Hello All,

I'm about to install new floors in the house in a few weeks and I've been scouring this forum daily for tips. When we bought our floors, the sales guy also sold his foam underlayment. This is going to be a nail down application and from reading various posts, it sounds like only 15lb felt paper is used for nail down installations.

Is it possible or beneficial to use a foam underlayment? I know this makes sense for floating installations but was wondering if anybody has done this on a nail down application. We will be picking up the wood later this week so I'd like to return the foam underlayment if this isn't needed.

Thanks in advance!

-Phillip

You can nail or staple through many of the foam underlayments but it makes more sense to use a less expensive 15 lb felt paper. One possible reason to use foam instead of felt is to help deaden sound. Not sure if that is needed for your application or not

Thanks for the reply guys. I returned the underlayment and picked up some 15lb roofing paper.

-Phillip

You have to be careful on underlayments. Underlayments that may be o.k. for laminate, are not always o.k. for hardwood. Check with the manufacturer. That being said...15lb saturated felt has been used with hardwood for years.

If you fasten through a underlayment, does it really deaden any sound tranmission?