Impact and room noise: Appearing in style

Walking on floating or rigidly glued parquet floors generates impact and walking noise which can be perceived as very annoying in the room itself (room noise = walking noise) and on the floor below (impact noise). And there is no need for either. SWISS KRONO offers separate or combined insulation solutions for both effects. Click here for the floor underlays.

Accoustic underlays beneath laminate flooring

Placing acoustic underlay underneath laminate flooring greatly enhances your living comfort, as it noticeably reduces reflected walking noise within your home. If you live in an upstairs flat, your neighbours below will also appreciate not hearing every step you take through the ceiling (transmitted impact sound). For these reasons alone, acoustic insulation is a very important addition. But that’s not all – it delivers other benefits as well: 

• Extra thermal insulation 
• Compensation for unevenness in the floor 

Putting down acoustic underlay when installing new laminate flooring requires only slightly more work, but yields enormous advantages. This definitely makes it a worthwhile investment. 

Installing Acoustic Underlays 

Install sheets or boards of underlay at right angles to the laminate flooring panels. This is the best way to prevent lengthwise joints in the underlay and laminate from coinciding. 

Unlike laminate panels, there is no need to leave a gap between the underlay and walls. If the underlay product you choose has an integrated vapour barrier, it should actually extend up onto the wall by about 3cm. Unroll sheets of underlay side by side so they touch one another and join adjacent ones with sticky tape. SWISS KRONO Basic Plus includes an overlapping flap with integrated sticky tape to facilitate installation. 

With SWISS KRONO Premium Sound and Superior Sound, apply sticky tape underneath to connect adjacent lengths. Most other products let you simply attach sticky tape from above to join and stabilise adjacent lengths. There is no need to glue boards together; it is enough to simply place them closely together. To make sure that they don’t slip out of place, however, you can also resort to sticky tape. Use a good-quality, sharp Stanley knife or box cutter to cut sections of acoustic underlay to size. 

Installing Acoustic Underlay on Underfloor Heating 

If you have underfloor heating, make sure that the laminate flooring and acoustic underlay have adequate thermal conductivity. Together they should not have a u-value of more than 0.15m² K/W or you will have to turn up the heat to stay warm. It must also be possible to steplessly adjust the underfloor heating to easily prevent too much heat from passing through the underlay too fast. The maximum possible laminate thickness is indicated on all SWISS KRONO acoustic underlay products.