It’s no secret that a hard floor can be a loud floor. Hardwood
flooring is beloved for its beauty, charm, and longevity, but less so for the
echoes it sends bouncing through your home. There are ways to fix this, such
as adding soundproof materials underneath the floor, or covering your
beautiful hardwood planks with rugs and carpet runners, but you might be
ready to try something else entirely. Here are some of your
options:
- Carpet. This is the most affordable,
most effective, and most obvious way to soundproof your home, but it comes
with some drawbacks. Carpet absorbs sound, but it also absorbs a lot of other
things: dust, dirt, pollen, and anything that gets spilled on it. Cleaning a
carpet is more complicated than cleaning wood or tile flooring, and this can
be frustrating if you have children or pets. - Cork. This
wood-like material, made from tree bark, is an increasingly popular
alternative to hardwood and costs about the same. Cork is softer, making it a
more comfortable option for the kitchen or other areas where you may be
standing for long periods of time. Also, since harvesting bark doesn’t mean
killing the whole tree, cork is environmentally friendly. Like hardwood, cork
flooring comes in many different colors and textures, so tailoring it to the
rest of your home is easier than you might think. Just don’t go overboard and
put it in your basement—cork is prone to rotting. - VInyl
planking. A modern, 3D-printed option, vinyl planking looks like wood and
feels like wood, but it sounds more like carpet. It’s also easier to clean
and repair, and its durability rivals that of hardwood. All of these things
have made vinyl planking a popular option for apartments, where noise
complaints and damage from renters are common concerns, but it’s an
increasingly popular choice for homeowners as well. It is more expensive than
carpet but cheaper than hardwood. Plus, you’ll spend a lot less on repairs,
since replacing a damaged vinyl plank is easier than throwing out your whole
carpet.
Carpet wins the title of “most
quiet flooring,” but that doesn’t mean it’s the best flooring, and it
certainly isn’t the only kind. Whether you have allergies and asthma, or you
just don’t like the way carpet looks, you don’t have to choose between a home
that looks good and one that sounds good. You can have both, and you don’t
have to burn a hole in your wallet to get it.
