Laminate/wooden flooring in a flat - will our downstairs neighbours want to murder us?

[Lottapianos]

DP and I may be able to buy the flat we currently rent I'm getting slightly ahead of myself but I'm thinking of changes we want to make to the flat. We currently have a rancid green carpet on all floors which is rather threadbare - it definitely needs replacing and I'm leaning towards not getting another lot of carpet. I think that laminate/wood would be cleaner and more healthy but will the sound be horrendous for our downstairs neighbours? We don't usually wear shoes indoors but there might be some noise. I'm very intolerant of noise myself so I don't want to make anyone's life hell!

Also, is carpet more efficient from a heating bills point of view? And does laminate feel cold underfoot in the winter?

Thanks

They will want to murder you.
It's not just the noise of walking on it, but carpets help to muffle the noise of conversations and TV's.

Possibly - it depends on the construction.

I used to be on the board of directors for a development of 400+ flats. There was no problem with wooden floors in some of the blocks. Indeed my own flat had wooden floors and I never had any issues. Some of the other blocks were less solidly built and the leases forbade wooden floors. Some people put them in anyway and as directors we had a bloody nightmare trying to enforce the leases.

So you would need to check your lease before you do this anyway.

If you are able to and determined to go ahead, there are things you can do to limit the noise, like putting soundproofing underlay under the laminate.

I'm afraid they will probably want to murder you. I think you can buy some sound proofing to lay underneath it which may work - I wouldn't know - my upstairs neighbours didn't use it so all we could hear was their children running around all day until I assume they collapsed of exhaustion at 10pm

It was incredibly annoying because their children had every right to play, but it was just sooo oppressive to have the constant noise. We lowered our ceilings to try and improve things and it helped a bit, but I do not miss that at all. I will NEVER live in a lower flat (if I can avoid it) EVER again after that.

thankfully-they-only-had-sex-twice-in-five-years-as-the-bed-bouncing-around-on-the-laminate-and-the-unmuffled-sounds-of-pleasure-will-haunt-me-all-my-days

I have laminate in lounge/kitchen/hall and have never had any complaints (although DS does go to bed soon after they come home from work). Maybe There's good underlay underneath.

Upstairs however drive me crazy! Their DS runs around until refi lupus o'clock, I hear everything. Anyone who comes is like WTF are they doing up there? I seriously doubt they have anything but the cheap thin underlay.

thankfully I have only heard them having sex once

I'm putting down vinyl for DS's room as its warmer and shouldn't be as noisy for downstairs.

Ok then

Thanks all. Seems like carpet may be the way forward - boooooo!

comely, your experience sounds like hell on earth - poor you!

Lotta I lived to tell the tale, and there are worse things in life, but it was no fun at the time.

Janey's vinyl sounds an interesting alternative - you can get some really lovely ones now and they won't be slippy like laminate either! Amtico and Karndean(sp?) are apparently the best brands.

I feel for you OP it sucks not being able to have what you want in your own home, but I think it's really lovely of you to consider your neighbours - they're very lucky to have you!

I think it depends on the construction of the flats, especially whether they were built as flats or a single house now divided into flats. If their original design was as flats they may have sufficient sound proofing, but otherwise putting down wood/laminate would be a really bad idea.

Our upstairs neighbours replaced their carpeting with wooden flooring, and spent a lot of time and effort putting in sound proofing and whilst they lived their it was fine. Then they let their flat out and it was really really awful. I think that the original neighbours were very quiet, and the new people lived a fairly normal life, but I did not enjoy the squeaking of their sneakers above my head or the banging when they were having sex. We had to move in the end.

Plus yes laminate in particular is cold.

Yes they will want to murder you.

Janey I hate to tell you but we had a dreadful experience of living below a floor laid with vinyl too.

Yes, used to live under a family of elephants who had laminate.

You could look into floating cork flooring, the cellular structure of cork dampens noise and vibration. Pricey though.

we have original wooden floors with great big rugs - it's enough to muffle the sound here (but we are a very old purpose-built building so quite substantial, and the ceilings are very high which i think helps). Even still i'd never walk around in my work shoes or any sort of formal shoes or heels.