Master design flooring with insulation. Additional protection possible/useful?

Hello everyone,

we have decided on the Meister Designflooring MeisterDesign. next Edition M7 (Eiche Nova 6413) (article number 5969006413).

Currently, we have old laminate in the apartment that should be replaced by the Meister Designflooring. Under the laminate, there is currently impact sound insulation (2.2mm) installed.

The design floor has integrated cork impact sound insulation (1mm). Is it possible and sensible to leave the existing impact sound insulation in place, or should we remove it?
Does this result in an improvement of the impact sound insulation, or does it harm the floor?

Info: We have quite sensitive neighbors below us. Is the 1mm cork impact sound insulation of the design floor sufficient for that?

Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards

Many manufacturers provide detailed information about possible impact sound insulation. Too much and especially too soft impact sound insulation can lead to unacceptable deflections at the click connections and thus to damages. We neither know the floor structure nor the entire apartment/house situation. With sensitive neighbors below me, I am either very careful or lay out many thick carpets ;-) . Vinyl + 1mm cork does not really help much compared to laminate.

Hello questioner.
I’ll say it straight out: when you consider the test for impact sound insulation, you arrive at a construction that assumes a concrete slab, on which is a (to be tested) layer (usually impact sound insulation) and a screed. The test is carried out using a standard tapping machine, which is placed in one room, and the receivers for sound recording are positioned below or above, depending on what is being tested.
All talk about impact sound improvements under any loosely laid types of coverings is, in my view, misleading.
Because such a construction with massive layers is not made. You would have to lay the 1 mm thick film to be tested between the concrete base and the screed slab and then test it with the standard tapping machine. Only in this way will you get a usable result. That manufacturers of coverings carry this out in this way is questionable!
The correct, or "real" impact sound insulation in residential construction is only and exclusively achieved through the screed slab placed on a soft insulation layer.
That is really the effective impact sound insulation — and nothing else!
Everything else can rather be regarded as "creaking protection," when a fixed type of covering meets sand grains (from the screed, thus "dirt" particles) and it creaks when walked on.
Sound insulation must be evaluated from a very multifaceted perspective. What we assess as "impact sound" is usually only the structure-borne sound that we actually mean.
However, supporting this with details and technical terminology is, in my opinion, not useful.
The fact is that a 1 mm or 2 mm thick layer, regardless of the material, can never achieve the effect of a 25 mm or thicker impact sound insulation layer.
But to answer your question technically, whether the existing old substrate should be removed: definitely YES!
If there are later any complaints about the new covering, absolutely regardless of what they are, the manufacturer’s side will always (!) refer to the fact that the existing construction does not comply with the product’s installation instructions. Because a foreign substrate simply does not belong.
I would actually not dismiss this advice!
Moreover, the thicker a system-foreign construction consisting of softer layered sequences is, the more critically one must consider the reliability of the lateral element locks. Because the ductility increases, and thus (as ibnan mentioned) the risk of bending moments within the elements under permanent compressive stress (here: caused by walking).
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Good luck and a forward-looking approach: KlaRa