Laminite Floor Height

[lincmercguy]

I have the tile down and the laminite floor we picked out is 12mm, making it 5mm shorter than the finished tile floor and other flooring (hardwood, existing tile.

This will go over a plywood subfloor that is the first floor in a house with a basement. I want to use an acoustic underlayment to keep the noise down. The one I found is 2mm thick.

I was going to use some 5mm plywood to bring up the height, but that would be too much and 1/8 plywood isn't available here.

What about using 1/8" tempered hardboard panels as a subfloor to raise the height. The thickness would be about right. Some searching online seems to suggest the material will work fine.

If that works, should I staple it down? What size staples? I don't have a pneumatic stapler, but will buy one for this if needed. Spacing for the staples?

[Gary G™]

Why not just make transition pieces from a hardwood?
5mm is pretty inconsequential.

[Snipe Hunter]

Typically underlayment goes down with ring shank nails but tempered hardboard is... "hard" and the heads may not set down as far as you would like... maybe the acoustic underlayment will buffer the high spots a little? Can't you just use a transition strip between the two? Is there a thicker acoustic underlayment you can use ... or cork? I've seen issues in homes where the installer installed the wrong acoustic underlayment (too thick/too soft) and the joints in the laminated floor actually cracked and split. The homeowner sued the installer and won because it wasn't installed per the mfg's recommendations. It was reinstalled using a cork underlayment with the proper acoustic underlayment on top of it. The cork doesn't deflect as much.

[lincmercguy]

I haven't seen a thicker underlayment, but it would make life easier if it wasn't too soft. There is nothing wrong with the subfloor, I'm just trying to match the height.

I'd rather not use the height transition strips because almost everything else is tile height, and it would look weird.

[Snipe Hunter]

I haven't seen a thicker underlayment, but it would make life easier if it wasn't too soft. There is nothing wrong with the subfloor, I'm just trying to match the height.

I'd rather not use the height transition strips because almost everything else is tile height, and it would look weird.

Cork underlayment