Foam Under Click Together Flooring In Basement?

[velvetfoot]

I was looking at the 100% waterproof, ie, 100% synthetic click together strip wood-look flooring by Allure. It'd be nice to get some insulation under this floating floor. I wonder if the Allure would play nice with the foam? It's pretty darn flexible, but maybe the joints would be a problem. Maybe not. I could always buy a box and test it out I suppose.

 

[Retired Guy]

The foam would need to be quite thick to gain much R value but might give a bit of thermal break. I really like the Allure Ultra product.

 

[velvetfoot]

Yes, it was the Allure Ultra product I was looking at. It was a dollar more a ft2 than the TrafficMaster synthetic product that was on sale, but it was thicker, for one. I was thinking of an inch of foam.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I just installed the stick together Allure in a friend's house. That stuff was really sensitive to fit together on an uneven kitchen floor. It made a nice looking finished product though.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

No problem laying this on high density foam whatsoever. Your warmer feet will thank you.

 

[velvetfoot]

Where does one get high density foam?

 

[Frozen Canuck]

Standard Dow blue board should be just fine. Avoid bead board (low density).

 

[kingquad]

owens-corning pink board will work too.

 

[velvetfoot]

Ok, thanks.

 

[kingquad]

I'd also think about using some sort of subfloor material on top of it. It has pretty good compressive strength, but it can get dents and dings in it.

 

[midwestcoast]

Standard Dow blue board should be just fine. Avoid bead board (low density).

Or Owens Corning "Foamular 250". Basically make sure you use XPS not EPS (you can see the beads in EPS like a coffee cup) and for more compressive strength use high density XPS.
Or you could always put tongue & groove OSB over the foam. I did that in a slab-on-grade sunroom under laminate click-together & it worked fine. In a basement you might not want to lose another 1/2-3/4" of head room for OSB, but the cost wouldn't be a huge deal.

 

[semipro]

Yep. XPS foam board will work great without any subfloor above it.
I did 1" of foam below a laminate floor about 6 years ago and its held up perfectly even with heavy dogs and furniture on it.
What you're talking about doing is what I plan to do in my basement.