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meday · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Dartford

Just bought laminate flooring from Wickes and their thick foam type underlay. This is to go down in the kitchen (concrete floor) and Hall (wooden floor). Do I need to lay dampproof membrane first as well?

ScottJ2671 · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 2 Location: UK

Make sure you use underlay designed for laminate which is not very thick, usually white and only a few mill thick.

I once thought I'd save a bit of cash by re-using the thick foam underlay from a previous carpet and putting laminate on top, the thick underlay allows too much flexing and the laminate eventually cracked in lots of places and I ended up having to do the whole job again at some point.

Honda · Joined: 25 Feb 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Kent UK

Hello meday
They do say that if you're laying onto screed you should have a dpm but I'm not so sure. To my mind your concrete floor already has a perfectly good dpm so there is no reason for the screed to be damp in any way and also, particularly in a kitchen, if you have any spills that get under the laminate there's nowhere for it to go with a polythene sheet under it. So, basically, they say you should but I don't. Don't know if I 've helped you out or not, sorry!

Andy B · Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Devon

B & Q make a great underlay for laminate. good thermal properties, and might help over those tricky uneven surfaces. It's about 6mm deep and comes in sheets.