Looks aren’t everything

Which floor­ing looks nice and suits which room? Ren­ov­at­ors usu­ally spend a lot of time answer­ing this ques­tion. How­ever, if you want to ensure long-last­ing walk­ing and liv­ing com­fort, the entire floor struc­ture must be care­fully planned and executed. A key factor is the use of an under­lay – an addi­tion­al elast­ic lay­er between screed and floor cov­er­ing. It acts as a shock absorber and pro­tects the floor from foot­steps and oth­er kinds of impact, thus increas­ing the dur­ab­il­ity and ser­vice life of the floor. Under­lays also reduce impact sound and have a pos­it­ive effect on the walk­ing com­fort. To ensure good indoor air qual­ity, all build­ing mater­i­als used in floor con­struc­tion – wheth­er screed, under­lay or adhes­ive – should be abso­lutely healthy for liv­ing. These products can be recog­nized by the EMICODE® qual­ity seal.

From robust tiles to eleg­ant par­quet and trendy vinyl floor­ing: house­build­ers and ren­ov­at­ors are often spoiled for choice when look­ing for the right floor­ing. There is also a huge range of col­ors and tex­tures. Accord­ingly, a lot of time goes into the search for the “most beau­ti­ful” floor­ing. But looks aren’t everything. Floors also have to serve their pur­pose, which means they must with­stand con­stant expos­ure to foot traffic, stiletto heels and carry the weight of heavy fur­niture that gets moved around. Add to that romp­ing chil­dren, pet claws and many oth­er stress factors. To endure all these stresses, the sur­face needs a sol­id found­a­tion. This is where the under­lay comes into play: it is installed between screed and floor­ing, cush­ions the stresses and thus pro­tects the fancy floor from dam­age.

Even minor sur­face irreg­u­lar­it­ies, which are found in every screed, can be leveled out with the right under­lay. No more wobbly fur­niture in danger of tilt­ing over. Since vinyl floor­ing is only a few mil­li­meters thick, a pres­sure-res­ist­ant under­lay should always be placed under­neath. This increases the load-bear­ing capa­city of the floor so that it can with­stand chair castors and heavy fur­niture. At the same time, the under­lay pre­vents the sub­floor from show­ing through the elast­ic floor­ing. By con­trast, soft, foamed mater­i­als should be used under hard floors such as par­quet. They reduce impact sound both in the room itself and in the room below. In addi­tion, under­lays provide a cer­tain degree of thermal insu­la­tion. There­fore, they are par­tic­u­larly suit­able under cold floors such as tiles or for first-floor rooms without a cel­lar under­neath.