Flooring Underlay

Choosing which laminate or herringbone floor is the hard part, choosing which underlay is the easy bit, because we do it for you. As a quick guide, hopefully this helps you pick the most suitable option:

White foam – used if the subfloor is floorboards. A cheap option but does everything you need it to.

Green foam – This has a DPM (Damp Proof Membrane) attached to one side of the underlay and should be used if the subfloor is quite level and material is concrete.

Techboards – This offers a waterproof attribute to the underlay once the joints are taped together and should be used if the subfloor is not quite level and material is concrete. This underlay can soften changes in subfloor levels and boasts a 22db for noise reduction and 2.2tog for heat retention.

Fibreboard - Very similar to the techboards but slightly thicker with a 23db rating for noise reduction and 1.1tog rating for heat retention.

Foiled back excel – Also a waterproof underlay due to the silver backing and offering a noise reduction of 20db and high level heat retention due to the rubber material, used mainly on a level concrete subfloor