I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

On 2016-02-03 4:50 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

Yep, a plastic insulated underlayment at the bare minimum, depends on the
condition of the existing floor.


--
Froz...

Quando omni flunkus, moritati

On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


Likely depends on the sub-floor - concrete or wood. Check the
manufacture's web site. You want to reduce a hollow sound and flex,
too.

Oren posted for all of us...



On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


Likely depends on the sub-floor - concrete or wood. Check the
manufacture's web site. You want to reduce a hollow sound and flex,
too.

+1 What's under there now?

--
Tekkie

"Tekkie®" wrote in message
...
Oren posted for all of us...



On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate
flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


Likely depends on the sub-floor - concrete or wood. Check the
manufacture's web site. You want to reduce a hollow sound and flex,
too.

+1 What's under there now?

The house has a basement and this floor is going in a room over the
basement. The floor has carpet on it now which will come out and under that
is some partical board type flooring. Over the floor joists there is a
layer of either OSB or plywood. Hard to tell as I did not want to pull the
fiberglass insulation back enough to get a good look at it.

On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 17:43:47 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


"Tekkie®" wrote in message
...
Oren posted for all of us...



On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate
flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


Likely depends on the sub-floor - concrete or wood. Check the
manufacture's web site. You want to reduce a hollow sound and flex,
too.

+1 What's under there now?

"Dirt" :-)

The house has a basement and this floor is going in a room over the
basement. The floor has carpet on it now which will come out and under that
is some partical board type flooring. Over the floor joists there is a
layer of either OSB or plywood. Hard to tell as I did not want to pull the
fiberglass insulation back enough to get a good look at it.


You might want to consider 1/4" luan sheets, perpendicular to the
existing wood flooring. To prevent any serious chance of the new
material flexing or for sound dampening. It would stiffen things up.
Would that cause you to trim the bottom of a door or not match the
next room flooring (hallway)?

It would be a good time to add some extra screws into the existing
wood floor also. (squeaks)

On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:56:53 -0500, FrozenNorth
wrote:

On 2016-02-03 4:50 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

Yep, a plastic insulated underlayment at the bare minimum, depends on the
condition of the existing floor.
Also depends on the laminate. Quite a few have the "underlay" already
installed

On 2/3/2016 1:59 PM, Oren wrote:
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


Likely depends on the sub-floor - concrete or wood. Check the
manufacture's web site. You want to reduce a hollow sound and flex,
too.

Can't tell what you think is "reasonable". The stuff is dead simple
to install yourself. Only problem is if you have areas that aren't
square. I did a LOT of planning how the various pieces must fit
together and had only a few tough spots. If you just start laying
it down without planning, it can be a nightmare.
One issue is that the stuff EATS saw blades.

I got all my flooring from garage sale excess material.
First room, I used black plastic vapor barrier because the cost
of underlayment was twice the cost of the laminate.
Rest of the rooms, the laminate came with rolls of underlayment,
so I used it.

The underlayment allows the laminate to bend slightly under the weight
of heavy furniture. Also good if your sub-floor is not flat.
I decided it would be best to put about 10 square inches of 1X4 under
each of the tiny feet on the bottom of the sofa to reduce the depth
of the divots in the laminate.

Just don't put the stuff in your home theater room.
Sound reflections make the audio sound like crap.
You'll be covering it with carpet.

On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


All depends on the condition of your floor. That's something the
installer should determine. If you're unsure of them knowing what they
are doing, get a 2nd opinion from someone who can see the floor. It's
impossible to tell you on a newsgroup when we cant see the floor.

I dont know what they use these days for underlayment. 20 years ago,
1/4" luan plywood was common. In the 70's 1/4" masonite was popular. I
guess it depends on what works best and what is the cheapest.
I had a relative who did flooring, and I used to help the guy once and
awhile, when I was much younger. Thats why I know this. Most of what I
did for him was staple down the underlayment. It takes a lot of staples.

Laminate flooring is a lot thicker than vinyl sheet goods or tile, so
I'd think there would be less need for a "perfect" floor surface.
But I'm not familiar with what you are using. Is it wood, or some sort
of vinyl or composite?

On 2/3/2016 3:50 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

Read the directions!

I installed Pergo in the kitchen when it was still glued together. In
that instance (over a plywood subfloor) they required a special dense
foam underlayment.

