What are Acoustic floor underlays and 4 reasons why your wood floor needs them.

Wood floors are a beautiful design touch to have in a home. They add oodles of elegance to your living spaces and are one of the most sought after floor surfaces today. However, installing one and maintain it is quite a herculean task.

Traditionally, one would have to go for a solid wood flooring London which was quite hard to put into place and called for quite a bit of maintenance. Moreover, these floors didn’t cope well with moisture and changes in whether meant the floor would expand and contract causing further wear and tear. To make matters worse, these floors didn’t exactly do a good job insulting heat.

Thankfully, there has been a good amount of innovation when it comes to wooden floors. You can now opt for engineered wood floors. These flooring solutions have multiple layers of wood and handle changes in weather much better whilst also dealing with moisture more efficiently. Moreover, they are easy to install and maintain.

But the innovations in wood flooring don’t stop there; nowadays you can install what are known as acoustic floor underlays to further improve the functionality of your wooden floor. Never heard of this term before? Well, then you’ve come to the right place!

This article will tell you what they are and highlight 4 reasons why you should consider adding them to your wooden flooring.

So what is an acoustic floor underlay?
Well, it’s nothing but a layer of sound-proofing material, generally not more than 3.5mm thick, that’s laid underneath laminate or engineered flooring to reduce sound transmission through your subfloors. They could be heavy duty rubber underlays, metallized silver vapor barrier films, closed cell polythene or PU foams, depending on your budget.

Installing this simple layer will bring you a number of benefits, some of the main ones are listed below:

1. Sound insulation.
The first benefit is the obvious one of sound insulation. Installing an acoustic underlay wood floor greatly improves your living comfort by reducing reflected walking noise within your home. They help absorb footfall noise, the sound of furniture moving and vibrations that would otherwise go unchecked through the floor. This affords a peaceful environment for living and a quitter ethos for work spaces.

2. Thermal insulation.
This is another important benefit and potential cost-saver. The extra acoustic underlay beneath the floorboards keep the cold from escaping whilst also serving as an extra insulation layer. This results in less heat being lost through the sub-boards and temperatures being regulated more easily.

3. Moisture absorption.

Liquid spills are more than common in most homes; but the moisture from things like spilt wine, splashes of water or splatters of fruit juice seeps into the sub-boards causing early decay. An acoustic floor underlay also moisture resistant qualities, thereby protecting your sub-floors from decay.

4. Acoustic floor underlays improve under-foot comfort.

Most acoustic underlays are soft and hence improve the underfoot-comfort of your wooden flooring. Every step will be softer and give you a softer surface and lessens the impact when walking. This also doubles-up as a long-term investment, as acoustic underlay also supports your flooring thus improving its lifespan.
So if you have or are thinking of getting a wood floor, you should consider getting an acoustic floor underlay installed. You can contact your nearest flooring company for more details.