When you picture your dream floor, it’s all warm wood tones and that smooth, solid feel underfoot. But there’s one thing you probably don’t think about: what’s underneath. With a high pressure floor, you have two options: planks with a built-in underlay, or planks where you install your own underlay separately. Same gorgeous floor on top, two very different paths to get there.
What is a floor underlay?
Think of floor underlayment as your floor’s backstage crew, it makes everything run smoothly without stealing the spotlight. It’s a thin but mighty layer between the subfloor and your floor planks. And it’s essential for:
- Sound insulation: quieter steps, fewer complaints. Especially in apartments.
- Moisture barrier: keeps your floors safe from humidity and concrete.
- Impact resistance: adds shock absorption for daily life with kids, pets, and clumsy coffee cups.
- Thermal insulation: keeps your floors warm under your feet.
- Stability: no shifting, creaking, or bouncing around.
Even the toughest floor can feel hollow, squeaky, or uneven without a proper underfloor. Basically, it’s memory foam for your floor: soft where it matters, strong where it counts.
Why does an underlay matter so much? Discover the essential layer behind every great floor installation.
With or without a built-in underlay: what’s the deal?
A high pressure floor comes in two flavours, Core & Comfort, and the underlay is exactly what sets them apart.
Option 1: Comfort, with a built-in underlay
These planks come with a sound-absorbing underlay already attached to the back. It ships with the floor, so there’s no extra roll to buy, no measuring, no second installation step. You unbox, you install, you’re done. The built-in layer reduces noise by more than 19 decibels, which your downstairs neighbours will quietly thank you for. It’s factory-tested and matched to the plank, so you get consistent sound performance across the entire floor.
Best for: fast, fuss-free installations in homes and apartments where sound insulation matters and you’d rather not fiddle with extra materials.
High pressure floors Comfort come with an attached underlay.
Option 2: Core, without a built-in underlay
These planks come bare-backed, which means you choose what goes underneath. You can roll out a separate underlay before installing your planks on top, or skip the underlay altogether and glue the floor directly to the subfloor. More steps, yes, but also more flexibility, especially when you’re working with uneven subfloors, large surfaces, or specific acoustic needs or underfloor heating. Glueing also lets you cover areas larger than 15 x 15 m without expansion profiles and plays nicely with floor heating systems.
A separate underlay is especially useful when installing floor heating: it provides the thermal properties your system needs while keeping installation flexible. Excellence Plus is the best all-rounder for this, with high sound reduction and excellent thermal properties for underfloor heating and cooling. It's available for laminate and high pressure floors, and is required for herringbone laminate floors, which need extra support for their uniquely small planks.
Best for: custom sound setups, uneven subfloors, large commercial spaces, or anyone who wants the option to glue the floor straight down.
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High Pressure Floors Core do not come with an underlay, but you can install one underneath.
Final thoughts
Your high pressure floor will get all the compliments, but the underlay is what keeps it quiet, comfy, and rock-solid. Whether you go for the plug-and-play simplicity of a built-in underlay or the flexibility of laying your own, the right setup means: smoother installation, better sound insulation and longer-lasting performance.
