Carpets, Lino & Flooring

would plywood over a wooden subfloor help with noise of laminate flooring

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 3.20 PM

Hi, could any joiners please offer me some advice. I currently have a laminate flooring fitted over a wooden subfloor with only the 2mm cheap pvc underlay. The neighbour next door has been complaining about the noise level and she seems to bang the wall when my children are running across the laminate floor. It is very loud and I have had enough of listening to her banging as it has made me very uncomfortable. So I have went out and bought better underlay (vitrex premier boards) and have asked the joiner who fitted my laminate floor to lift it to put down the better underlay to see if it will help. Everything I seem to have read on the internet seems to suggest that the best thing to do is to put plywood down on the subfloor first then the underlay then the laminate but when I said about plywood to the joiner he said that wouldn't help with noise as it is running through the joists and putting plywood onto would make it worse. Can someone confirm if this is correct please as I will be living in this home for a very long time and need the issue sorted for good. Also I wanted to mention that I have read that laminate floors shouldn't be install in the same direction as the planks in the subfloor (and mines was) so I'm wondering is that why it is very noisey? I live in a terraced house and there seems to be a gap under the subfloor for vents. Thanks