1st off the concrete will not make much of a difference in sound deadening. The underlay will. If the pad is attached and excellence is desired, then I would not want one with the pad attached. I feel the separately purchased cushion are superior but they will cost you more as a total package. As far as lamett, I am not an advocate of it. The high gloss has had some serious issues and they were extremely poor at handling the claim. i had to threaten a lawsuit against them as a retailer as they were so unjust to a customer in my opinion. After the threat, they agreed to correct it. This laminate abrased tremendously in just 1 week in 2 different homes that was installed. One was the customer and they tried to blame the abrasions on improper installation and I (The retail store) told them they were out of their mind and I would replace and sue them for the money. They caved immediately. These are the facts and PS is why you should not by from an online retailer in my opinion. With issues you will never get anyone to battle for you and the retailer has much more clout than any customer has with the manufacturer. Good Luck. All above is just my opinion.

I've been reading here about slate floors, and plan to install one myself over my concrete slab. In a previous thread, Bill V stated that it was okay to do so if there were no patches or cracks in the slab, and no paint on it. I last saw my slab 5 years ago when I installed a laminate floor. It had no paint or cracks, but I did use some self-leveling concrete in spots as I prepared to install the laminate. (The slab was far from flat, and I was afraid that the long flooring pieces might not go down well as it was.) My question is, do my "spots" constitute the "patches" that I'm supposed to avoid? Does anything I've described here make it appear that I have a concern before I start my floor install? (Other than my 5 year old "spots", the slab is about 30 years old.) Thanks in advance for any helpful replies. Here is a link that might be useful: previous thread

I had a recent leak that ruined my floating laminate that was installed on a slab. I have a structural engineer coming Friday to give me advice on how to properly fix the leak. I will also do a french drain outside. Even with these fixes, I want to do something 'just in case'. I am thinking of installing sleepers on the concrete, then a plywood subfloor, then wood laminate. It seems to me that this would give some air flow under the floor, for any moisture issues, and IF I ever got more water under there, it would have space to evaporate. Any advice? And do they make plastic sleepers?

The manufacturere of my Mom's floor product recommend "Ardex" or "Mapei". They also recommend something with a compressive strength of 3500 PSI or greater. This was in part to level the slab and also to cover the old adhesive. I oversaw a gallery renovation where we wanted sealed concrete floors so we had to grind them down - messy and not fun. I can see why you might need to take down the hump but overall levelling by grinding the slab would never be my first choice.