ᐅ Installing Vinyl Flooring Yourself

Hello everyone,

Today I am ordering the flooring for the end of next week. Everything is already in stock.
It will be, as previously mentioned, the Parador Trendtime 6.30 oak Skyline pearl gray plank in 2200 x 216 x 9.6 mm (87 x 8.5 x 0.38 inches).
As an underlay for the mineral surface, a PE foil was planned, since the plank already has an integrated cork impact sound insulation.

Parador itself says that you can safely use an additional underlay to achieve even better sound insulation and to better compensate for minor unevenness in the screed.

The suitable options are the Akustik-Protect 100 with a thickness of 1.8 mm (0.07 inches) and the Akustik-Protect 300 with 2.8 mm (0.11 inches).
We are talking about an extra cost compared to the foil of about €160 for the 100 and €290 for the 300.
Can anyone tell me, regardless of the additional cost, if this is worthwhile? The Akustik-Protect will be installed butt jointed rather than overlapping about 30% as with the foil. Is that correct?

Many thanks

I spoke with parquet technicians, and they said it’s nonsense to add more insulation.

So I only used a PE foil, and many visitors are surprised at how solid a floating floor can sound.

Hello Sebastian,

Thanks for your information. I had already suspected that it was probably redundant.
I think I will also just order it with PE film. I will talk to the seller again. He also said PE film is sufficient.

We installed the Parador Classic 2030 Pine flooring, which also has a cork layer underneath. Because of the bathroom with tiles, we additionally laid the Acoustic Protect 100 underlayment. It is installed edge to edge and then sealed with aluminum tape. There is a blog post online testing the Acoustic Protect, but they installed the insulation incorrectly (vapor barrier facing up *g*). Otherwise, it is easy to install, you just need to be careful with the aluminum layer, as it is sensitive.

The floor sounds really great, and above all, despite the open wooden beam ceiling on the ground floor, we hear very little noise from the children (this is what I have tested so far, since we are still just before moving in).

However, I think the cork layer alone plus PE foil would have been sufficient.

Thank you, Uwe, also very good feedback. Maybe it’s better to go with the Akustik Protect 100 after all. I will try to get a sample from the local dealer later to get a better feel for it.

It's really hard to predict what is better. As I said, for us it was simply due to the required buildup of nearly 12mm (0.5 inches). The insulation also isn’t exactly cheap, costing around 4€/m² (4.50 USD per square yard).