If I want waterproof flooring or hardwood, what can be done to make the floors quieter?

If I want waterproof flooring or hardwood, what can be done to make the floors quieter for multi-level buildings or homes?

As families get bigger and upstairs neighbors get noisier, what can be done to help with the noise? Families can have loud noise from children playing and running through the house to pets doing the same thing. In multi-family condos or apartments, no one wants to listen to their upstairs neighbors walk through their home. There are options that can be done during construction to help reduce the noise from walking on a floor. There are also options when the flooring is being installed to help reduce the sound from being heard from walking. When remodeling a home or changing flooring, this would be the opportunity to add sound-reducing underlayment to luxury vinyl or hardwood flooring.

Hardwood flooring is known to be loud when someone with shoes is walking across a floor upstairs or on the main floor. The sound travels from the wood floor to the wood subfloor. There are options available to help reduce sound transfer. There are rubber and synthetic materials designed to absorb some of the impact sounds from walking. Before installing a wood floor, you would use this instead of felt paper when installing solid wood flooring. If you were to install a wood flooring using an adhesive, the underlayment would be glued to the subfloor with the wood being glued to the underlayment.

Luxury Vinyl flooring or waterproof flooring have different options because there are different types of installations. Glue down installations would be treated the same as a wood flooring glue down installation. The underlayment would be glued to the subfloor and then the flooring would be glued to the underlayment. There are different types of underpayments on the market that will work. The difference will be the material that they are made of, thickness, and length. Most will come in rolls. These differences will affect the decibels, or measurement of sound, that the underlayment will be able to reduce. Some of the underlayments are also made differently if they are to be used with floor heating systems. Some have different uses such as commercial, or multi-family use, or single homes.

Click waterproof flooring a lot of times has a foam or cork backing already installed. Some customers prefer to have the underlayment already on the planks so that they don't have to worry about putting something else down before the flooring. You can get click flooring that doesn't have the backing so that you can choose the quality of sound dampening that you want. This will also apply to laminate flooring as well. Many laminate floors will need an underlayment so it is a good idea to use a high-quality underlayment to help reduce the noise from the laminate flooring.

Loose lay installation flooring doesn't really need the underlayment. It is a thicker and heavy vinyl flooring. The thickness of the material alone helps reduce sound transfer. Some lines even have additional layers in the plank that reduce sound transfer above for just the vinyl alone. You can put the underlayment to help reduce it even more. If you really don't like to listen to the noise upstairs, I would definitely add it.

Take your time to research the different underlayments. There are usually detailed descriptions that will tell you all the specifications of each one. The higher the quality, it will usually mean that it will cost a little more. Be aware that once you finish the job, you can't go back and put something in that would have been better without removing the flooring you just installed. Quiet Walk and floorMuffler are just two different options available. In some instances, there are options for tile flooring as well. If you really want to reduce the noise, take time to do your homework and talk with your salesman or installer about what they know as well. If you find that they don't know anything, move on to someone who does. Find the experts. Some of the product lines do have phone numbers that you can call and ask questions as well. They are usually glad to help you if you are looking at buying their product. They will also help you find a store that carries it and you may be able to find installers then who work with or for that store.

Are you looking for the best flooring to soundproof your home in the Rutherfordton, NC area? The BPS Southeast team has many years of experience and we are happy to help you with your flooring needs.