Laminate flooring is a great way to reduce noise in your home. Investing in a suitable underfloor is essential to ensure that the sound is reduced by 20 to 30 dB or more. Our recommendation is the 7 mm Royale Professional Sonic Gold Underlay. For wooden floors, the best acoustic subfloor systems are the MuTeMat 2 Plus and the MuteMat 3 Plus.
These have the additional advantage of the Tecsound layer, which is a vibration-damping layer. This means that it will absorb sound vibrations from any surface you apply it to. The reason it can do this is because of the viscoelastic membrane and its extremely high vibration damping performance. We suggest a 3 to 5 mm base layer for laminate floors.
It must be at least 3 mm thick to provide comfort and floor leveling properties. But it should not be more than 5 mm thick. If it's thicker, you could have problems with the laminate's locking system. You may be wondering if investing in an acoustic base or soundproof floor mats will restrict you from using certain floor finishes.
The answer is “no”, you will not be restricted. The soundproofed base layers can be equipped with all types of floor finishes. The only caveat is that some finishes require a stabilizing layer before the final floor finish. The only purpose of the acoustic floor base is to reduce the amount of impact noise that propagates through the floor due to falling objects, footsteps and the movement of furniture in the finishes of the hard surfaces of any type of building. But why do you need it, how does it work, and how do you choose the best base for laminate flooring? The key is to understand what changes when laminate floors replace carpets: at the point of impact, the soft cushioning layer comes out and a hard layer enters.
This is why soundproof underlay is necessary for laminate flooring - it acts like a floating floor, helping to absorb vibrations from impacts before they penetrate the structure of the floor. When buying new floor coverings, especially at one of the major national retailers, subfloor options are likely to be determined by factors other than their soundproofing capacity. Hush Mat 15 is the basis of Hush's range of fully tested solutions, which provides a specification for achieving the soundproofing of a separator floor with confidence. Laminate can make the floor appear colder in winter, especially when installed in a cold subfloor. When selecting a base for soundproofing, it is important to consider the type of floor with which you are going to use it. Once you've chosen the best base for your laminate floor, you can enjoy its ease of maintenance and aesthetic appeal for longer.
