We took up the carpet in our hall and living areas and polished the cypress boards for the same reason in a one storey house. Our neighbour said she could hear the kids running around the house in the quiet ofthe early morning, glad we weren't trying to live under that!

Hi Houzzers You have all been so kind with your design advice, and helped us come up with this design. I think we are nearly there, and are pretty happy with the result...we still ended up with the door into bedroom from hall....but think it will be ok.....may swing the door the other way...will put doors on bathroom and sitting(not shown) I like the 2 dressing areas we have created either side of our wardrobes, and the seperate toilet. Very happy for any other input on this design before we send it off to the builder!

As bigreader has suggested any soft furnishing you can add will all help to reduce noise. Not knowing what kid of treatment you offer I would try a small well fitted head set for your clients playing soft relaxing music.

I'm looking into replacing the old carpet and tiles in my 2nd-floor apartment with engineered floating timber floorboards. The body corporate and strata committee has approved the installation of floorboards. But I have some concerns about noise transference from my apartment to the downstairs unit (and also to the units either side) if timber floors are put in. The block is about 15 years old (with concrete subfloors). The flooring company I've been chatting to claim they've been laying timber floors in apartments across Melbourne for years without issues relating to noise, and they claim a 3mm high-density underlay will be adequate for sound insulation (normally what they use if a body corp doesn't give specifics). However, the internet is teeming with expensive horror stories of noise issues in strata blocks related to people installing floorboards in upper floor units. Adding to my concern is the fact that the acoustics/sound insulation in my apartment building isn't the greatest. Having said that, my upstairs neighbour has hardwood floors, and I've never heard so much as a peep from that apartment in 5 years. So, as much as I'm itching to ditch the old carpet and ugly tiles in my apartment, are timber floors (even with the recommended acoustic underlay) in a 2nd-floor unit just too risky in regard to potential noise issues? Thanks