Laminat offenbar ohne Dämmung verlegt

Hi,

I moved into a new house (owner) in 2017. New because a fire caused by the previous owner burned down everything except the foundation. The previous owners were accommodated in a hotel during the reconstruction period.

Shortly after completion, they sold the house to me. The attic was used by the previous owner as a child's room (little boy) for 7 years. In any case, according to my neighbors, they apparently did not care about how the reconstruction was done because they probably already intended to sell the house.

The fact is now that I use the attic as my office. Below is the bedroom. You can hear every step and tread there. Now I suspect that the company that built it (the insurance covered the costs due to the fire) kept the costs as low as possible and did not install any insulation in the attic under the laminate flooring.

My question is, now all my office furniture is up here, like a corner desk that I had to unpack and assemble up here because it wouldn't have fit fully assembled.

The same applies to all the other furniture.

My question now is how to minimize the stepping noise? I have thought of putting a carpet over it, but then I would have to move the furniture back and forth during installation because taking everything apart and moving it out of the room is basically not an option as it's too much work, and I have various light strips (Govee) attached to the office furniture which are glued on and would all have to be removed.

Does anyone have an idea how I could minimize the footstep noise?
- Lay some kind of insulation on the laminate and then a carpet? Or would that not help much?

Because as it is now, it's not a condition where anyone can sleep in the bedroom when someone is in the office.

I hope I don't necessarily have to clear the room, tear out the laminate, and then install insulation underneath. Maybe there is also a possibility/method to insulate on top of the laminate.

I googled a bit but didn’t really find anything, by the way, this is how I came across this forum.

Hope for your help and thanks in advance.

Best regards

Option 1: remove everything and start anew
Option 2: put carpet on

Just check beforehand if there is something under the laminate and if the problem lies elsewhere.

Hello questioner. Given your description, there really is a problem here. According to the technical regulations, the impact sound requirements for owner-occupied single-family homes are not quite as high as for multi-family houses. In addition, the residential building you described is apparently a wooden ceiling, so it is not a concrete ceiling. With wooden ceilings, the impact sound insulation of a floor, which cannot be considered without airborne and room sound, is a problem anyway, because wooden constructions vibrate differently/stronger upon sound impulses and/or transmit sound further than a solid ceiling. Therefore, it only helps to a (in my view) insignificant extent to approach impact sound protection with soft underlays (such as a textile covering). A textile covering seems to be a feasible way, but only for the unexperienced technical layperson or the homeowner hoping for a "small budget solution". From my professional experience, I am aware of all special solutions, but in this case I do not see a recommendable solution that delivers what you have in mind. With a wooden ceiling, the only sensible option is a complete dismantling down to the blind floor, to then rebuild with impact sound insulation boards made of mineral wool, and on top of this a second subfloor made of sufficiently thick gypsum fiberboards or wood-based panels. Simply laying a textile covering, especially over a laminate floor, just because one does not want to dismantle fairy lights, is far from practical and only serves the (unrealistic) wish for an acoustic improvement with little time and cost effort! ------------------- Sorry for the perhaps "disarming" and frustrating answer: KlaRa