We came up with this chart to help you see what our underlayment thicknesses are for our flooring underlayment.

QuietWalk 1/8″ or 3mm
QuietWalk Plus 1/8″ or 3mm
Insulayment 7/64″ or 2.77mm
VentiLayer 13/64″ or 5.5mm
SoundBuffer 3/64″ or 1.19mm
SoundStepXL 5/64″ or 2mm
DouFoam 5/64″ or 2mm
MoistureBlock .006 mm
AbsorbaSound 5/64″ – 15/32″ or 2mm

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  • With the new addition of QuietWalk Plus, our customers are wondering what the difference between QuietWalk and QuietWalk Plus.

    The main benefits for QuietWalk Plus is:

    • Enhanced film – The film allows the glue to adhere to the floor and subfloor. It is malleable to allow nail down flooring.
    • More Dense Pad – The pad is more dense which is to properly support nail down applications

    It was also created to consolidate sku’s and allow contractors/flooring installers to inventory one underlayment that would cover floating, glue or nail-down flooring applications.

    QuietWalk and QuietWalk Plus has the same acoustical benefits.

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  • Buying your ideal flooring can be an exciting experience. With pricing of $2 – $8 per sq ft, you want to make sure you install your flooring the correct way. Maybe you heard of horror stories of people installing laminate flooring and hear cracking sounds when walked on. What lies underneath the flooring can determine how the flooring will react and sound in your home.

    The following 7 items should be considered in an underlayment when you are installing your new flooring.

    1. Compression – Provides Support and Impact Resistance

    Underlayment compression is a key factor as heavy traffic areas can cause enough weight to “compress” your underlayment over time. So support can be temporary. So how do underlayments past testing for compression? By compression set testing.

    Compression set testing is used to determine the ability of elastomeric materials to maintain elastic properties after prolonged compressive stress. The test measures the somewhat permanent deformation of the specimen after it has been exposed to compressive stress for a set time period.

    The underlayment height is measured before the test. A clamp is held down for 12 hours on the underlayment and released. After waiting for another 22 hours, the measured height of the underlayment is taken.

    Compression Set Test Results

    1. Fiber/Felt Underlayment – QuietWalk rebounded 78% of its height
    2. Foam Underlayment – 59% rebounded
    3. Fanfold Underlayment – No Rebound At All

    During installation, knee pads or work shoes sometimes crush the underlayment and not rebound back. Making a drum sound when walking on the floor after installation.

    Depending on the material the underlayment determines how much support is given.

    Foam Underlayment
    Consist of trapped air. If you can squeeze the underlayment and hear popping noise, then air is being released. Sometimes, you can hear the pop due to high traffic or appliances being rolled over the flooring. Once the air is crushed, it is gone.

    Fiber Underlayment
    Consist of recycled material, the underlayment is densier in material. No trapped air that won’t be released. Fiber/felt underlayment offers superior compression and sound absorption.

    2. Moisture Protection

    One of the other main benefits of using underlayment is moisture protection. Keeping your flooring from getting wet and stop from warping. Some underlayment consist of a vapor barrier built in.

    Most products have the moisture vapor barrier facing down. This essentially allows the pooling/vapors to be trapped below the vapor. With our underlayment – our vapor barrier is facing up, and installing the fiber ½” to 1” from the wall. This creates a gutter system to allow the moisture to evaporate around the perimeter of the room.

    So when a pipe leaks such as a washing machine, fibers will pull moisture in and away from the floor. This allows the floor to manage the moisture instead of blocking the water. This distributes the water out evenly.

    3. Sound Absorption – Buffers Ambient and Impact Sound

    Our fibers are laid out a certain way to simulate small air gaps without limiting compression capabilities. Also the various amounts of recycled materials used provides inherited properties of sound absorption.

    Sound Testing Assembly

    The ratings you see from flooring underlayment manufacturers are based off of assembly testing. This means that some floor to ceiling test consist of open web truss floor to 6” concrete slab.

    You can get your rating number by first knowing what your assembly is. If you know your assembly or close to it, you can find sound rating test matched with the underlayment you are choosing. Sometimes, you will not find the rating for your assembly due to various assembly types built. Each test cost thousands of dollars and getting each assembly would not make sense due to every variance of assembly.

    4. Indoor Air Quality

    Over 94% of recycled material is used in our fiber/felt underlayment. We are also SCS certified and Indoor Advantage Gold as a contributor to healthy indoor air quality. The highest award a company can get. No off gassing, no voc, no allergens which clears the way to be used in schools, governments and hospitals.

    5. Ease of Installation

    One of the main factors to consider is the ease of installation. Can you roll out the underlayment very easily? Or is it rolled backwards and consist of you unrolling the roll manually across the floor? With our fiber underlayments, we engineered the roll to be rolled across making it a time saving activity for flooring installers.

    6. Insulation Value – Thermal Properties

    Our recycled materials come from used garments which have some insulation ratings. Mixed with various materials, we can achieve higher thermal ratings compared to one material such as foam.

    7. Smooths out minor subfloor imperfections

    Roughly 1/8th inch thickness and the density of the fibers are perfect to absorb small pebbles that protrude from slightly rough concrete finish or slight variance of OSB or plywood joints. Provides nice smooth installation.

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  • The floor covering industry considers the sound insulation very important in living areas such as multi-family or single-family dwellings. When evaluating flooring underlayment, sound deadening and acoustical ratings are one of the things homeowners or HOA considers. It all begins with how sound is generated and the medium it transfers through. The main test done by flooring industry is the Impact Insulation Class (IIC) ad Sound Transmission Class (STC). So lets first determine what these two test are.

    Impact Insulation Class (IIC) Sound Rating

    IIC test the ability to block impact sound by measuring the resistance to transmission of impact noise or structure-born noise. Examples include objects falling on floor, kids jumping off couches, tap dancing, anything that stimulates footfall.

    Sound Transmission Class (STC)

    STC evaluates the ability of a specific construction assembly to reduce airborne sounds. Examples include voices, stereo systems and TV noise.

    So How Are The Ratings Calculated?

    Both test involve an apparatus in an upper chamber and a measuring system in the lower chamber. The frequencies are calculated by decibel measurements and ratings are calculated by a very complex mathematical formula.

    The higher the number, the higher the resistance – the better.

    To meet International Building Code – both IIC and STC need to meet the minimum of 50 to pass. Many larger luxury condo associations and municipalities are now looking at the higher 50’s and lower 60’s range.

    Floor Soundproofing Underlay Types

    Knowing What Installation Type Of Your Floor Can Steer You In The Right Direction

    Nailed Down or Glue Down Flooring

    Nailing down your flooring to the subfloor is not the best option. When an impact is made on the floor, the impact energy will transfer to the nail to the subfloor.

    Glue down is a better option due to no impact energy transferring to the subfloor but the underlayment.

    View sound ratings for glue down and nail down flooring

    Floating Engineered Wood or Laminate Flooring

    With floating wood floors such as laminate, floating bamboo, rigid PVC core vinyl planks and wood/plastic; the underlayment is not attached to the subfloor or floor. There is a small air gap allowing to absorb more “sound”. The QuietWalk underlayment provides very high ratings such as IIC of 71 and STC 66 as of mid 2018.

    Disclaimer: All Ratings Are Not Equal As with any underlayment sound testing number that a company gives you, each subfloor or floor assembly in your home. On top of that, the manufacture of the floor covering can use different materials. MP Global provides sound testing on common assembly but can not provide testing for every flooring in the world as it is entirely infinite.

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