Another underlay and materials thread (and other random questions) for laminate

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Hi all,

Apologies in advance for the long thread!

I have a couple of similar random threads here, but want to ask a quick couple of questions before I start the work.

Context:

I am about to lay laminate on a first floor flat. I have two rooms and a hallway. The hall way meets with a carpeted staircase. The hall also meets with (darker) wood effect tiles. All floors to be covered are levelish wooden floorboards (except in the living room where there is a slight bow due to the age of the property). The floorboards are in reasonable shape, but some need screwed down. All skirting have been removed already so should make things easier.

Underlay

What underlay should I look at? Are all underlays generally the same for this purpose? Or is it the thicker the better?
I seen this stuff - but it is only 5mm thick which seems thin? Ideally I would like to dampen any noise as much as possible for the neighbours below.


Board direction

The attached image shows the direction of the existing boards (red) and the direction of what I think would bee most visually appealing (green). It means a perpendicular join between the two rooms and the hall which seems fine. However it means running the laminate in the same direction as the floorboards in the hall. Am I asking for trouble by doing this? The new laminate is almost double the width of the existing floor boards.


Threshold bars etc

It seems I have three types of joins to make - laminate to laminate, laminate to tiled floor and laminate to carpeted staircase.

Are all threshold bars the same (other than style etc) for these three applications.

For the stairs I think I will carpet to the top of the last kickboard and have the laminate cover to the top of the step if this makes sense?

Thanks for any advice given!
 

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That underlay is not much good.
Try and source a premium one like timbermate Excel , or QA Timbertech Gold
If you want to go whole hog. But some regupol underlay down 1st which will stop impact sound
 
For the Doortrims have a look at Quickstep Incizo trims

I'd lay all the Laminate the same way if it was mine. Towards the windows.
 
All the acoustic underlay I've seen for laminate appears to be a kind of thick sheet rubber. It's expensive. Have you considered vinyl? Being softer it ought to be quieter, and you can get more realistic wood effects than laminate.
 
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ok - maybe I am looking too much into the noise issue.

Does a thicker laminate insulate from noise better than a thinner/cheaper option?

I have already bought the laminate - so I am committed at this stage!
 
That underlay is not much good.
Try and source a premium one like timbermate Excel , or QA Timbertech Gold
If you want to go whole hog. But some regupol underlay down 1st which will stop impact sound

Please correct me if I am wrong here, but those products both seem to have foil / DPM

I do not want that if I am on floorboards, correct?
 
To dull the sound of feet of you want density and lots of it. I don't think it matters how thick the laminate is, because it's never going to be very dense. Thick sheet rubber is about as good as it gets -the foil is incidental.
 
Thanks all appreciate it -
I guess a dense 3.6 mm is better than 5mm of that foamy/fibre stuff alright. Out of interest can these be combined? A rubber underlay first like timbermate excell followed by some of the green stuff above? Or is that asking for trouble?
 
Sounds a plan - bit of extra thickness to help with the slight uneaven floor and some thick rubber for the noise. @Gerrydelasel - I just noticed your link for the Sonic Gold Acoustic which seems even denser - cheers!
 
Out of interest - why does it not matter about the damp proof member in a flat? I would have thought the DPM would be a condensation risk?
 
ok - so it seems that double underlay will void the warranty of the laminate. I can see why it would be an issue with 2 x soft layers, but the rubber should be hard enough to cope? (i.e. 1 x rubber 1 x hardwood underlay?)
Maybe I should go and plywood it and then add the rubber?
 
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Out of interest - why does it not matter about the damp proof member in a flat? I would have thought the DPM would be a condensation risk?
Because you have a living space below your floor, not cold, damp ground!

ok - so it seems that double underlay will void the warranty of the laminate. I can see why it would be an issue with 2 x soft layers, but the rubber should be hard enough to cope? (i.e. 1 x runner 1 x plywood?)
Yes if the rubber has a hard-ish top surface then I don't see the problem. The fibre underlay isn't going to care if it's on 'hard' wood or 'hard' rubber.
 

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