Laminate floor moisture barrier on 11th floor condo necessary?

I am installing a floating laminate wood floor on an 11th floor concrete building. So therefore my subfloor is concrete. Most place say to put a 6mil poly vapor barrier on top of the concrete. I can understand this if you are in a house and you have water vapor seepage from the foundation and the earth, but I am on the 11th flor of a condo. Do I still need that vapor barrier???

Reply to
brendwal
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The product I used was combination moisture barrier and foam. I would think you would want the foam at least to help deaden the sound a bit. Walking on laminate flooring with hard shoes is very noisy, not just for the downstairs neighbor but also for yourself.

Check the manufacturer's website for recommendations and in your special case you might even call them to get the answer.

Reply to
badgolferman

Reply to
brendwal

Some condos forbid hard flooring any any but lowest level units due to noise factor. Hope this one doesn't.

Reply to
Norminn

Check your CC&R's to see if they allow hard flooring above the first floor. Get the densest pad you can, it will help with the sound. And put the 6 mil vapor barrier. Its cheap and you need it. Concrete is a porous material. It will transmit water vapor whether its a slab on grade or on the 11th floor. Now of course there will be much less transmission in your situation, but it will still pull moisture from the air and you don't need that on the bottom side of your laminate.

Reply to
sonofabitchsky

You can test the concrete floor with plastic taped down overnight. Check for moisture the next day. I've been in lots of stuffy hotels where I am sure there are moisture problems all the way up the building.

Reply to
Art

According to brendwal :

You probably don't _need_ the vapor barrier, but it can't hurt.

I just bought some "flooring membrane" called "Insonobois", made by "Resisto"

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for use in our basement under laminate.

Looks almost like a plasticized paper, with a rubber layer impregnated with rubber granules on the bottom. Most of the material is recycled (probably old tires). The roll is quite heavy.

It's touted as both a vapor barrier, high sound insulation, and deaden the noise from the floor.

I expect it to work really well, but it's going to be a week or two before I get to the stage of the project to install it.

Something like that would probably be ideal.

The stuff ain't cheap tho. $67CDN for a roll of 35"x39'.

Reply to
Chris Lewis

Not a vapor barrier, but most call for some sort of material under the laminate. I used Mannington engineer wood. They have two types of underlay, one for grade and below, the other for above grade, like yours.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

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