advice for wood floors upstairs (esp. re reducing noise)

[dutchlinda]

Anyone have advice for putting wood floors upstairs? (I know lots of people say carpet only upstairs, but we all have asthma and carpet isn't an option for us. We plan to live in this house forever.)

The current plan is to put a reclaimed wood floor upstairs to match the downstairs. I am happy with this. The problem is the noise. We'll probably have a few rugs down. The installer has suggested rockwool for insulation, which I know nothing about, but adds money to an already pricey spend.

It is a house, so sound prevention is just for us, not the neighbors.

Any other thoughts or suggestions for installing wood floors upstairs? Thanks!

I really wouldn’t you hear everything clattering
go vinyl Lino has moved on massively it looks great quieter and warmer

I had laminate in the main master bedroom - looked good, lasted years but anybody below the bedroom could hear anyone walking about. I would go with an upmarket vinyl lino flooring if carpet is not an option

My master and ensuite is loft conversion, stripped floorboards, no problem at all but nobody wears shoes (or slippers) in the house, guess depends on whether you wear shoes indoors.

It’s not walking about that’s the problem anything you move or drop on the floor can be heard below

We have Karndean rather than wood
suspect it’s cheaper and it’s softer - things don’t break as easily as on wood - so it will be quieter
looks great and mum still thinks we have wooden floors

we don’t have a noise problem

we do have carpet on the stairs though - that’s where people thump

We've recently renovated what had been a derelict property. Everything had to be stripped out so it was basically starting again. We have wooden floor boards throughout the upstairs hall and bedrooms. Ours is woodpecker brand, solid wood, not reclaimed, but no idea if that makes any difference?

We had insulation put between the wooden rafters within the down stairs ceiling/upstairs floor. Then a thicker plaster board laid down. Then, a flexible, rubber sound insulation layer. It was speckled black/white/grey and came in rolls which could be cut. The insulation layer is only 3mm thick but they do come thicker. We would have preferred thicker, but it wouldn't have lined up with the en-suites and bathroom floors.

We haven't finished decorating the rooms so no rugs as yet but can just hear when someone is walking in the bedroom directly above the lounge area. Its just DH and myself though, no kids, and I'm hoping with rugs, curtains, soft furnishings etc it will dull the noise a bit more. Its not bad by any means, but maybe if there are kids running. dropping toys etc it might be louder. IF you can get the thicken insulation roll I'd get that!

This guy soundproofed his floor by using acoustic underlay floor tiles. I’m tempted to use this same product in our upstairs;

You can buy little foam pads to stick on chair legs etc so they don't scrape.

I think proper solid boards are way quieter than laminate, mind you I had them in a victorian house and the internal walls were proper brick so that probably reduced the noise.