Why Wood Flooring Makes a Great Sound Proof and Efficient Flooring

Flooring now comes with tongue and groove joins on all four sides which forms a tighter seal giving better sound insulation and keeping the warmth in your house.

When wooden flooring is laid directly onto joists a tight seal is still created and the cold from beneath can not seep through very easily into the warmth of your home.

The noise of wood floors is also minimal when fitted properly. When laminate floor first arrived it was often fitted without any underlay.  As a result the flooring was noisy as there was a gap between the existing sub floor and the new laminate floor.  Due to laminate flooring being made of high density fibreboard rather than real wood, the noise was louder than real wood. It would often sound very hard and noisy when walked on.

When using engineered board the most common method of installation is to float the floor by gluing the tongue and groove.  As this creates a gap between the two floors it needs something in between to soak up the noise. This is where an underlay is used. The underlays range from a basic 2mm foam which can soak up the majority of the sound to the high density underlays which have been proven to have high acoustic properties and keep the noise to a minimum.  Generally the price dictates the quality of the underlay but be careful to choose a wood floor underlay rather than a carpet underlay as these are not suitable for wood floors.

With solid wood floors, the floor boards are installed by either gluing them down directly or by nailing down to the existing sub floor. As a result there is no gaps in the flooring so it becomes quieter.

Written by Ruth Shann – Expert in wooden flooring and finishing since 1999. http://www.realoakfloors.co.uk