The American Spirit is based on rolling your sleeves up and getting to work. As they say, if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself. While this mantra is great, it can come with some setbacks when it comes to home improvements. Installing new flooring can be a huge boost to your home’s value, but it needs to be done right. Eco Cork Foam® was designed to help amateurs and professionals install stable, comfortable floors that will provide years of reliable service. ECF underlayment is a polyethylene and cork blend that brings you unsurpassed quality in moisture protection, acoustic dampening, and stability. Our underlayment was crafted to make projects quicker, easier, and better quality. While our product is ideal for laminate, engineered and hardwood flooring applications, it doesn’t mean that it can cover some of the common flooring mistakes that DIYers make. Today, we’ll take a look at a few of these errors with the hopes of helping avoid costly repairs.
Insufficient Preparations
Your subfloor is the basis for building a strong flooring system. One common mistake comes from improper preparation. The subfloor needs to be clean, flat, and dry. If any of these requirements are not met, the resulting quality can leave you dissatisfied. Our 3.2 mm (1/8 in) thickness makes ECF a perfect for laminate underlayment, engineered and hardwood floors. Our flex support and overall construction help to minimize the consequences of subfloor imperfections. While the cork flooring underlayment is ideal for smoothing over minor issues, it’s still important to make the subfloor as clean and dry as possible. Taking an extra hour now will save you from major headaches in the future!
Inaccurate Racking
Racking your hardwood floor is a great way to save time and ensure that your floor is going to look good before the installation is accomplished. Many times, people do not fully examine their new floor before nailing it down. H-joints, for example, are an issue that is not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. An h-joint is when the end joints line up perfectly on alternating strips. The look resembles an H, where the precision of spacing creates a distracting view. Make sure to offset your strips. ECF’s smooth vapor barrier, which faces up, makes sliding planks into various positions easy and is durable enough to walk on without fear of punctures or tears.
Our foam and cork underlayment provides the best possible product for laminate, engineered, and hardwood flooring installations. ECF’s unique design provides superior benefits to any floor, helping to smooth out minor imperfections along the way. Next time, we’ll look at a few more common mistakes that people make when installing their floors. If you are looking for an above ground or basement floor underlayment, make sure to try our product and be ready to experience the immediate difference!