Solution to a Noisy Laminate Floor

Q: The owner of the condo above mine has installed laminate flooring. He did so because of the amount of noise (loud talking, TV, and especially footsteps) coming through to our apt below with the vinyl flooring. He installed it himself. I know that the sub-floor is wood joists with 1 by 4 or 1 by 6 wood laid diagonally across the joists. There could be vinyl flooring over that. It is a 1965 building with no insulation between floors. It was intolerable before, but now, a new tenant who is up all hours of the day and night is making life a nightmare. Please give me a few solutions (medium to high cost) to help cut out as much noise as possible while still retaining the owners choice of laminate.
Rudy V.
Miami Beach
A: Condos typically have very stringent requirements for sound when it comes to flooring. The common “standard” in for North American condos is typically 6mm of cork underlayment, or the equivalent sound reduction of 6″ of concrete.
Assuming you want to remove the current flooring, and install new underlayment, then reinstall the previous flooring, this can be done, and most likely would vastly improve sound absorption as the floor is likely installed over a cheaper foam underlayment. Another potential, though likely costly, resolution would be to install some sound board or similar sound insulation into the ceiling side of the subfloor between the joists.
Typically with a subfloor set up of this form, it is key to get good sound transmission control. Carpet is a good choice here as it is naturally great at removing sound transmission, but in the case of the laminate, installing 6mm of cork at a bare minimum would do quite a bit. You could go as far as to do 12mm of cork or 6mm of cork with a modified foam underlayment like Sound 6 Barrier, installed over it, then the flooring. These will run you around $2.00/sf, but the sound and impact control gained will remove a majority of the sound problems you are running into.