Advice For Those Wanting New Flooring....
 

Over the holiday weekend my husband and I replaced the floor in my daycare room. My room is 21x12 with a cement floor, after 10 years of having carpet, I decided that I wanted a hard surface floor. We used a newer product that is a click together vinyl floor that is water resistant.

First off, I love the floor. It is attractive and I love the ease of clean up.

Now for the negative....my room is SO LOUD!!!! Sound echoes, when they drop a toy it is loud, every noise is magnified. I will be getting an area rug with hopes that will lessen some of the noise, but there is a huge difference.

As it has only been two days, I can't say yet if I regret my decission to not put carpet back in. I think in time the clean up appeal will out weight the noise level but for today, wholly crow---what have I done???!!??

I will post before and after pictures this evening after work!!

Sounds great! That's exactly what we want to do.

For the noise, yeah, the carpet definitely does absorb some sound but area rugs help a lot. And make the floor more comfy anyway.

We have laminate flooring (the click together kind) and it is not loud at all :(

We did get the most expensive moisture/sound barrier under it so maybe that is why.... I LOVE my laminate- my bro spilled a whole gallon of red enamel paint on it and it splattered everywhere. Some if it dried before we could get it all up and it still came up! Didn't even leave a stain.

I have heard that the type of underlayment you use can make a difference in noise level. I don't have first hand knowlege though so I'd be interested to know if that's true before I change up our flooring this fall :).

We bought the more expensive barrier for under our laminate as well and it isn't noisy at all. My dad out down laminate in his dining room and kitchen only and used cheap barrier under and it's loud as heck!! Wen we bought ours, they told us to buy the better underlayment and we did. And are very very happy with it.

The type of flooring we purchased doesn't require an underlayment, but we purchased cork to put down as we hoped it would help not be so cold on the concrete floor and also for sound.

Just thought I would share our experience, for our space with the cork underlayment on the concrete floor it is loud. We didn't go cheap by any means so I don't think it is an issue of lesser materials, my husband works at a flooring store so he isn't going to put down poor quality materials, but regardless there is a marked difference in sound.

Ours didn't require underlayment either, but we did it anyway just because our foundation is conventional and not slab. Plus where we live is 100% humidity much of the time. The one we got was actually more expensive per square foot than the floor itself was but I'm so glad we bought that one. It's plastic on one side and a thick foam on the other side. Not sure if the name of it.

Maybe it's the type of laminate or the thickness itself that makes a difference??

Not sure.

I would love to get rid of my carpet for the hygiene part of it....but I don't like the coldness and echo that comes with bare floors. My sister-in -law has all wood floors. Looks gorgeous, but her house sounds like a warehouse.

Rugs should help with the sound. Also heavy curtains if that's a possibility too.

I have bamboo and it has been trashed by the kids and never looks clean. I am on the flip-side and considering carpet and just putting something down for the eating area. The noise and it never looking clean really bug me. I am so undecided about what to do.

May I suggest these, or something similar?

http://www.softtiles.com/images/uses...ayroomB650.jpg

If you look in the décor group, I posted some pics of my sister's play room. She put in laminate, and was going to do an area rug, but happened to have an unopened package of the foam play mats.

Once she had them down, she realized they were better than a rug. Cheaper than any decent one, plus you can wash them off (even use bleach). She never did buy a rug.

I love my laminate- in my entire main living and bedrooms... We too went for the high quality sound barrier sheets- guess I'm glad I did:)

Originally Posted by Meeko:
I would love to get rid of my carpet for the hygiene part of it....but I don't like the coldness and echo that comes with bare floors. My sister-in -law has all wood floors. Looks gorgeous, but her house sounds like a warehouse.

Rugs should help with the sound. Also heavy curtains if that's a possibility too.

Our neighbors have hardwood throughout their house. Top of the line everything and their house is LOUD!

Oh man... I JUST received my new flooring system. Its click together carpet or tile squares for basements prone to flooding :( Its totally water proof and "reusable" which is awesome. Spent a ton of money! But I am super worried about the noise level now. Prior we had pergo with the padding stuff under and the noise wasn't bad. I guess we'll do that again .... but this stuff just looks like it will echo...

Here's hoping we both will get used to it :hug:

Originally Posted by Heidi:
May I suggest these, or something similar?

http://www.softtiles.com/images/uses...ayroomB650.jpg

If you look in the décor group, I posted some pics of my sister's play room. She put in laminate, and was going to do an area rug, but happened to have an unopened package of the foam play mats.

Once she had them down, she realized they were better than a rug. Cheaper than any decent one, plus you can wash them off (even use bleach). She never did buy a rug.

I meant that you could create area rugs for different centers with this, not to cover the whole floor.