More recently, I installed the snap together Pergo laminate with a thin
foam backing preattached. The instructions specifically said DO NOT USE
ANY UNDERLAYMENT.

Central to all of this is the type of subfloor you're dealing with.
Pergo covers all the bases and answers all your questions. If you don't
have a copy of the instructions, go online and download a copy from
their website.

On 2016-02-03 11:20 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:56:53 -0500, FrozenNorth
wrote:

On 2016-02-03 4:50 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

Yep, a plastic insulated underlayment at the bare minimum, depends on the
condition of the existing floor.
Also depends on the laminate. Quite a few have the "underlay" already
installed

Never seen that before, but haven't installed any in 8 or 9 years.

--
Froz...

Quando omni flunkus, moritati

On 2/4/2016 2:29 AM, mike wrote:

Can't tell what you think is "reasonable". The stuff is dead simple
to install yourself. Only problem is if you have areas that aren't
square. I did a LOT of planning how the various pieces must fit
together and had only a few tough spots. If you just start laying
it down without planning, it can be a nightmare.
One issue is that the stuff EATS saw blades.


Use a decent carbide blade and have is sharpened afterwards. Once you
do a room the blade will be useless for wood until is is sharpened. I
used the 12" blade that came with my DeWalt miter saw. After doing a
room and hallway for a friend I send the blade to Ridge Carbide and it
came better better than when it was new.

On Thu, 04 Feb 2016 01:47:01 -0600, wrote:

On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 16:50:31 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I am going to have Lowes put down about 300 sqft of Pergo Laminate flooring.
I have a quote from them and it seems reasonable.

They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?


All depends on the condition of your floor. That's something the
installer should determine. If you're unsure of them knowing what they
are doing, get a 2nd opinion from someone who can see the floor. It's
impossible to tell you on a newsgroup when we cant see the floor.

I dont know what they use these days for underlayment. 20 years ago,
1/4" luan plywood was common. In the 70's 1/4" masonite was popular. I
guess it depends on what works best and what is the cheapest.
I had a relative who did flooring, and I used to help the guy once and
awhile, when I was much younger. Thats why I know this. Most of what I
did for him was staple down the underlayment. It takes a lot of staples.

Laminate flooring is a lot thicker than vinyl sheet goods or tile, so
I'd think there would be less need for a "perfect" floor surface.
But I'm not familiar with what you are using. Is it wood, or some sort
of vinyl or composite?


For laminate a plywood "underlay" is virtually never needed,
recommended, or used. Generally speaking i thin plastic "felt" or high
density closed cell foam is used. It is a vapour barier and a
"lubricant" between the laminate and the floor below.

You need to remember too that laminate comes in all different
qualities, from pure crap to pretty darn good, and from 5 or 6mm to 14
and 15mm in thickness..

I put 14mm laminate in my basement, over the 5/8" plywood subfloor
which had been covered with carpet for about 35 years. It is 4 1/2
inch plank.
I put 10mm laminate in my upstairs bathroom. It looks like ceramic
tile and came in 1 X 4 ft sheets, 4 tiles to the sheet - with
waterproof wax sealed joints. We used a similar product that looked
like slate tile in my daughter's townhouse entrance. The sparks
really flew from the carbide saw blade on all 3 jobs - wearing out a
blade on each project.

I put prefinished ash hardwood in the living and diming rooms. The
finish on that is a UV cured aluminum oxide layer that pretty well
finished off another blade.,

wrote in message
...
They did not seem to specify any underlayment for the flooring. Should
there be some ?
If so what type should it be ?

Yep, a plastic insulated underlayment at the bare minimum, depends on the
condition of the existing floor.
Also depends on the laminate. Quite a few have the "underlay" already
installed

I received an email from Pergo and they said the type I am putting in had
the underlayment built in and I do not need any unless laying it over
concrete, then more of a thin vapor barrier than anything. They did mention
putting a vapor barrier under the house if a crawl space, but should not be
needed if a basement is under the main floor.

They also said that my computer chair should be ok to roll over it. The
tech sheet they sent me said they testedit to 25000 cycles and no effect.
If I have enough left over I think I am going to make a pad about 3 feet
each way and put it under the place where the chair is at just to make sure
it will hold up.