Premium vs. Value Grade Underlayment
It’s essential to choose an underlayment that complements the performance of your flooring. With so many options on the market, you must remember that each underlayment will offer different capabilities and levels of quality. The key to reducing the chances of frequent repairs and improving the performance of your flooring system is choosing the right underlayment. In this guide, we make your decision easier by exploring the characteristics of premium underlayment and value-grade underlayment.
The Role of Underlayment
Underlayment is a layer of material installed beneath the floor covering that aims to protect the flooring system. A premium underlayment acts as a barrier that dampens sound and protects the floor from moisture. Here are three factors that make underlayment an important addition to flooring:
- Acoustic properties: By choosing the right underlayment, you can experience sound-reducing qualities that help limit the transmission of impact and airborne sounds.
- Moisture barrier: Quality underlayment can protect your flooring from moisture in the subfloor and prevent mold and mildew.
- Thermal properties: If you’re tired of walking on chilly floors, some premium underlayments add an extra layer of insulation between the cold subfloor and the floor covering, keeping your floors warm.
Cheap Underlayment
You may try to save money on your next flooring project by installing a cheaper underlayment, but it will not offer the same long-term protection and performance that comes with a premium underlayment. It’s essential to keep in mind that cheaper underlayments are often made of lower-quality materials that cannot offer the level of performance you expect from your flooring system. For example, you may choose low-quality materials like polyethylene foam. This is the same generic foam one might use for packaging. Many manufacturers of value-grade underlayment will not warrant the installation of their products in commercial settings, since these products cannot withstand the heavy traffic of retail spaces.
Some of the challenges that you may encounter with value grade underlayment include:
- Potential moisture issues: Not all underlayments are moisture barriers. Many less expensive flooring underlayment options have poor moisture protection, leaving your floors susceptible to damage, especially if you are in an environment that is prone to humidity and dampness.
- Limited noise reduction: Another con you can expect is inadequate acoustic performance. Cheaper underlayments generally do a poor job of blocking noise. This is why most homeowners associations (HOAs) require the use of a premium underlayment that meets their minimum guidelines for sound reduction. Value-grade underlayments likely will not meet the specifications for noise reduction that most homeowners associations require.
- Less effective at retaining warmth: Less expensive underlayment may have a lower R-value, which is the capacity for a material to resist heat transfer. An underlayment with a lower R-value is not as effective in keeping your floors warm.
- Decreased durability: One of the biggest issues with value-grade underlayment is that it has a shorter life span. Its low-quality materials allow foot traffic to easily flatten the underlayment over time, while its lack of density may have issues supporting the floor’s locking system. These factors could lead to costly repairs, and may even require you to replace your flooring sooner than you expected.
Value grade underlayments are also rarely tested for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and if they do have a warranty, it is often short-term, reflecting the manufacturer’s lack of confidence in the product.
Benefits of Premium Underlayment
Why should you choose a premium underlayment? Because it’s a worthy investment! While premium underlayment is more expensive, it comes with the assurance that it will protect your flooring in the long term. In contrast, value-grade underlayment may not provide the level of protection that your floors need, causing you to repair or replace your floors more frequently.
Premium underlayment is also approved for single-family, multi-family and commercial flooring installations. With premium quality underlayment, you can rest assured knowing that the underlayment you choose is designed for your flooring needs. Premium underlayment has exceptional performance characteristics, such as:
Acoustics
With high-quality underlayment, you can reduce the transfer of impact and airborne noise. This makes it a fantastic choice for apartments, multi-family housing, and office buildings because it helps reduce the transmission of sound to the room below.
This is unlike the capabilities of value-grade underlayments. While value-grade underlayments can provide acoustic properties, the padding is often made of cheaper materials, making it lack the acoustic properties a larger family might appreciate.
Premium underlayment, on the other hand, has high performance acoustic properties. This includes impact insulation class (IIC) ratings of up to 74 decibels and sound transmission class (STC) ratings that help ensure the material can reduce airborne sounds from people talking and the televisions.
Moisture Protection
Moisture protection for floors is one of the most important factors to consider for any home or building. Wood and laminate floor coverings are particularly more susceptible to moisture damage, making it essential to install a quality underlayment.
