Do You Need Underlayment For Luxury Vinyl Plank

Do you need an underlayment for vinyl plank flooring.

Do you need underlayment for luxury vinyl plank. It is very important to have a debris free and level subfloor for a glue down vinyl flooring installation. In fact as a softer flooring adding an underlayment could mean too much cushion resulting in dents and more wear and tear sooner. It is highly recommend that it be purchased unless one is already attached to the flooring materials then it is up to you whether you are willing to break the warranty or not. If you re wondering about luxury vinyl plank underlayment that s one of the appeals it usually doesn t need underlayment.

Some products have it built into the product itself so it s not necessary to lay it separately. If you are a condo or multi family sound ratings do matter. You will install these planks by gluing them directly on top of the subfloor. A luxury vinyl tile lvt underlayment is a specially formulated underlayment for installing underneath luxury tiles.

Vinyl tile is available in three main styles with vct or vinyl composition tiles peel and stick tile and luxury vinyl tile. If you re laying the lvp over an existing cushion backed vinyl floor or a below grade tile floor then you won t need to use an underlayment. The higher the number the better the sound proofing is. Glue down vinyl plank flooring will not need an underlayment.

If you have flooring that does not have attached pad you will want to install underlayment under it. Loose lay vinyl plank flooring. Luxury vinyl plank can come with attached pad and without. If it has attached underlayment then the odds are you won t need underlayment for it and installing underlayment under will void the warranty.

If you re going to use peel and stick tiles just follow the directions and make sure the surface you are sticking the tiles to is clean and level you don t need underlayment. Having an underlayment that is built designed to absorb the sound is critical for home owners and condo associations since they don t want to disturb their neighbors. The definition of delta iic rating performance gain in sound reduction between two sound test. As discussed previously it depends on whether the room requires thermal assistance or enhanced sound barriers or a moisture barrier.

With our quietwalk luxury vinyl underlayment designed for luxury vinyl plank achieving delta iic rating of 28 was achieved. However you ll want to use one in every other application including covering existing hardwood floors vinyl flooring that isn t cushioned and concrete floors.