Wooden floor

AdrianC

JoceT wrote: »

If there is more disturbance (determined by professionals), we would not go ahead. But I think it's reasonable to investigate it before shutting it down.

Problem is that the only real way to "investigate" is to fit it, then - if it does cause a nuisance, change it back again. Expensive!


Nuisance is in the ears of the beholder.

As mentioned above, the only other part of the lease mentioning floor states:
"Not at any time to allow musical instrument radio set or television to play or operate in a manner audible outside the property and to carpet or insulate the Flat in a manner effectively to prevent undue noise and to take all reasonable steps and precautions to prevent smells and odors"

Bingo. That's what's going to cause you the problems if the neighbours perceive a nuisance. It doesn't explicitly state "no hard flooring" in so many words, but...

Okrib

Wooden flooring in period conversions was a guaranteed problem when dealing with sales. Some leases have clauses forbidding it, and this was often ignored.

You've let the cat out of the bag by telling your neighbours already - which is the correct thing to do. I can think of lots of people who would simply get on with putting it down (assuming the neighbours would not visit the property and that as a freeholder it's unlikely that removal would be enforced).

When I bought my place it was leasehold and there were clauses in the lease banning pets and wood flooring (along with stuff like loud music, insisting windows were cleaned monthly etc). The previous owner had a dog and there was wooden flooring in two of the principle rooms! I just took a view on it.

Ultimately we ended up buying the freehold but other flats have wooden flooring in them too (there are 3 in the building, we are on the ground / lower ground) so ultimately we would in theory be affected more by wooden flooring above, but to be honest I don't mind it. What is an issue for me is the noise of the other people in the building thundering up and particularly down the communal staircase. This can sound like a herd of elephants, but very difficult to do anything about that.

Ultimately, your neighbours might well be being unreasonable, but by telling them you have tipped them off. I hope you get it sorted out.

borkid

JoceT wrote: »

Ideally, we actually would love to make it less noisy. The current insulation is pretty poor and even inexistant in the kitchen (tiles). I understand that carpet absorbs a lot of the noise, but the kitchen would become more efficient as we would improve insulation.

I certainly woudn't put a wooden floor in the kitchen. If you want the look of wood but not necessarily the feel and work how about replacing the tiles with a wood effect flooring.


I have wood all through my house apart from wet areas and stairs. Mainly because I have 4 cats and they re prone to bringing in 'creatures' and do most of the butchery inside, blood was a pain to get out of carpet.

akira181

Just throwing in my 2 cents here but having lived in high ceiling Victorian tenement flats for the last 25+ years, I can say that what insulation you put down has a large effect on noise.

I had a neighbour that was an absolute PITA, he tore up the carpet and used plain plywood as "underlay" for cheap and thin laminate flooring. I could hear every footstep as a result. When I complained, he claimed plywood is the industry norm for sound insulation, blah blah blah. I know for a fact that he used normal plywood to create a level subfloor and didn't bother with anything else as I signed for his delivery. A foam underlay is still required for sound insulation unless it's an expensive thick underlay, in which case the plywood can be omitted.

Another flat I stayed in, the LL decided to remove the carpets as they were destroyed by a major leak and just sand and varnish the original floorboards. Soon after, complaints of excessive noise were coming from the downstairs neighbour even though we're not loud people and our living habits haven't changed in the 2 years we'd stayed there. Eventually, our LL put down quality underlay and thick laminate flooring throughout and the complaints stopped.

Without having read your lease fully, it sounds to me that decorating is allowed but structural changes are not. I would class laminate flooring as redecorating without causing a nuisance as long as proper steps are taken (quality materials, underlay, etc). Maybe throw a rug down in high traffic areas like the hallway. Going for original floorboards, then it really depends how well the house is built on whether or not noise will be transmitted.