Wood Flooring Underlayment: What It Is and Why You Need It
It doesn’t matter how much or how little you spend on new wood or laminate flooring solution; you want to protect your investment for as long as possible. To do that, you need to control moisture and prevent buckling. But how?
What Is Underlayment?
There’s nothing worse than a relatively new floor that has already warped or begun to rot. The key to successfully keeping your wood and laminate flooring as new as possible is to install a high-quality vapor retarding underlayment beneath it.
This layer not only protects your wood flooring from too much moisture but also keeps things nice and quiet because it absorbs sound.
Avoid Damage
Properly installing underlayment before you put down any wood flooring product means you will have a vapor barrier that meters all moisture passthrough.
If there is lots of moisture coming up through your floors — whether you’re on a crawlspace or slab foundation — you’ll more than likely experience buckling, warping, and sagging as your flooring tries to cope with the humid conditions. And even worse, if that moisture is allowed to pass through unimpeded, the subfloor will begin to rot.
Protect Your Investment
There are two options for wood flooring underlayment. You can choose to go with an asphalt-saturated kraft paper that gives ample protection, or you can choose a premium laminated product that sandwiches asphalt-saturated paper between two additional layers of kraft paper.
Unlike polyvinyl and other poly films, these engineered underlayment products don’t trap moisture. Instead, they meter its transfer through materials, allowing only enough to keep your wood floors from either rotting or drying out. These engineered solutions are the ultimate solution for installing your wood or laminate flooring with total confidence.
Call Holland Manufacturing
If you want to know more about how to protect your wood floors from damage, call Holland Manufacturing at 1-800-345-0492 for a customized solution.