How to insulate a laminate with a typical substrate?
In some cases it is not necessary to lay any additional insulating material. And use just the substrate. But it's important to choose it correctly. There is a substrate made of isolone, polystyrene, cork and some other .The most environmentally friendly is, of course, cork. Polystyrene is considered to be durable. Next, you need to take care of an even surface. Minor flaws will be equalized by the substrate, but large cracks will have to be sealed.
The thickness of the substrate itself can be 2, 3, 5, 10 mm. Choose it depending on the necessary effect on alignment and thermal insulation. Plus, it performs a sound-absorbing function. If it is a cork, then it needs to be laid on polyethylene to prevent excessive penetration of moisture. And only then laminate flooring is installed.
Thermal insulation for laminate on concrete screed or lag
If the base is made of concrete or wooden lag, then a laminator is laid on the floor for a laminate according to a certain technology. There is a flooring in several variants.
- On a concrete base. If it has any curvature, then use a self-leveling compound, for example, Ceresite. Then lay the film and lay the heater for the laminate. It can be polystyrene or polystyrene with a thickness of 20 mm, fasten them to each other in a system of spike-groove. A substrate is laid over this insulating material. And only then lay the laminate flooring itself.
- On wooden logs .Mount boards with a distance from each other not more than 50 centimeters. The height of each board is determined by the width of the insulation material. For example, claydite, polystyrene from slabs or granular, mineral wool rolls, sawdust, cellulose insulation and many others can be stacked. The plywood or OSB slab is fixed from above. Then only the substrate is laid( it can be cork) and the laminate itself. Mounted all this with self-tapping screws.
Heated floor under laminate
There is also one more option - laminate with heating .In this case, an infrared or foamed insulation can serve as a heating system. This method is not always recommended to use, because with rapid heating of cables there is a sharp temperature drop, which in turn affects the entire laminate coating and leads to its spoilage.
Therefore it is practiced, but under certain rules, including with gradual and acute heating of the cable. It does not matter which type of floor heating you choose for the laminate( infrared or foil), they will still be assembled by the manufacturer, so the question of how to insulate the floor under the laminate should not arise.
As already mentioned, it is more important to follow certain recommendations. First, you need to provide a thermoregulator in the system. It will prevent sharp changes in temperature and humidity. Secondly, before installing laminate flooring, you should turn on the system for 1-2 days( so that it just works).Each day, add about 5 ° C until the entire coating has a temperature of about 15 ° C.
Well, in general, with further installation of the coating it is important to observe the necessary conditions. Humidity is about 50-65%, the room air temperature is 18-22 ° С.