1st floor flat, floorboards or engineered wood flooring?

fimonkey

Just moved into the 1st floor flat (of a detached converted house, just one flat downstairs from me). House was built C1920 and is currently carpeted. At the moment noise from downstairs is minimal (and I presume they also can't hear me, they've never mentioned anything).

I want a wooden floor in my lounge but not sure whether to go for existing floorboards (one I looked at in the corner of the room was filthy but no woodworm, and was fitted well to its neighbour, no massive gaps) or an engineered wooded floor.

I definitely do not want laminate however because I like the 'knobbly' look of floorboards.

I would need to hire someone to undertake the job (either sanding floorboards and then sealing them, or fitting the engineered wood floor). The room is 5m by 3m.

1. In terms of costs and time - what am I looking at for both option?

2. If I decide to go for floorboards, will I have to take them up and put a layer of soundproofing down to protect the flat below?

Thanks in advance

keystone

You mnay care to check the wording of your lease before you do a single thing further. Many flats nowadays above the ground floor have a specific "Thou shalt not" exhortation against bare floorboards, laminate, engineered wood or anything else due to noise transmission irrespective of any precautions you may wish to take. Thats not just footfall noise either. A carpet will muffle and absorb speech, TV and other similar noises. A laminate, boarded floor etc just amplifies and transmits them.

Cheers

fimonkey

I own the flat, very long lease, and nothing about flooring in the lease, and I am thinking about my downstairs neighbours hence also looking into soundproofing at the moment (apparently easier with engineered wood floors than floorboards).