ᐅ Master craftsmanship design flooring with insulation. Is additional protection possible or advisable?

Hello everyone,

We have chosen the Meister Designflooring MeisterDesign next Edition M7 (Oak Nova 6413) (item number 5969006413).

Currently, our apartment has old laminate flooring that will be replaced with the Meister design floor. Underneath the laminate, there is an existing impact sound insulation layer (2.2mm (0.09 inches)).

The design floor has an integrated cork impact sound insulation layer (1mm (0.04 inches)). Is it possible and advisable to leave the existing sound insulation in place, or should we remove it? Will this improve the impact sound insulation, or could it damage the flooring?

For your information: We have quite sensitive neighbors living below us. Is the 1mm (0.04 inches) cork impact sound insulation of the design floor sufficient?

Has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks in advance!

Good luck

Many manufacturers provide detailed information about possible impact sound insulation. Too much, and especially too soft, impact sound insulation can lead to unacceptable deflections at the click joints, causing damage. We are not familiar with the floor structure or the overall apartment/house situation. With sensitive neighbors living below me, I am either very cautious or place many thick carpets down ;-) . Vinyl with 1mm (0.04 inches) cork does not really help much compared to laminate.

Hello questioner.
I’ll be straightforward: When considering the testing for impact sound insulation, the standard construction typically involves a concrete slab, followed by a layer to be tested (usually impact sound insulation), and then a screed. The test is carried out using a standardized tapping machine, which is placed in one room, while receivers for sound measurement are positioned in the room below or above, depending on what needs to be tested.
All discussions about impact sound improvements under loosely laid floor coverings seem misleading to me.
This is because such a construction with solid layers is not actually implemented. One would need to place the 1mm (0.04 inches) thick membrane to be tested between the concrete base and the screed layer and then test it with the standard tapping machine. Only this method will yield a valid result. It is doubtful that flooring manufacturers conduct the test this way!
Proper or “real” impact sound insulation in residential construction is achieved only by the screed layer supported on a soft insulation layer.
This is truly effective impact sound insulation—nothing else!
Everything else is more like “creak protection,” where a rigid flooring type encounters sand particles (from the screed, basically “dirt” particles) causing creaking noises when walked on.
Sound insulation should be evaluated from a very broad perspective. What we commonly call “impact sound” is often just the structural sound we mean.
However, going into details with technical terminology is not really helpful here.
The fact is that a 1mm or 2mm thick layer, regardless of material, can never achieve the effect of an impact sound insulation layer 25mm (1 inch) or thicker.
To answer your question about whether the existing old substrate should be removed: definitely YES!
If there are any later complaints about the new flooring, no matter what they are, the manufacturer will always refer to the fact that the existing construction does not comply with the product’s installation instructions—because an unrelated substrate is not part of the system.
I would not dismiss this warning lightly!
Furthermore, the thicker a system-external construction with softer layer sequences is, the more critical it becomes to consider the stability of the lateral locking joints, since ductility increases and thus (as ibnan pointed out) the risk of bending moments developing within the elements under permanent compressive stress (in this case: from walking on the floor).
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Good luck and best wishes for a well-considered approach: KlaRa