Figuring out what the best acoustic underlay for laminate flooring can be tough. In fact, really tough with all the different underlayment out in the market. In this article, we will go over what you need to look for to help you determine what underlayment works best for you.

Delta IIC Rating – The Rating Homeowners Should Look For

If you are looking for acoustic/sound proofing laminate flooring underlayment, then you would want to be looking at sound rating numbers listed from each product. However, the average consumer doesn’t know what those numbers really mean or which one to look at. To make it easy, you want to look at the Delta IIC Rating number.

The definition of Delta IIC Rating – Performance gain in sound reduction between two sound test. The higher the number, the better the sound proofing is.

Each laminate underlay will have different Delta IIC numbers, so you would want to look at the numbers.

Here is a chart of our underlayment in descending order of Delta IIC Rating test.

Laminate UnderlayDelta IIC Rating
QuietWalk Luxury Vinyl28
QuietWalk22
TruFuze Armor24
SoundStep XL23
Insulayment20
Acoustic Underlay for Laminate Flooring

As you can see our QuietWalk Luxury Vinyl is our (and flooring industries) best acoustic underlay for laminate flooring.

So what makes QuietWalk Luxury Vinyl the leading product in soundproofing underlayment?

The composition of the recycled post-industrial fibers that make up the underlayment. Highly bound together through our manufacturing process, our underlayment is dense allowing the micro fibers to soak up the sound. Having a dense underlayment allows to be compression resistant, ensuring your floor is supported correctly. Certain foam underlayments have “trapped air”, which can be escaped/crushed in high traffic areas.

If you want to learn more about our QuietWalk Luxury Vinyl underlayment, click on the following button.

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  • Hardwood flooring comes in many different hardwoods such as maple, hickory, ash, oak and many other exotic varieties. Known for their easy to clean, high quality look, long-term investment and ageless quality. Hardwood flooring is an ideal choice for homeowners. For the many benefits the flooring includes, a homeowner should be aware of when and why underlayment should be considered.

    Hardwood Floor Underlayment

    Soundproofing Your Hardwood Floors

    The number one answer would be to soundproofing hardwood floors. If you are looking to soundproof your hardwood floors, we suggest using our QuietWalk Plus or Insulayment. Sound deadening in mind, our manufacturing patented process combines the fibers tightly together to absorb sound and keep it from traveling to other rooms. Most multi-family or condo owners don’t want to wake up or disturb other neighbors/family members in other rooms.

    Moisture Protection for Hardwood Floors

    Consider Vapor Retarder for Hardwood Floors

    Hardwood isn’t cheap and spending a couple cents more can help support the structure of the floor. No matter what application you use hardwood wood for, wood absorbs moisture from air. Too much moisture and the wood will start to bow and not enough moisture, cracks and separates. Keeping the correct moisture level for your floor helps strength and durability. Using a vapor retarder below your hardwood floor slows down the passage of moisture from reaching.

    According to NWFA – a vapor retarder is to be used under hardwood flooring. If you have a NWFA installer installing your floor, they will follow their association installation guidelines. No underlayment is stated in their installation guidelines and any underlayment will get rejected of installation.

    Moisture/Vapor Barrier for Hardwood Floors

    A vapor barrier or moisture barrier is another term that often gets misused with vapor retarder and is completely different. Vapor barrier actually blocks all moisture from transferring. Built-in vapor barrier allows no moisture to get to your hardwood flooring. This can be good and bad in certain situations. Each situation can be different, so please give us a call at (888) 379-9695 and we can help steer you in the right direction.

    Clean Indoor Air Quality

    Using felt paper or vapor retarder can sometimes be coated with asphalt or tar, which will emit harsh chemical odors. QuietWalk Plus or Insulayment is backed by GreenGuard Gold certification for indoor air quality. This allows our product to be installed in hospitals or government buildings. Keeping your family safe from harsh odors.

    Best Underlayment for Hardwood Flooring?

    This depends on your installation type:

    If you have any questions, please give us a call at (888) 379-9695 and we can help steer you in the right direction.

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