judy, as mentioned the Ditra will not help much if any with vibrations....and if the unit is level the vibrating sounds you hear are actually from the thin sheet metal covering...We recently switched to front loading machines and LOVE them....ours are however in the basement on a concrete floor...so no worries about vibrations from the floor like upstairs on wood....but as I said what I noticed is that at the high spin rates these run at it actually flexes the thin sheet metal coveing the top and sides of the unit acting almost like a stereo speaker!!! when running the washer side panel being only an inch from the dryer side panel actually causes the dryer to vibrate by pushing the air into it....so to reduce viration noise its better to look at muffling the sheet metal covering with a heavy blanket covering like they use for moving furniture rather than spending all that time and $$$ on flooring materials when thats the least of your cause....hope that helps.

macavity, you're welcome! It's easy to find a tac shop in your area, just Google. I found one within less than 7 miles of my house. Most will carry the stall mats for cridders. Save the leftovers, as you never know when you might need a piece of good rubber! If it is possible for you, you can also wedge a piece or two of rubber between your washer and whatever it's next to near the top of the washer for even more vibration protection of off balanced loads. I was able to do that on the right side of my washer as it is near a cabinet. There's too much space between my w/d to do it on the left side of the washer. Even on the one side it helps for less vibration if my load isn't perfectly balanced. I got that idea from seeing some guy use those swimming noodles wedged between his w/d and wall. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y91onCb7nSc&NR=1 Also, don't know if your w/d will go side by side but if so I would have the entire area reinforced and lay one big piece underneath both units. My house is 30+ years and there's a raised platform with a drain for just the washer, so I could not do that without ripping the tile platform out to make it level. As for finishing off the bare plywood reinforcement, we just left the plywood without tiling/etc, and cut the mat to completely cover the area, and had quarter-round placed to finish the edges. The mat was cut so that it comes right up to the quarter-round, completely covering the plywood. We can see the mat and although it's by no means a design statement, ... the look doesn't bother us. I guess you could say it has that "industrial" look. :) Keep in mind that if you cut the rubber so it doesn't show at all to be hidden underneath the units, it might be difficult to place the washer and dryer (especially the heavy washer) perfectly on the mat so that the feet are not falling off the edge of the rubber. Those washers are heavy! Our installers had a difficult enough time getting the washer placed,...I don't see how they could have placed it on a piece of rubber that was cut even to the exact size of the washer, let alone a slightly smaller piece that wouldn't show. I hope I'm making sense here....:) Good luck to you!

