Yes, laminate underlay is an effective way to reduce sound in your home. It works by reducing both airborne and impact noise, which seeps through the floor into the rooms below. Impact noise, such as footsteps on a hard surface above you, is one of the most difficult to manage forms of noise. The best product for controlling this type of noise is a carpet and a thick pad base layer.
For a major upgrade, use our premium laminate underlay, which uses an acoustic barrier attached to a closed-cell foam. This will not only dramatically reduce the noise of footsteps, but it will also block airborne sounds between floors. That combination surpasses all other possibilities. The SoundMat 3 Plus is an unparalleled sound-absorbing mat designed to reduce unwanted impacts and airborne noise, especially suitable for final carpet floor finishes. These methods work well to soundproof the overall area, but they don't address sounds coming through the floor. A soundproof carpet base will protect the floor and, at the same time, help to soundproof a room.
You can place a layer of foam or sponge under the carpet as a sound barrier. These porous materials will reduce sound and protect the carpet at the same time. However, to do this job properly, you need a barrier made specifically to be placed under the carpet. That's why it's good to know that the right base coat can reduce noise in your home and soften the sound of your steps. Basically, there are two types of sound insulation: Transit Sound and Drum Sound.
Transit Sound reduces the noise of steps when entering the room below, while Drum Sound calms your steps in the room you're in. The sound-insulated floor base options available from specialized manufacturers represent a major step forward compared to standard products. They are specially designed and tested to minimize the impact of sound by creating an elastic layer that stops sound waves. A subfloor makes the existing floor more comfortable to walk on, reduces some of the noise generated when our steps hit the ground, levels and hides any imperfections present in the subfloor, and even protects against drafts and heat loss. If you choose the right product, it will provide you with significantly improved thermal and sound benefits. Here's how to choose the right subfloor to provide those benefits: recycled rubber subfloors outperform most other types of subfloors, and their versatility makes them a natural choice for almost every room in the house.
If reducing floor noise is important to you, choosing a soundproofed floor subfloor is a simple and affordable way to add comfort to your entire home. People have been trying to soundproof areas for centuries, and each method has different levels of effectiveness. You may be wondering if you are going to invest in an acoustic base or in soundproof mats if, in that case, you will have restrictions on the final finish of the floor you can use. Proven soundproofing insulators, such as the SoundMat 2 Plus, act like a floating floor, helping to absorb shock vibrations before they enter the floor structure. We always recommend placing a layer of hardboard of at least 6 mm on the soundproofing base before placing the laminate or vinyl to obtain a flat and stable base. One of the first things you'll notice when installing a soundproof floor subfloor is that impact sounds created by people walking or moving objects will be much less frequent. The dense, fibrous materials that make up soundproofing materials for floors are also excellent insulators against heat transfer. In the case of all other soundproof mats, they need to be placed under the underfloor heating due to their mass and material composition.
Not everyone understands the full importance of sound reduction, especially when it comes to soundproofing floors. We have a library of comprehensive data sheets and installation guides for underlying soundproofing layers that can be downloaded.
