However, it is important to understand that vinyl flooring cannot be installed over all types of acoustic systems and products. There are many causes of this issue; such as due to adhesives to bond the vinyl, an un-level acoustic floor solution, undulations in the acoustic floor or the wrong raw material to take the vinyl finish.
It is a misunderstood that vinyl flooring cannot be installed over acoustic flooring due to movement issues – this is false.
Hush Ply 28 and Hush Ply 32
Acoustic flooring often consists of chipboard bonded to a resilient material. When fixing vinyl onto the acoustic chipboard, the correct level of adhesives and levelling compounds must be agreed upon.
It is a frequent requirement to have a plywood-topped solution to bond the vinyl covering to. In this instance it would be important that the plywood-topped board is specified correctly at the start of a project. Hush Ply 28 and Hush Ply 32 are designed for this situation.
Vinyl is a thin floor covering and any joints in chipboard or plywood acoustic flooring will show. The joints in the acoustic flooring should be sealed and smoothed with the correct joint filler or self-levelling compound before the vinyl is laid.
Vinyl Underlays
It is also important to consider the use of thinner vinyl underlays. Some of the developments require a thin underlay product due to limited floor build-ups.
Hush Acoustics’ Underlay for Vinyl Flooring has been developed specifically for vinyl flooring and is a 3mm cork/rubber membrane that can be installed over a structure (normally masonry with a screed) and directly under the vinyl floor finish.
It is designed to offer significant impact noise reduction with limited floor build-up in most instances less than 5mm with both underlay and vinyl.
