will my new neighbors hate me ?

[nicky883]

Due to complete next week semi detached house . I hate carpets and want to pit laminate flooring upstairs expect on the landing and stairs .
Will it be very noisy ? Has anyone put good quality underlay that reduces sound ?
Please do share if you have a neighbour with laminate flooring and hate them
P.s downstairs is vinyl but i ll be replacing woth laminate as well

[SoleBizzz]

Both of my neighbours have laminated flooring and I net hear them walking upon it. Terraced house here.

[SoleBizzz]

Never not net

[KingJoffreyLikesJaffaCakes]

It'll be fine.

However, it'll be cold, slippery after showers and never really looks clean.

I had it in my old house and am hugely chuffed to be reunited with carpet.

Personally, I suggest you have a rethink.

[Batteriesallgone]

Shamelessly following as we want laminate on the stairs but worried about noise...interested in underlay

[nicky883]

King i am bit of ocd when it comes to cleaning and in my opinion carpets are dusty and never look clean ;p i ve been living in rentals with carpets until now . I am Hoovering almost everyday and i still feel is not dust free . It might be due to cheap carpets in rental homes though .

[thrillhouse]

Nice carpets > laminate any day.

[Letmehaveausername]

It depends, are you going to be in a four in a block or a proper house? If a four in a block, don't get laminate. If in a house I don't think anyone will care

[Letmehaveausername]

I clearly didn't read your post properly since you said a semi detached house.

In which case, do what you want, it'll not disturb your neighbours

[ABCAlwaysBeCunting]

Laminate on the stairs? Won't that be a bit slippy? I imagine in such a high-use area as a landing and staircase, it would look tatty very quickly.

[Slave2thecat]

Not what you asked but we are putting carpet back after a few years of laminate.

The neighbours can't hear us but that's more down to house layout and generation of the building. We have excellent sound proofing.

[Ntinyn]

No I doubt neighbours will hear you.

I was adamant I wanted laminate throughout new extension but I have been covered to luxury vinyl tiles (amtico / karndean / camaro).

[Ntinyn]

Upstairs and stair well is carpets though, bar amtico in the bathroom. There is a massive difference between decent carpets owner occupiers install and crap ones you tend to find in rentals.

[INeedNewShoes]

I can hear my neighbour walking on her laminate flooring when she has shoes on. It doesn't bother me but the sound-proofing between our houses is generally very good.

[Batteriesallgone]

Depends on the laminate ABC. Although I too am very tempted by luxury vinyl...

[Atenco]

I suppose it depends on how new your house is as new builds seem to have very thin walls. I would still not put carpets down myself as I hate them, but if there are thin walls maybe you could limit the stilleto heels.

[namechangedtoday15]

Do you have children OP? Apart from the noise of walking on floors, I think carpet tends to muffle general sound more than laminate.

I would wait and see how the sound proofing is between the houses before you make a decision. There have been quite a few threads on MN in recent months about sound proofing and there is no real consensus - depends on lay out of the house i.e. whether you have rooms on either side of the adjoining wall or whether you have the stairs. I'd wait until you move in, see how much general noise you can hear between the houses and then make a decision.

[nicky883]

No no children but i would like to have some at one point ;p
We want to get the floors done before moving in as it would be easier we have one extra week in our flat

[namechangedtoday15]

Personally I wouldn't have laminate as I don't like laminate anyway and agree with a previous poster that quality carpets will be nothing like you have in a rental. I think from a noise, warmth and general appearance point of view, carpet would be my choice every time especially as you're envisaging children at some point.

[SoupDragon]

The other half of my semi has wooden flooring and I can hear them walking about.

[justdontevenfuckingstart]

Look online for LVT by Quickstep. Good price, doesn't scratch or stain and easy to fit. Could be an option maybe?

[ChocChocPorridge]

I am not a fan of carpet - the expensive stuff isn't bad, but it's always just such hassle in comparison with hard floors (currently living in the Mediterranean so hard floors throughout). It's also perfect for when you have young kids if you aren't the type of person who can enforce only having food/drink in the kitchen (and I actually put off potty training when renting a house with carpet, knowing that I was moving into my own place with wooden floors in 6 months)

Mind you, I apparently have duck feet because even in winter I could pad around on my concrete, then tiled kitchen floor back in the UK and not mind the cold.

[Ambivalence]

This is interesting. I'm just about to buy a house which has laminate everywhere except the stairs ( which are 70s style stairs with open risers..so like a squared ladder with gaps between the steps..). I was planning to remove the carpet from the stairs because it would be tricky to hoover and I'd rather just sweep the stairs...but I'm guessing the carpet is to reduce the noise for the neighbours then...it's a semi detached and the stair case is next to the neighbours staircase...

[14Years]

It's not just the actual walking about, we have found (from visiting other people's houses) that the ones where there is no carpet all other noises are amplified as well, probably not helped by the fact that the laminate fans also have wooden blinds instead of curtains. Conversations are more echo-y because there's nothing to absorb the sounds.

[FrikkaDilla]

We have wood plus engineered wood throughout our house (including stairs). It is quiet because we are quiet. No shoes so no clumping about.

[SoupDragon]

Oh, yes to the echoey amplified noise! This is noticeable even though next door have curtains and other soft furnishings.