Laminate flooring on concrete floor

LOLLYPOP222 · 30 August 2020 at 10:17PM

Hi, I’m a tad worried... I’ve just bought my first flat (Top floor, has 3 floors total) in September as a leaseholder, the council is the freeholder. My flat was built in the 1950’s & has concrete floors. When I moved in, the flat had very old, very thin and worn carpet with no underlay. Before buying, I visited 2 other flats for sale in the same block and they all had laminate flooring. So I bought the flat with the tacky carpet, checked the lease (dated 1994) and it said nothing about not installing laminate so I did. Through a friend, I found out that most councils tend not to allow laminate flooring so out of interest, I checked my councils website which states ‘planning permission cannot be granted for laminate flooring’... I’m now really worried that I’ve paid for laminate flooring and laid it, that my neighbours below can hear me (they haven’t complained but I can hear their children being children so I assume they can hear me?) and that I should of asked for permission before proceeding to change the flooring? Should I ask the neighbours if they can hear me or am I opening a can of worms? Do I leave the flooring as is or get extra sound proof underlay? Or do I get rid of the flooring entirely? Any advice/help much appreciated.

pramsay13 · 30 August 2020 at 10:28PM

Laminate flooring doesn't need planning permission but if it is excessively noisy down below they could make you remove it.
Did you use underlay?
As long as you take off shoes and maybe use a rug or two in the main bits it shouldn't be too noisy down below.

Homer_home · 31 August 2020 at 12:33PM

What insulation did you use?

The quote you highlighted from the council is confusing , you don't need planning permission to lay any type of domestic flooring

What part of the council's website did you go on? I suspect that you might have been on the rented section not the leasehold section , does your lease say anything about the type of flooring you can have ?

stevread · 31 August 2020 at 3:20PM

surly as long as you were soft slippers and dont stamp around it shoulnt be that noiesy down below. If you used a good underlay that should help cushion too.
I would have thought concorete floor would be more sound proof than a hollow wooden floor.
If the other flats are laminated cant see it being an issue, also if there is nothing in the lease stating you cant do it theres not a lot they can do unless the neighbours complain about excesive noise. Its your flat the council only own the building,
Ask the people on the bottom floor if they hear much noise from the flat above if that puts your mind at rest.

Jeepers_Creepers · 1 September 2020 at 7:54AM

I suspect you have nothing to worry about, Lollypop, provided you take reasonable care as mentioned above - no clumpy footwear, don't shout and scream...

Your laminate flooring is already likely to be a better insulator that the thin carpet originally there (you could always threaten to go back to that should anyone say anything...) but there are underlays designed specifically for their acoustic properties (try a Google for "laminate flooring acoustic underlay".)

If you do decide to change to better underlay, make sure the guys doing the job are clued up in how to minimise noise - gaps around the perimeter, for example, might allow air-borne sounds to travel through, so I would imagine, for example, having the underlay lapped up the walls a half-inch behind the edging strips (cork or better) would help ensure a complete seal against the walls.

But, chances are you have nothing to worry about. What do you want for Christmas? Slippers...