Tightly seaming the boards to protect them frommoistureis one such precaution.

Installing padding is also necessary for laminate flooring in most cases.

You have two choices:purchasing laminate flooringwith attached padding or purchasing unattached underlayment padding.

Laminate plank with underlayment attached

The Spruce / Kevin Norris

Here’s what you gotta know about laminate flooring with a pad vs. without.

Pre-Attached vs. And footsteps on the floor will be louder.

Should You Buy Unattached Laminate Padding?

For example, you might be looking tosoundproof your space.

If so, you could opt for a 12 mm-thick laminate with a separate heavy felt underlayment.

Or if smoothing out the subfloor is your only aim, you could purchase a closed-cell polyethylene underlayment.

These are now becoming more difficult to find.

It also is a waterproof laminate flooring pad.

Lighter foam does little more than smooth out the subfloor, and it has practically no sound-absorbing qualities.

Heavier, denser foam is better at limiting the transmission of sound.

Felt Underlayment

Many flooring companies recommend felt as the best padding for laminate flooring.

Felt underlayment tends to be over four times heavier than foam and at least twice as expensive.

However, this recycled product carries higher sound absorption ratings than foam.

Here are some brands to consider: