Choosing The Right Underlayment For Your Vinyl Flooring Installation

The vinyl flooring undoubtedly offers the simplest installation process. However, just like with other flooring kinds, you must know what to place underneath floor vinyls. It is essential to cover vinyl flooring with something to keep your floor dry and safe from moisture. Even improve the comfort and smoothness of your hallway floor.

What Is Vinyl Flooring Underlayment?

A layer sandwiched between the subfloor and the vinyl planks is called underlayment for vinyl plank flooring. With its hydrophobic qualities, rubber reduces sound, resists fungal development, inhibits the growth of bacteria, and smoothes the flooring surface, among its many applications. While there are several underlayment options, rubber underlayment has the most advantages.

Underlayment is utilized to minimize deflection—a bend or sag in the floor induced by loading—and to provide the essential warmth, sound deadening, and moisture control.

Unless the pad is made of cork, the majority of contemporary vinyl flooring comes with an attached underlayment or pad that frequently has a moisture barrier built in.

Installing straight over the subfloor without an underlayment is nearly always possible if that is not the case with the product you select. However, this could lead to a disappointing experience. Underlayment is essential if you want to optimize warmth, softness, moisture protection, and noise reduction.

Thickness of the Underlay:

It's common knowledge that installing vinyl over cork or a 1-1.5 mm underlayment is an excellent idea. However, determining the maximum thickness without taking the material's composition and density into account can lead to issues. If you have any specific questions concerning your flooring and if underlayment is compatible with it, always see a flooring specialist.

How About Using Double Underlayment?

When it comes to the underlayment, more is not necessarily better, since too much can jeopardize the integrity of the locking mechanism in your floor. Overly cushioning the vinyl with an attached pad by adding more underlayment might lead to the floor breaking down over time from wear and strain. For this reason, it is usually not advised to use double underlayment or more than one underlayment. This can also make the warranty worthless. You can, however, install more underlayment in some situations. For instance, you might want to add a very thin moisture barrier if your floor has an attached cork pad.

Advantages of Underlayment:

A combination of advantages, including warmth, moisture/water protection, cushioning, and noise reduction, can be obtained with underlayment. Underlayment, when properly fitted, can reduce deflection and relieve stress on the locking mechanism, particularly at the seams where the planks meet.

• Sound Absorption & Reduction:

Although underlayment can help, it cannot entirely block out the sound of footsteps or clomping feet.

IIC and STC are the two primary ratings for sound insulation for flooring that need to be taken into account. The Impact Insulation Class (IIC) of a floor gauges its capacity to dampen impact noise, like footsteps or a book falling. The Sound Transmission Class (STC) gauges how well airborne noise—like voices and music from a sound system—can be attenuated.

The more positive ratings there are, the better. Airborne noise and impact noise are both reduced by the best underlayment for noise reduction. You should closely monitor a product's IIC and STC ratings if you find that decreasing sound is vital.

• Deflection and Cushioning:

Underlayment not only reduces sound, but it can also significantly alter the feel of your floor. For instance, a floating floor with foam underlayment will feel softer and more pleasant than a glue-down vinyl plank floor on concrete. Just keep in mind that excessive cushioning can lead to joint disintegration and floor unlocking.

• Barrier against Moisture:

Your subfloor isn't waterproof, despite vinyl flooring being.  Because of this, an underlayment that serves as a moisture barrier is crucial.

• Warmth:

The thermal characteristics of underlayment can make the floor warmer. Choosing an underlayment with a thermal R rating will assist in maintaining the warmth of your floors. Recognize that underlayment, particularly on concrete floors in your basement, may only do so much to maintain the warmth of your floors.

The Different Types of Underlayment

• Cork:

Cork is a great material to use in your home to reduce noise. Due to its density, cork can help conceal subfloor flaws.

Compressed cork can be added to the underlayment if your vinyl flooring already has one to improve sound insulation. Cork is not a moisture barrier, though. Mould may grow on cork because it retains moisture, particularly if it isn't placed correctly.

Applying cork underlayment over a concrete slab? Prior to laying the floor, a moisture barrier should always be installed.

• Foam:

An affordable underlayment with mediocre sound absorption, foam offers moderate cushioning and restricted insulation. Better outcomes are achieved with thicker foam. It is imperative that you ensure proper installation.

Foam underlayment can act as a water trap and is not a moisture barrier, which can result in mould and must.

• Felt:

Because it provides superior sound reduction over foam, felt is a popular option for underlayments. Foam offers superior insulation compared to cork and foam, and you can choose to have an attached vapour barrier.

• Particle Board:

Particle board is a cheap option for installing a flat base beneath vinyl flooring, but it is difficult to remove, difficult to install, and inefficient against moisture.

• Rubber:

Rubber underlayment works well as an underlayment because it adds warmth, reduces sound, and guards against water damage.

• OSB and plywood:

Although OSB and plywood don't give warmth or cushioning, they do provide an attractive and flat base for LVP and LVT flooring. In terms of durability, OSB is superior to plywood.

The Subfloor and the Underlayment:

One cannot stress the significance of the subfloor, which serves as the basis for all flooring installations. A sturdy subfloor that offers a solid foundation for the new flooring material is necessary for a seamless and successful vinyl flooring installation.

A subpar subfloor cannot be made up for by an underlayment or vinyl flooring product.

Vinyl won't last long installed over a rough, dirty, or broken subfloor; it's like trying to build a cabin on shaky ground.

In instances where the floor isn't perfectly level, the planks may sustain damage from the floor dropping in the low areas. However, no subfloor will ever be precisely level. You can have a pitch to your subfloor, but you don't want to have peaks and valleys.

A perfect installation requires a subfloor that is clean, smooth, mainly level, and devoid of deterioration (cracks). Numerous issues are eliminated with a flat and sturdy subfloor, including uneven lumpiness, bumps, high areas, soft spots, dips, and noisy creaking.

For this reason, it is worthwhile to carefully prepare your subfloor. Consider it an investment in the durability and functionality of your vinyl flooring.