Hybrid flooring and noise: a simple guide for apartment owners

Hybrid flooring looks great and is easy to live with. If you live in an apartment, there is one more thing to think about: how much noise your new floor lets through to the neighbours below.

This guide explains, in plain terms, how hybrid floors handle noise, what helps make a floor quieter, and what to check before you buy.

Why noise matters in apartments

Footsteps, dropped keys and chairs scraping across the floor can all travel down into the home below. A quieter floor helps keep the peace with your neighbours.

It also matters for approval. Many strata schemes and owners corporations have rules about hard floors, and they may ask how your new floor handles noise before it goes down.

Two kinds of noise

Noise moves through a floor in two different ways.

Impact noise is made when something hits the floor, such as footsteps or a dropped object. This is where your floor and the pad underneath it make the biggest difference.

Airborne noise travels through the air, such as voices, music or the TV. This depends mostly on the concrete slab and the ceiling below, not on the floor you choose.

What helps make a hybrid floor quieter

Three things work together to make a hybrid floor quieter: the pad underneath, your building, and how the floor is installed.

The pad underneath

Most hybrid planks come with a soft acoustic pad attached to the back. This pad helps soften footsteps and reduce the impact noise that travels down.

Your building

The floor is only one part of the picture. A solid concrete slab and a suspended plasterboard ceiling in the apartment below both help a lot. The same floor can perform quite differently in two different buildings.

Good installation

Hybrid floors are laid as a floating floor, which means they are not glued or fixed down. Leaving a gap around the edges and keeping the floor clear of walls, pipes and door frames stops noise finding a shortcut into the building.

Glue under the floor, or silicone and caulk around the edges, can let more noise through, so leave them out. Your installer should follow the installation guide for your floor.

Lumina and Phoenix: the acoustic pad is already attached

Our Lumina and Phoenix hybrid ranges each come with a rubber pad already attached to every plank.

Lumina has a 2 mm rubber pad attached.

Phoenix has a 1.5 mm rubber pad attached.

That attached pad is the acoustic layer. Both floors have been independently tested for impact noise, including testing by an independent laboratory, with only the attached pad in place.

Please do not add an extra underlay

It can be tempting to add another layer underneath for extra quiet. With Lumina and Phoenix, please do not.

TFL does not approve any extra underlay under Lumina or Phoenix, including our own Sound Guard. The attached pad is the acoustic layer, and the floors were tested with that pad only.

Check with your strata and certifier first

Every building is different, and rules can change from one strata scheme to the next. Before you choose a floor:

Read your strata bylaws or owners corporation rules for anything about hard floors or noise.

Ask your strata manager or committee whether you need approval before you start. In NSW, for example, replacing carpet with a hard floor needs owners corporation approval.

Talk to your building certifier about what your building needs.

Ask what paperwork they want to see, such as an acoustic report or certificate, and keep a copy for your records.

Keep in mind that no floor can promise a result on its own. How quiet your home is depends on the floor, the pad, the slab, the ceiling and the installation all working together.

Find Lumina and Phoenix near you

The Flooring Lab is a wholesaler, so we supply our floors through flooring retailers rather than selling direct. To see and feel Lumina and Phoenix in person, visit your local flooring retailer.

Need help finding a retailer near you, or have a question about our hybrid floors? Get in touch through our contact page and we will point you in the right direction.

This is general information only. Always confirm what your building needs with your strata scheme and building certifier.