Are hardwood floors always noisy for downstairs neighbours?

[Smoomins]

We are redoing the floors. At the moment one room only has floorboards in and the downstairs neighbour has complained that it is too noisy. They haven't complained about the rest of the rooms, which are likewise hard floors but a mix of tile and laminate.

We really hate carpet and don't want to go down this route if we can help it. If we splash out and get the most soundproof underlay possible, would wood floors still be noisy? Does anyone have any experience of this?

If you have a lease, that may specify the type of flooring allowed. Also, are you sure it’s the flooring that is different rather than the use of the room that makes a difference to the noise levels?

As a previous ground floor flat occupier, the laminate flooring in the flat above was noisy.

It will drive your neighbour to distraction! I don’t think any underlay could successfully dampen the noise enough.

As op said, many newer leases have a clause saying carpet only unless ground floor with the exception of kitchens and bathrooms.

There are ways. There are acoustic companies who can test performance and advise on systems to achieve the same with wooden floor boards. We had to do it here as a stipulation of the lease. It was very expensive, but our new wooden floor boards dampen sound better than the carpet did.

Yes! My neighbours upstairs have hardwood floors and I can hear every footstep. If they drop anything then it's soooo much louder than it would have been if it had landed on carpet. When they occasionally vacuum it sounds like it's coming through the ceiling. It's not much fun :(

It depends on your subfloor construction. If concrete, hardwood flooring is fine - I never heard a peep out of my upstairs neighbours at my old flat and my downstairs neighbours assured me they couldn’t hear me.

The problem is worst in period conversions, particularly combined with squeaky joists.

Yes! I can hear everything upstairs even with laminate and soundproofing.

Yes. I CANNOT WAIT TO MOVE OUT.

Please don't do it.

Currently sitting in my kitchen and can hear upstairs walking about.
She has hardwood flooring down (I know because she warned me of noise when it was being fitted). I can hear her phone buzzing if she leaves it on the table.
Still, better than the old neighbour who used to let the kids run around like a herd of fucking elephants all weekend.

Drives. Me. Mad.

It was a condition of the lease but the previous owner of one flat I owned had wood flooring. I complied with the lease and put thick underlay then carpet. Next tme I saw the downstairs neighbours they said they were thrilled. I'd say in most cases it's unpleasant fir those below.