If you live in a multi-level home, you know how loud floors can be. Kids run down the hallway upstairs and it sounds like a herd of elephants in the family room. Someone grabs a late-night snack and every footstep on the kitchen floor seems to echo through the basement. You want the clean look and easy care of laminate, but you also want some peace and quiet.
The good news: with the right materials and installation, laminate can be a surprisingly quiet option between floors—not just in new construction, but in existing homes too.
Why Laminate Is a Smart Choice Between Floors
Modern laminate is a big step up from the hollow, clicky floors you might remember from the early 2000s. Today’s planks are denser, more stable, and designed to float smoothly over quality underlayments.
That matters in a multi-level Draper home because most of your noise issues fall into two buckets: impact sound (footsteps, dropped toys) and airborne sound (voices, TV, music). A well-built laminate plank can help with both, especially when you choose products with higher AC wear ratings and thicker cores.
If you want to see what this looks like in real products, you can browse AC4 and AC5 options from brands like Mannington and Revwood in our laminate flooring catalog. These are the types of planks we reach for when a family tells us their main goal is cutting down on noise between levels.
The Real Quiet Hero: Underlayment and Padding
When it comes to sound, the laminate itself is only half the story. The layer underneath is where most of the quiet comes from.
For multi-level homes, we usually recommend:
- A dense, sound-rated underlayment under floating laminate on upper floors
- Thoughtful transitions where laminate meets softer materials like carpet
Impact noise is what drives most people crazy—heels, toys, and pet claws tapping overhead. A quality underlayment cushions those impacts and slows down the vibration that wants to travel through the subfloor to the rooms below. In some homes, we’ll pair laminate in high-traffic areas with carpeted bedrooms or stairs, using thicker pad to keep those spaces especially quiet. Because we sell any carpet padding at our cost, upgrading to a higher-end pad for bedrooms or lofts often fits comfortably into the overall project budget, and you can see more of those options in our extensive carpet selection.
If you’re not sure how much underlayment you really need, that’s where our in-home visits help. We look at your existing subfloor, joist spacing, and problem areas so we can recommend a sound solution that isn’t overkill—but actually works.
Where to Use Laminate vs. Softer Surfaces
A quiet multi-level home usually comes from mixing surfaces, not picking a single material everywhere.
On the main floor, laminate is a great choice for kitchens, hallways, and living areas that see ski boots, pets, and constant traffic. Upstairs, a lot of Draper families like laminate in the loft or game room, but prefer soft, warm floors in bedrooms so footsteps are muted and mornings feel more comfortable.
If you lean that direction, it can help to compare laminate in your busy spaces with the thousands of textures and patterns in our residential carpet library. Seeing them side by side—often right in your own home lighting—is usually what makes the decision click.
In basements or lower levels that double as media rooms, some homeowners also look at waterproof plank options for areas near exterior doors or bathrooms. That’s where our luxury vinyl catalog can be a useful comparison point, especially if you want something that’s both quiet and highly water-resistant.
Why Installation Quality Matters for Noise
Even the best laminate and underlayment can sound louder than they should if the installation is rushed. Gaps, hollow spots, or an uneven subfloor create “drum” areas where every step is amplified.
We spend a lot of time on prep in multi-level homes:
- Flattening high and low spots so planks sit solidly
- Choosing the right underlayment thickness for your specific subfloor
- Planning expansion gaps and transitions so the floor can move quietly instead of creaking
If you want to see what that level of detail looks like in real houses, our project gallery shows photos of completed flooring installs across the Wasatch Front, including multi-purpose spaces that blend hard and soft surfaces.
Behind those projects is a small, local team led by Corey, who is hands-on with most jobs. Our story and approach are summed up in the background on our Sandy-based flooring shop, but what matters most day to day is that we treat your home like we’d want ours treated—especially when it comes to noise, comfort, and long-term livability.
Ready to Quiet Things Down?
If upstairs footsteps and echoing hallways are wearing on you, it may not take a full remodel to make a big difference. Often, the right laminate, matched with sound-rated underlayment and smarter use of carpet in key areas, is enough to calm a busy household.
We’re happy to walk your home, talk through options, and bring samples so you can hear and feel the difference for yourself. When you’re ready, you can book a free measurement and quote, and we’ll help you plan a quieter, more comfortable home from the floors up.
