If you're looking to install laminate flooring, it's important to understand the role of the subfloor. The subfloor provides stability and support to the floating floor, helps to hide some of the small imperfections of the subfloor, and sometimes acts as a moisture barrier and sound barrier between rooms located below and above the floor. When installing laminate flooring, it's important to never place the base under a laminate with padding incorporated at the bottom. Doing so can cause the floor to become too soft and unstable, which can cause the joint locking system to come off or break.
Additionally, your laminate warranty may be void. If you need to raise the floor to a certain height, for example, when an adjoining floor is higher than the floor on which you are going to install the laminate and the thickness of the laminate is not sufficient to reach that specific level, do not use more than one layer of subfloor. Instead, you can purchase a lower layer of closed-cell polyethylene. In cases where you need to remove a prefixed subfloor, it's important to install it separately below the floor.
This is because moisture that enters through the subfloor can cause it to deform and form mold, and footsteps on the ground will sound louder. It's also important to note that pre-installed subfloors are subfloors that come prefixed or pre-installed under laminate floors. While they provide stability and support, they also have different noise reduction properties, so it's important to consider this when making your selection. Additionally, with any concrete subfloor, you'll need a vapor barrier subfloor to protect the floor from any moisture that might come out of the subfloor. Overall, while laminate padded floors can correct some minor imperfections in the subfloor, they are a minor option compared to standard laminate floors.
To obtain additional acoustic properties, an additional lower layer of up to 2 mm can be installed. If you need more information about recessed aluminum floor doors for your next project, please don't hesitate to reach out.
