Choosing your underlay
How to select the right kind of underlay for your specific situation ?
In choosing the right kind of underlay you should focus on the following factors:
Where is the new flooring applied? In a wide hall or room with plenty of hard faced surfaces, sound reflection can easily reach annoying levels. These so called drum sounds need to be effectively reduced by your underlay.
When you want to enrich your apartment with parquet or laminate floor, or you are applying it in a multi story environment, impact sound reduction is the single most important factor you want to address.
If the new solid flooring is placed on ground floor, the barrier your underlay creates against the long term damaging effects of water and water vapour plays a significant role in choosing your Envoy product.
When applying underlay on an uneven base, as for instance a concrete floor in a newly build house or an old wooden floor in a restoration project, the thickness of the underlay and its capacity to conform is essential for creating the smooth surface so important in solid flooring.
If you have chosen for underfloor heating, make sure your underfloor has a high thermal resistance and allows the heat to spread evenly under your wooden flooring.
Furthermore, please look at the compressive strength of your underlay, as this prevents damage to the tongue and groove system of your laminate floor in the case of puncture loads.
Now choose the Envoy product most suitable to your needs and capabilities.
Types of underlay
If you choose for a foam based Envoy underlay, which is by far the most widely used, value for money and easiest to apply material, consider closely the type of foam you prefer:
Non-cross linked Polyethylene foam
with its clearly visible cell structure gives the best value for money. It is easy to apply and 100% recyclable.
Cross linked polyethylene foam
comes at a higher price but has an extraordinary soft and smooth surface giving this specialty foam a high quality appearance.
Polypropylene foam
Polypropylene foam’s toughness results in a superb compression and creep resistance, which makes pp foam suitable to replace solid underlay materials. Polypropylene foam can withstand high temperatures however remains 100% recyclable.
The Envoy range offers you all of the above options, price categories, underlay performance levels. Moreover, we at Envoy have in house laminating capabilities to combine all of these foams to different types of films or other materials to create personalised exclusive products for your specific needs.
