

Thanks all! Rolion - let me know what you hear back. We're having our floors installed on May 5 so we'll need to purchase and have it before then.

650gs

Get a roll of low E from Chadwicks at about 280 euro one roll should do the all of the house you wont beat it and will notice the diffrence 100%

rolion

I've spoke to my friend,he asked me to check the u-value of the material,it shall be lower than 1 or very small single digit figure.I'm going to google it later myself or give them a call in the morning.
Also,i found this supplier here,locally,they might have something in stock...

Blizzard

Thanks Rolion. I already contacted the firm you gave the link for and they only deal with trade.

We've looked at things further and were recommended by a reliable source to use 6mm fibreboards sold at B&Q - went and had a look and think they might do the job - they are basically tiles that need to be laid staggered, they are 6mm thick; our board will be 8mm on top of that so I think we should be doing well with that. We're unsure of the damp-proof membrane/plastic sheet to place below this as we've heard conflicting info, ie:
1) if you haven't had any problem with damp with our old floor then there's no need;
2) someone advised that if we put the plastic sheet down then damp could collect between the plastic sheet, the underlay and the laminate :eek:
3) someone also mentioned leaving the previous underlay that was down - the usual 3mm white foam stuff, and put the fibreboards on top of that, followed by the floor
4) instead of the plastic sheet going down should we put a sealer down?
Anyone have any ideas on this?

Blizzard

Still undecided - but we've narrowed it down to the Timbermate Underlay (as I specified in an earlier post) or the fibreboards from B&Q.

650gs - I was in Chadwicks on Sat morning and enquired about the low E roll you mentioned and they never heard of it. Any further info on this? Thanks.

Blizzard

Just in case this comes up for anyone else, we ended up going with a damp-proof membrane, laid the 6mm fibreboards from B&Q before having our flooring installed. Have to say we're delighted with the results. The fibreboards are great from an acoustic aspect as the floors 'sound' great when you walk on them and I can only imagine the improvement one would have from using them on an upstairs floor; again, we've laid ours on ground floor/concrete. The boards are great for insulation (according to what the packaging said and what we heard from a personal recommendation) - but this remains to be seen for us as we'll have to wait for the cold weather. Thanks to all for their advice and help.:D

Also - we had a company in Cavan install the underlay/fibreboards (that we supplied) and the flooring - they were brilliant; very professional and precise. If anyone needs a recommendation, just pm me. They will travel to Dublin.

johneym

hi cc

can i ask where u got this? Is this just the whith aeroboard?

Thanks a lot,

John

ccsolar

Hi Johneym
I got the insulation in a Homevalue hardware store, and yes it is the white insulation, I have also used the fiber board from B&Q and had no trouble with this either.

|CC