Thinking of putting some Wooden (Effect) Laminate Flooring down in my living room, currently have bare floorboards stained, looks good but the draught from the void underneath coming through the uneven gaps makes the room freezing. Any recommendations for using either foam on a roll or fibreboard as underlay and apart from the price and thickness, what is the difference between packs that are around £15 to the ones in the same store around £30? Cheers in advance.

We went for b&q click lock stuff with a foul foam sandwich underlay as it was by far the easiest to install.no tools beyond a rubber hammer and a jigsaw.

The foam stuff is usually intended as a vapour barrier on a screed/concrete floor, but no reason why you shouldn’t use on floorboards. The most important thing will be the evenness of the floor. The laminate is not structural so if there is any uneveness or flex then it wont be long before one of joints will break off and you’ll get one plant bending below the adjacent one. I’ve got this situation occuring on the join between my extension and existing house where there is a small area where there is a depression. I suspect i’ll have to address in a few years time. If there is unevenness or flex in your floor you might want to lay something abit more substantial down first.

If you want thermal insulation i would lay the cardboard stuff then the foam on top

IIRC they do give thermal ratings for each

insulate under the current floorboards rather than putting down crappy wood effect laminate?

Cheap laminate

thinner top layer will wear out quicker and might chip more easily

base less likely to cope with water

But that doesn’t mean that paying more is better. You can still damage it whatever it cost

If it is physically possible I would insulate under the existing floor! I am seriously considering doing mine at present. Any unevenness get rid of it by nailing thin plywood onto the existing floorboards.

As suggested earlier get a couple of boards up and see if you can get some decent inflation under there. You may find that you can cut some cellotex to size, between the beams and seal any gaps up. You can then have the same floor that will last a lot better than a laminate option.

Wait for DeadlyDarcy to reply – wood floors are his business