Choosing Floors for a Flat
If you live in a detached house, you could choose any floor covering you like, as it will only affect you and your family. However, if you live in apartment flats, then you have to consider those who live below and beside you, as your flooring choice will affect them too. The main consideration you will have to make is about noise, as nobody likes a noisy neighbour! So with that in mind, let’s look at some good and bad choices for lining your flat floors!
Carpet in a Flat or Apartment
An ideal choice for apartments. Good carpets, particularly those with thick piles, will absorb noise like footsteps, furniture scraps and dropped items with ease. Couple this with a good quality underlay and your neighbours below you may not even know you live upstairs! The only drawback is if you are allergic to the allergens that like to live in carpet fibres. However, if you are not, then carpet probably represents the best choice of flooring for you, your flat and your neighbours! Why not check out JHS’s home range of carpets.
Laminate Flooring
Perhaps the worst choice for flats. In fact, it is so frowned upon that in some flat agreements it clearly states that laminate flooring should not be installed in the flat. We recommend that you check your legal paperwork before installing flooring in your flat, particularly if you are renting it. The attraction of laminate is its affordable price, but you would need to install a really high-quality sound-insulating underlay with it in your flat, so you would lose any competitive pricing advantage you had in the first place. Best avoided, but we will leave you a link for browsing anyway.
Luxury Vinyl Tiles
This popular flooring product can work in flats, as LVTs have much better noise insulating properties than laminate. Again, check your paperwork as to whether you’re allowed to lay vinyl in your property. If you are be sure to match it with a good underlay to further boost the noise insulation for your neighbours below. You can choose from wood designs to stone designs. You also get the bonus of these tiles being waterproof and hardwearing, so suitable for your flat’s kitchen and bathroom too. With competitive pricing, this is your next best option for your flat if you are allergic or really hate carpets! Take a look at our Amtico flooring range to add a touch of luxury to your flat.
Wood Flooring
Unfortunately, this beautiful flooring falls under the same category as laminate flooring. It is deemed too noisy for use in flats. Definitely, check and double-check your paperwork and maybe talk to the flat mangers before investing in this expensive flooring. Complaints of ‘clickety clackety’ footsteps and the maddening scrapping of chairs is commonplace from neighbours below. In some cases, you could be legally forced to removed your beautiful wooden floors and replace it with carpet. So, it’s best to avoid this one, but there’s a link if you want to browse anyway.
Final Thoughts
Whether you choose carpets or luxury vinyl tiles to install, having a good quality noise-reducing underlay beneath is vital. Sometimes even with the best flooring and underlay you can still be too noisy for your neighbours liking. In older flats this is common and if often due to poor wall insulation, as well as poor flooring insulation. In these situations, having good relationships with your neighbours counts (and maybe a good relationship with a sound engineer or the apartment manager would help!). It goes without saying that Flooring Hut is not offering legal advice (just high-quality and competitively-priced flooring!) and the responsibility of your flat’s flooring lies with you entirely. Happy Flooring.
