Questions about underlays

Our range of underlays offers the right underlay for every floor covering. More decisive for your choice are the product characteristics: do you need an underlay that is as thick as possible to compensate for small bumps? Or do you need the best possible footfall sound insulation? Do you need integrated moisture protection?

Further information can be found in the information sheet "Areas of application for Parador underlays".

As a general rule, a 0.2 mm thick polyethylene (PE) film should in the case of a floated installation be installed on a dry, mineral installation substrate, but also on substrates made of wood-based panels (chipboard and OSB boards). This prevents residual moisture from the substrate from reaching the back of the floor covering, where it can cause mould and mildew to develop. This also ensures that planks with integrated cork footfall sound insulation do not stick to the substrate. The PE film acts as a vapour barrier and should be installed and glued with an overlap of about 30 cm along the edges of the sheets. However, we also have underlays in our product range in which a vapour barrier is already integrated and whose use makes an additional PE film superfluous. These include the acoustic mats Akustik-Protect 50, 100 and 500. For floor coverings with an integrated cork backing, a PE film is always required (regardless of the installation substrate).

There is a decisive parameter for the use of an underlay on underfloor heating: the heat transmission resistance. This describes how long the heat takes to penetrate a layer (in this case floor covering plus underlay). The higher the value, the longer the heat takes to actually reach the air in the room. Added together, the thermal resistance should not exceed 0.15 m²K/W (square metres times Kelvin divided by watts) for underfloor heating to work efficiently. Most of our underlay/floor covering combinations are suitable for underfloor heating systems. When choosing a product, therefore, pay attention to the thermal resistance values that you will find for each of our products in the data sheets on our website.

Yes, but only to a minimal extent up to about 3 mm per metre. Larger breakouts and defects must be levelled with a repair filler. A self-levelling compound will make problematic flooring ultra-smooth within a few hours. Make sure that the flooring has sufficient drying time for all repair and filling work before installation.