laying laminate over floorboards

Hi hopeing somone could give me some advice as im currently fixing up an old house.ive decided to lay laminate floor in the bedroom which already has an old floorboard floor which isnt in the best shape,its level enough just some of the boards are rotten and split. whats the best way to go about laying laminate floor over the old boards i know to replace the split and rotten boards but whats best underlay i should use or would i need to put down somthing else first ? any help would be great as ive not done much diy till now .

Hi duffman28

Welcome to AAM. I am no expert ont this but if I were you I would hire out an industrial sander and sand down the old floorboards and replace any that are damaged or worn. The reason being is that laminated floorboards can be noisy in the bedroom especially if it is upstairs and they don't look half as attractive as the real thing, just my twopence worth

Duff,

It all depends on the current state of the existing floor.
It may be of use to get an experienced floor fitter to check the issues and provide advice.
You may get away with simply laying the underlay and laminate flooring on top of the current floor as it is.
However you may need to screw a sublayer down to strengthen the area before laying.

I have laminate upstairs in my house, 3 bedrooms and a study.
I would go with laminate every time, the thicker the underlay and the thicker the laminate the better.
I have a 3mm silver back acoustic underlay with a 9.5mm laminate board.
I believe putting anything other than laminate upstairs is a waste of money.
Laminate is cheaper to buy, cheaper to lay and usually comes with anything from 10-20 year guarantees.
(NB - cheaper to buy does not mean that it looks cheaper and nasty).

Good Luck.

Hi thanks for the welcome and such a fast response,id like to keep the floorboards but so many of them need to be replaced its cheaper for me to just use laminate,not worried about noise as its not an upstairs bedroom.on the underlay issue ive seen some underlay with a damp barrier is it worth paying extra and getting that or would normal underlay be ok ,the floor is a suspended wooden floor i think you call it (the floorboards are on rafters and not on a cement floor) thanks again for the help.