OK, I have an issue that does not allow me to purchase without over researching a product. So I did consider a few brands. I really like Miele, and they do have a larger unit. Nothing like the size of these, but I don't think you need something as big as these Samsung units to wash a comforter. Although I keep going back to Miele, the issue of their warranty and the lack of local people to sell and service the units takes them out of the running. I did look into Asko, but the small size and the bad reviews (over many years) makes them just an interesting read. I had a hard time deciding between LG and Samsung. I chose Samsung because of their Diamond drum technology. Although I was unable to find out much about it, it was similar to the honeycomb drum idea of Miele. That really closed the deal for me. I really felt that more manufacturers should have put more into their drum designs and make that information available. Sadly, only two lines have taken drum technology seriously and serious enough to flaunt it to the public. I ended up with the largest Samsung units because of the steam and the internet connectivity. (And frankly the deal I got.) I was hoping that if there was a problem, Samsung could just hook into the machine and tell me what is wrong. I'm not sure they can do that, but they can certainly update the units over the wireless. I would say that I was also impressed with the anti vibration technology. I wish they had explained the difference between the regular antivibration and the upgraded antivibration of these units. I imagine it is some computer sensing thing. I was also impressed with the warranty on the motors and the 2 year warranty. Oh, I just registered my units and got an additional 3 months warranty for registering. Thanks Samsung. I would add an extra year on my own by purchasing with Amex and eliminating the purchase of extended warranty. I looked into Speed Queen because they are American. Solid units but lack the modern technology and efficiency I was looking for. Rough sturdy brutes was all I could imagine from what I could find out about these products. I think the companies do themselves a disservice by not putting out all the information they can on their products. This is one case and point. I went as far as looking into purchasing commercial units, but when all is said and done, I felt that the Samsung units were a better deal. Service and warranty work is much different for commercial than on consumer models. Here is a really cool washing machine I found that I really wanted to get. I have a friend in CA who used to own Laundry Mats. He said, "That's a commercial unit. What do you need a commercial unit for?" Well, it looks so cool and is so well engineered etc. It was too much of a machine for my needs, but I really would have loved to have one. The Crossover Washer. (http://www.laundrylux.com/crossover.html) The world's first small chassis washer engineered to commercial laundry standards for your business needs. I think for the person who wants to have what no one else has, these units would be an interesting choice. Here is some more information on the Crossover: 3 Engineered to be superior to all competitors 3 15,000 cycle machine life design 3 3 OPL liquid chemical injection ports and signals 3 3 compartment soap drawer 3 4 professional wash programs + 2 cycle options 3 Field adjustable water levels 3 Top quality SKF bearings in heavy duty assembly 3 3 seals with 5 lips 3 Professional grade 8-point suspension 3 Pump-drain standard 3 Solid steel counter-weights�no concrete 3 Energy Star compliant The costs were about 2,000 a piece or less from what I remember. Stunningly beautiful beasts these are. They are made I believe by LaundryLux. I also looked at Miele Little Giants. Just amazing little laundry units, but way out of my price range for what I want to spend. I think these are made for people with yachts. These are also stunningly beautiful. The bottom line is I spent months looking at units. For me, with the space that I had and the money I wanted to spend, I settled on the Samsung. I had to use my Samsung units again tonight as the baby had an "out of diaper" experience. Not something for the faint of heart. Loved I could go and select sanitize on the computer screen and choose extra rinses and steams and prewashes and super hots etc. If they had nuclear radiation I would have chosen that too, but as of now, it is not an option on my units. I got a 3 hour cycle and trust me that is exactly what the job called for. I think I'm very happy right now with what I purchased. Look, as long as the darn units stay working without needing service etc, anything you buy will be fine. Again, I'm not happy about having to stand on a stool to see the dryer screens, but it really is not a big problem. The anti vibration on these really works great and the noise level is very good. The calming music the machines play to signal the end of the cycle is still OK with me and I'm not ready to beat the machine to death if it plays that tune one more time. Just if anyone wants to see how these machines do on a soiled white one piece baby garment, here is how it just came out of the washer. I don't think I can believe how clean and white this is. You cannot see where the mess was. I have had experience in the past with my other machine where the white clothing was stained yellow after such an incident. All I used was about 1/4 of the recommended amount of ECOS plus natural liquid from Sam's and a tiny amount of delft liquid softener. No bleach. I did hit it with some Oxy prewash spray before putting it in. Look, I have a laundry upstairs that I am doing. I decided to make it a "sound proof" room because of my experience with my old front loader. It was loud! Probably had gotten worse over the years because the bearings were going. So I double sheet rocked with green glue and put heavy clay on the backs of the electrical boxes. I put in a sound proof floor which I am waiting to tile right now. Well, I did all this because of my fear of the noise I would get from the front load machines. I think had I placed these Samsung units upstairs, the sound proofing would have been overkill. I'm hoping the GE unit I have for upstairs will be as quiet. I bet most of the better machines will be quiet. I think that the other companies caught up with Meile and have incorporated many of the concepts and bring these machines at a value price. Will they last the 20 years Miele says theirs will? I don't know, but these machines have a longer warranty then Miele and they can be found everywhere. This means that your chance of getting service should be good.

No laundry load will be perfectly balanced. My SQ FL goes through a lot of speed and direction changes trying to balance loads, and also has moveable balancing weights behind the drum. Usually it will succeed at sufficiently balancing the load that it can achieve high speed spin. Even a TL will be less than perfectly balanced and the vibration when spinning, while nominally radial, will have an axial component that couples with the floor. To HU's question. Reinforcing a floor can be a big project, particularly if the area is embedded with wiring and/or plumbing. Joists can be 'sistered' with microlam type beams. A lattice of alternating wood sections can be screwed into place (glue to sub floor if not accessible from above). I did the lattice scheme to a weak bathroom floor to allow tile in place of the original linoleum. Metal strapping configurations are also possible. Overall, the idea is to significantly increase the sectional rotational moment of inertia of the beams providing floor support. Assuming that the washer has to be on a second floor and not a first floor or basement slab, then I would also recommend obtaining industrial dampening material, typically in the form of lossy rubber (opposite of a super ball) with a waffle impression. On this material would be set a stiff metal sheet (or four sub sheets) that couples the washer feet to the rubber over a large area. Doing just the corners in a stacked rubber/metal/rubber/etc. scheme might work even better, but care is needed to keep the washer from "walking" off of the stack. Vibration dampening is a technical area that if not analyzed by someone skilled in the art will of necessity be somewhat experimental.