Sound Issues in a Bedroom

Q: My wife and I are trying to figure out what we need to do to replace the flooring in our bedroom. A few years back we ripped out our old carpet and padding and the noise has visibly increased, as our living room is under our bedroom.
We are thinking about putting the Sound barrier II Acoustical Underlayment down plus the 5 Star Rate 6mm Cork Underlayment on top of the sound barrier.
Would this be a good idea? In addition, we do want to put some sort of finished floor down on top of all this. I like pre-finished hardwood floors while my wife likes cork.
The floor width that we have to work with is about 5/8″. The square footage is about 250 square feet. The subfloor is plywood nailed onto wood joists. There is no insulation in the floor. Our walls and ceilings are sheet rock.
If you need further information, please e-mail me back.
Thanks for your help!
John Blackmore
A: When you remove carpet and padding it is very common to notice and increase in noise from the floor. Carpet padding has rather high STC/IIC ratings so it naturally reduces much of the impact.
In looking into a wood floor, there are some measure you can take to ensure much of the noise you are currently encountering is suppressed. My first suggest would be to take some flooring screws and ensure all of the plywood for your subfloor is not partially loose, which will make quite a bit of noise. Just put a few new screws through the plywood into the joists and you should eliminate a bit of noise.
After ensuring the subfloor is not loose, the biggest reduction in sound you will receive is a good underlayment. Your suggestion would eliminate a lot of noise, though I would suggest installing the cork first, to act as a substrate, then install the Sound 6 Barrier. this will help ensure you do not negate the benefit of cork’s density. Now by doing this, you will take up about 3/8″ just with your underlayment so I would honestly suggest just sticking with the cork as it should provide enough sound reduction on its own, similar to your old carpet pad. This will free up a bit of space for your floor since you are working with a height constraint.
As far as flooring is concerned, a floating engineered hardwood or floating cork will both work very well in this situation. You can also look into a laminate floor if you want to ensure your floor can take a bit more abuse.
If you go with a cork floor, you will have more sound benefit as cork floors naturally suppress a bit more of the noise you are currently dealing with. The downside to cork is that it is susceptible to gouging due to how soft cork is, but at the same time this makes cork more comfortable to walk on. Engineered hardwood floors will give you a bit more durability against gouges, but unlike cork dents will be permanent. In the end any floating floor will work for you and combined with the 6mm cork underlayment should give you plenty of sound reduction.