Many value grade underlayments are not moisture barriers, and they may not provide sufficient protection for your floor. Underlayments made from lower quality materials may not protect your floor from moisture unless they have an attached layer that forms a moisture barrier. Moisture damage can be incredibly costly to repair, and it may even require you to replace your entire flooring system.
Premium underlayment provides the superior moisture protection you need to help prevent any mold and mildew issues. This is because it creates a moisture barrier and assists in controlling the movement of water vapor between the covering and the subfloor.
Thermal Properties
Have you ever experienced cold days at home where you were unable to walk around without your shoes on because of the cold floors? If you get that feeling frequently in your area, it’s good to know that the type of underlayment your floor has may influence the maintained warmth of your flooring.
Value grade underlayments generally do not have the best insulative properties, so they will not retain warmth in your floors as well. Heat may escape easily and cause the floors to be cold during the colder months.
Premium underlayment has thermal characteristics that keep floors warm, and they are often approved for use with radiant heat flooring systems. Getting a high-performance underlayment with a high R-value may be the key to reducing the amount of heat that transfers through it.
Floor Comfort and Protection
The way that your floors are installed can have a significant impact on its lifespan. Choosing the right underlayment could be the difference between having a long-term flooring solution and having to replace your floors earlier than expected. A new flooring system can be quite an investment, so you want to make sure that it is protected for many years to come.
One of the main purposes of an underlayment is to protect the floor covering from minor imperfections in the subfloor. The underlayment should serve as a smooth surface on which the floor covering will rest. The composition of lower quality underlayments may not smooth out these minor subfloor imperfections, failing to prevent them from damaging the flooring system.
One of the biggest benefits of premium underlayment is its durable and firm materials that create a strong foundation for floor coverings. Unlike value-grade underlayment, these durable options can avoid flattening and shrinking over time, reducing the need for replacements and allowing it to last longer. It also adds additional padding between the subfloor and floor to provide extra cushioning for your floor, giving it more comfort.
Premium underlayment also provides you with the reassurance of a limited lifetime warranty. They may also pass testing for the presence of VOCs according to California’s emissions standards, contributing to healthy indoor air quality.
Long-Term Considerations
If you’re looking to invest in a quality floor, you need to invest in quality underlayment. While it may be tempting to save money on a cheaper underlayment, it won’t provide the long-term protection and acoustic performance that your floors need.
In contrast, investing in a premium underlayment allows you to rest assured that your flooring is paired with a compatible underlayment and made from approved quality materials. Also, premium underlayments provide superior protection to help prevent damage to floorboards and offer comfort through high-quality materials.
Which Premium Underlayment Goes With Which Flooring?
When choosing the right underlayment for your flooring, you need to consider how they’ll work together. What performance characteristics matter most to you? What floor covering did you choose? What are the site conditions and what installation method will you use? These are essential considerations when choosing an underlayment that lasts. Here are a few combinations to make your choice easier:
- Luxury vinyl plank flooring: Perhaps the industry’s most popular hard surface flooring option, Luxury Vinyl flooring often includes a pre-attached underlayment. You can improve the performance of pad-attached flooring by adding a moisture barrier and sound-reducing underlayment like FloorMuffler® Encore.
- Laminate and hardwood flooring: The original Floor Muffler® UltraSeal underlayment and the FloorMuffler® UltraSeal HD are excellent options for laminate, engineered and solid hardwood flooring in nail-down, floating and double glue-down installations. FloorMuffler UltraSeal has been trusted for decades to provide premium moisture protection and acoustic performance.
- Ceramic and tile flooring: For a flexible, highly-engineered moisture barrier, the FloorMuffler® 3030 is a great option, while the FloorMuffler® Flex is a great high-performance rubber acoustic underlayment option — both providing excellent performance for ceramic and tile flooring.
Get Industry-Leading Premium Underlayment From FloorMuffler
The long-term advantages of choosing premium underlayment far outweigh the cost-savings of value-grade options. Premium underlayment offers benefits like moisture reduction, soundproofing, floor heating and increased durability.
If you’re ready to install quality underlayment, FloorMuffler has the best selection of products. Feel free to browse our collection of premium underlayments to find ones that match your flooring type today. Already know what you want? Then, fill out our lead form or call us at 855-440-1945 for any additional information today!