Rubber Underlayment FAQ

In floors to isolate impact footfall and airborne noise transfer. Most commonly used in structures with concrete sub-floor and/or resilient ceilings. This is not a wall or ceiling product and cannot be used as an acoustic barrier. If you require an acoustic barrier, then please use our TotalMass MLV.

Concrete sub-floor with resilient ceilings: IsoRubber 2mm or IsoRubber 5mm

Concrete sub-floor without resilient ceilings: The thicker the better. Significant gains with even the thinnest IsoRubber 2mm, near 60 STC/IIC performance with the thickest IsoRubber 12mm.

Wood sub-floor with resilient ceilings: IsoRubber 2mm or IsoRubber 5mm

Wood sub-floor without resilient ceiling: Many components to consider. For best performance, add 7 pounds per square foot or more to the existing sub-floor before installing IsoRubber. This allows the rubber to compress and bounce back on impact, which is essential to functioning properly as an acoustic underlayment.

IsoRubber is tested for use with all flooring types. Tile, stone, vinyl, VCT, hardwood, laminate, carpet, and other similar flooring types can be installed directly to IsoRubber.

Fixed Flooring: For tile, stone, vinyl, VCT, and glue down hardwood, it is required that the IsoRubber is glued to the sub-floor.

Floating Floors: For laminate, nail-down hardwood, and carpet, it is not required that the IsoRubber is glued to the sub-floor.

Performance will vary depending on the assembly. Submit information on your assembly via email for a performance evaluation. Include detailed information about each layer in the assembly from the drywall ceiling to finished floor.

Wood Structures: You will need to add at least 7 pounds per square foot before installing the IsoRubber. If the ceiling below your floor is decoupled with resilient clips or resilient channel, then you do not need to add mass to your floor.

Concrete Structures: You do not need to add mass to your floor regardless of the ceiling type below.

No, not even close.

Cork and common microcellular foams will rate about one-third the performance of a truly resilient recycled rubber like IsoRubber. If cost and thickness is the main factor, then opt for the 2mm IsoRubber to use a thin, low cost material with significant performance gains over more commonly offered cork or foam underlayment.

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