A family of 4 lives upstairs in our block of flats and have laminate flooring which makes every footstep become an earthquake in ours, it’s making life a living hell here I’ve spoke to the guy upstairs twice and he’s said he understands etc etc but refuses to use rugs in the hallways as his kids are running around 24/7. They own their flat and we own ours, we’ve just moved in last week and immediately all we hear all day is stomp stomp stomp it’s making me absolutely miserable here already to the point I have to wear earplugs + noise cancelling headphones all day, even worse is I work from home so hearing this all during work!

I’ve spoken to the management company and they’ve said they’ll do nothing, why there’s no policy against laminate flooring I’ve no idea, the building was built in 2006 and so apparently should be constructed with a decent layer of soundproofing?

What are my options here? I’ve asked nicely and they’ll be moving out in 6 months but it’s the laminate flooring which is the problem not specific neighbors, is getting the council involved my only option next?

21 comments

  1. Buy it when they move, then let it out with carpeted floors. Job done.

    Ok, maybe a bit extreme but it’s all I’ve got!

  3. 3am, 100w Peavey bass amplifier. Blast out a bit of Breathe by Prodigy until they agree to put carpet down. Or the windows fall out.

  4. You only moved in last week and already complained twice to the guy upstairs, and the management company, just because of the sound of people walking about? I suspect living in a flat might not be for you. Wait until you get real antisocial neighbours and not just those going about their daily business.

  5. I don’t know the exact law. But I read read while ago that if you live above someone you must have carpet for flooring.

    I live above people and was told I should have carpets down.

    Only area I don’t are kitchen and bathroom that’s vinyl flooring

  8. People make noise when they walk. Lived there a week and 2 complaints and escalated to the management company is a piss take.
    I imagine if the guy was spoken to and within a week you escalated it to the management company then I can’t blame him for not giving a fuck.

  9. in between them moving out and the new tenents moving in look for a good laminate floor underlay and either fit it yourself or sget someone in yourself to it ( owners up there permitting of course.

    or a mf ceiling on acoustic hangers in your smallest room to try and see how that would be.its not as complicated as you think to fit one.

    ive soundproofed my flat as best i can so i understand your pain.good luck buddy.

  10. The issue isn’t that they have put down laminate flooring, the issue is that they did not use the correct underlay. A properly laid laminate floor should be silent to walk on, unless you are wearing shoes of course, but if you are wearing shoe’s indoors then you have other problems…

    But are you expecting? Them to not walk on their floor? A rug won’t make much difference.

  11. I’m not putting carpet down for some bloke who’s just moved in complaining about walking, and I’m certainly not accepting his minging rugs.

  12. I’m not really sure you can do since they’re not technically doing anything wrong like blasting music or whatever.

    But I 100% sympathise with you on how annoying it is – our neighbours have kids and they screech, wail and make all sorts of noises and it’s very annoying to hear.

  13. Rockwool and plasterboard suspended ceiling

    If you can put flat pack furniture together you can do this

  14. If it is really that bad did the previous owner not mention it?

    You can actually have grounds to reverse the house transaction if it’s as bad as you say. But this is very extreme.

  15. I’ve been in the same situation and it’s miserable. Kids running around from 6am every morning. Want to sleep in on Sunday morning? Tough shit. If the kids upstairs are awake, you are awake. Sleep deprivation and stress levels through the roof.

    The issue is how these flats are built. Plasterboard is fine if installed correctly, which it never is because it takes too long. The builders will have bolted your plasterboard ceiling to the subfloor, which is very quick to install but basically you are living under a giant drum. The correct way is to have your own walls support the ceiling. This is what they do for recording studios and the technique is called “room within a room”.

    Forget rockwool or foam insulation boards. Your walls/ceiling simply have to be decoupled from the structure as much as possible. This is huge money because you basically have to rebuild all of the walls in your flat. It should really done during the build phase. It’s frankly criminal how flats are built. I’m willing to bet there are millions of stressed out people living in flats around UK and Europe because developers just have to do the bare minimum to meet building regs (which only account for airbourne noise, not impact noise).

  16. Perhaps you shouldn’t be living in a flat, but a detached house instead….

    In all seriousness, there’s little you can do. Comes with the territory of living in a flat.

    As long as their noise is reasonable, then you need to accept it

  18. I’ve had all this.
    I moved to a detached, it’s the only way but for many not affordable..
    It’s a really grim situation to be in.

  19. I put up with that for a few months. Live and let live used to be my motto.

    But it got so bad that I thought they had gone and bought a pet horse.

    I tried being polite, put they weren’t interested. So I mounted some very large speakers on the ceiling, put the bass on full and began turning them on every time they got unreasonable.

    Like training animals, they soon learnt. Their ironic complaints were met with the same energy.

  21. The only way to not get annoyed with people in a flat above you is to either own a house or live on the top floor. I know this from experience.

    Before I got my own house, I had the WORST people in the flat above me. Pretty sure they were drug users cos they would always be placing around at 3am with footsteps that sounded like if Hagrid had concrete shoes. And that was with carpets….

    Moving out was the best thing I ever did in that regard.

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