Not allowed to lay laminate floor - is there a way round it?

lee111s

How about go for some engineered wood flooring with a good quality underlay? It's not laminate flooring and it'll certainly be a lot less noise than laminate.

It'll cost a little extra but is a far superior product.

Bantex_2

I find that laminate flooring always makes a place look like a downmarket BTL.

stargirl04

Hi Lee, thanks for this suggestion, but given what I've been reading about wood/laminate and noise problems, I'm still wary. I'm just going to talk to as many people as I can and get some quotes for sound-proofing.

Bantex, I've definitely gone off the laminate idea anyway, as it's the noisiest surface.

xylophone

Thanks Adrian, I'll do this. Meanwhile, if anyone else knows, or knows someone who does, please do post.

Have you done any internet research? Example http://www.hushacoustics.co.uk/sound-control-products/?gclid=CLjizP3Q778CFUTLtAoddn0Asw

http://www.soundservice.co.uk/soundproofing_help_for_separating_floors.html

stargirl04

Thanks xylophone. I have done a bit of research and with one company materials for sound-proofing will cost me an extra £1k, before labour costs, so, while not cheap, it's not totally unreasonable.

But quotes from other businesses are always helpful. I'll ring around to get some next week and I will try these two firms you mention.

westernpromise

Seagrass is the answer. Not carpet, not laminate, and not common as muck like laminate.

Seagrass flooring:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seagrass+natural+flooring&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nYzaU5q7GsuGyASx2YF4&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=909

Jute flooring:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seagrass+natural+flooring&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nYzaU5q7GsuGyASx2YF4&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=909#q=jute+natural+flooring&tbm=isch

Sisal flooring:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sisal+flooring&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=JY3aU7jHLc2fyATa4YLAAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1280&bih=909

Try this lot:
http://www.nakedflooring.co.uk/?gclid=COfDhJeZ8L8CFSMLMgods1sAbA

Best of all, go have a look at some and fondle it a bit. As soft as carpet but much more stylish, with harder wearing types available for areas like halls and stairs.

AdrianC

There's one problem with all of those natural floorings, though - and it's one that crossed them TOTALLY off the list for us. Don't ever get 'em wet. Don't spill anything on 'em.

Sarahspangles

There is a great website called Apartment Therapy, if you search for "renters" on there, there are regular features on furnishings that work well in flats. You can add rugs or runners and dull the noise from parts of the flat where you may be wearing shoes.

jaylee3

Beats the hell out of me why anyone would want laminate. I HATE it with a passion. It's gets messy easily, it collects dust and bits, and it's a mare to keep clean.

We have carpets throughout our home now - except the bathroom and kitchen. It looks lovely, it's mega cosy, and you don't hear clip clop clonk everytime someone walks on it.

I think laminate is SOOOOOO ten years ago! And I agree with the poster who said it reminds them of a tacky buy-to-let property, as they often have laminate flooring!

Snakey

I moved into a flat earlier this year which has a similar clause in the lease. I can have wooden/laminate/whatever floors only if I get a super-duper underlay, and even then if the neighbours complain then I have to get rid of it. Which is fair enough.

I took a wander down to my local carpet shop and talked to the guy and saw for myself the underlay that's required and how massively thick it is. The doors will need to be re-hung, and I'll have to have the same stuff throughout the flat unless I want little "steps" coming in and out of rooms where the height of the flooring is slightly different.

When I sat down and thought about it I realised how much of my dislike of carpet and desire for wooden floors was led, much as I hate to accept it, by fashion and what everyone else was doing. (Wooden flooring = cool, trendy, modern, young people, city living. Carpets = your parents and grandparents, suburbia, the miserable house you grew up in.) My actual plans/visions always seemed to involve having massive rugs to add some warmth and character anyway (because I can't afford the wonderful top-end solid oak stuff that would stand on its own and so the flooring would likely be pretty mundane), so you wouldn't even be able to see most of it!

I have yet to make a final decision (and all my stuff's still in boxes too so I beat you by several months!) but I am really thinking now of getting some decent quality carpet. Maybe keep with the vision by having rugs on top of those. Advantages: warmer, no echoes, no bothering the neighbours.

Re: sound. My upstairs neighbour has laminate, I've no idea whether it's been installed according to the regulations that I was given when I moved in, but the only time I ever hear her is when she wears "clompy" or high-heeled shoes - which she tries not to do, since she knows the sound carries through. That said, these are purpose-built flats with concrete floors. A friend round the corner in a converted house can hear his upstairs neighbours when they walk quietly across the room in their socks.

And a +1 to the people who've mentioned that laminate flooring has that "cheap buy-to-let" vibe, rather than the modern feel that it may have had ten years ago. I think it is starting to get passe. In which case I may be a trendsetter without knowing it.