How noisy is wood flooring in a flat?

Soldato
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Looking to buy a flat in a period conversion (not a new build)

The flat above what would be my potential living room and bedroom has those polished laminate / wood type flooring.

My concern is the potential noise from people clip clopping about on the wood flooring above.

The two people I've spoken to who have had this type of flooring above them say its drives them nuts. I've no personal experience of this.

Is this likely to become an annoyance / nuisance?
 
Man of Honour
Man of Honour
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It really depends on the flats to be honest. In a house conversion it's going to be a nightmare and all you'll hear is people upstairs walking around, dropping things and dragging furniture around. Anywhere with suspended floors is going to be really noisy. In older purpose built flats it's much better because they've often got concrete floors and we can't hear the upstairs flat despite her having laminate flooring. Newer purpose-built flats aren't built as thick and I seem to remember being able to hear the people upstairs in our old place.
 
Soldato
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How long was it converted? If it is recently, it should have sufficient sound proofing if the floor is wooden (this is now required by law). Best thing to do is visit the potential neighbours above, explain the problem, ask them kindly if they could walk around upstairs on their wooden floor.

If it is an older conversion and a leasehold, I'd be very surprised if carpet was not required by the lease.
 
Soldato
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depends on the thickness of the floor above and the amount/quality of the underlay.

I've lived in 2 houses where the bedrooms were laminated and the noise of anyone wearing shoes upstairs was considerable - needless to say the laminate didn't last long..
 
Soldato
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It's not as simple as 'wood = noisy'; it is entirely dependant upon the construction of the floor in that flat.

When visiting take note and kindly ask the neighbour to undertake this swift exercise to give you the first-hand experience you clearly value quite highly.
 
Associate
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If hard flooring is done properly it shouldn't be an issue. When I moved in to my flat the previous owners had bought tongue and groove pine boards from a DIY shop and nailed them straight into the sub floor in the lounge. The nails slipped through and as a result the floor creaked and cracked. It was terrible.

As others have said it would be good to find out what type of conversion it is. Could you not view when the place when the people above might be in?
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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It's not as simple as 'wood = noisy'; it is entirely dependant upon the construction of the floor in that flat

We spend a great deal of time designing and installing acoustic floors and to do a proper job is quite complex, I'd wary of any flat without a restrictive covenant for zero solid floors, or I'd be looking for a concrete frame structure that would absorb the impact sound, you should be expecting something like this for a refurbishment.

http://www.cellecta.co.uk/PDFs/DECKfon_Ultramat15_laid_on_timber_sub_floor_pct_solution.pdf
 
Soldato
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In many flats there's a clause in the lease forbidding hard flooring. Even with concrete floors (like here) I can sometimes hear people walk over my head on a deep pile carpet with good underlay. It has to be said that some people seem to be born with lead feet though. :)

To be honest I'd run a mile if I knew the flat above had wooden floors. But years of dealing with a variety of random noise from a rented flat above have probably made me over-sensitive.
 
Associate
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Depends completely on the people occupying the flat above, the quantity and quality of the sound proofing installed between the two flats during the conversion and how sensitive you are to noise (particularly whilst sleeping).

With considerate people and/or lots of good quality sound proofing, you won't hear anything.

With a-holes or children and/or little/poor quality sound proofing, you will hear everything. If you are a light sleeper you will be re-selling within weeks.

Having had far too many bad experiences with flat rentals (houses that were converted into flats subsequently), I have no intention of ever buying such a flat with anything above it. Probably worth bearing that in mind when you decide what to pay for it - think what the resale value will be.

I don't have anywhere near as much reservation when considering purpose built flats, i.e. properties that were designed and built to be multi-storey flats - they seem to have much stricter building regulations regarding minimum amounts of sound-proofing between floors / between walls etc ...
 
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Soldato
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Thanks for the replies everyone. Useful food for thought.

I suspec the flooring is cheapo / cowboy builder quality, definitely not suspect in concentrate - its just an old house that's been converted into flat, and I doubt the builder/developer spent much money on the floor with complex constructions etc.
 
Soldato
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We spend a great deal of time designing and installing acoustic floors and to do a proper job is quite complex, I'd wary of any flat without a restrictive covenant for zero solid floors, or I'd be looking for a concrete frame structure that would absorb the impact sound, you should be expecting something like this for a refurbishment.

http://www.cellecta.co.uk/PDFs/DECKfon_Ultramat15_laid_on_timber_sub_floor_pct_solution.pdf

That's interesting. Out of interest roughly how much would it cost to do that type of construction for say a 25sq"m room?
 
Soldato
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We spend a great deal of time designing and installing acoustic floors and to do a proper job is quite complex, I'd wary of any flat without a restrictive covenant for zero solid floors, or I'd be looking for a concrete frame structure that would absorb the impact sound, you should be expecting something like this for a refurbishment.

http://www.cellecta.co.uk/PDFs/DECKfon_Ultramat15_laid_on_timber_sub_floor_pct_solution.pdf

can you offer me some advice please.

This is what I plan to do

up to down

- porcelain tiles
- 20mm Cellecta Screed board 20
- 35mm EPS boards with aluminium spreader plates and UFH pipes
- 8mm cellecta felt bonded to the above EPS (same as you get on the Screedboard 28)
- OSB Deck

its basically costing £22.50/m2 for the EPS and screed board 28.
Total area to be covered is 600m2.

Do you think this is the best solution?
 
Associate
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Thanks for the replies everyone. Useful food for thought.

I suspec the flooring is cheapo / cowboy builder quality, definitely not suspect in concentrate - its just an old house that's been converted into flat, and I doubt the builder/developer spent much money on the floor with complex constructions etc.

Depends on original contruction tbh. We live in a coverted stone-built listed villa, which was sub-divided when building regs were far less stringent. We've all got hardwood floors and you can only hear the loudest of noises i.e. dropping something heavy and hard on the floor.

We all got together one night and tested each others flats so we all know where we stand :D
 
Caporegime
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Footwear is what makes the difference. If you're a ****head like my neighbour and wear hard soled shoes indoors, you'll make a terrible racket. If you wear slippers, you'll make no noise. Unless they are creaky floorboards or something. Also, if you're an elephant footed ****, it won't help either.
 
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