I recently put laminate in our home… we had vinyl down, and went right over top of it with the foam underlayment and a floating floor. The floor is quieter than when we had the vinyl only.

good luck!

I just did hardwood floors a few months ago and they sold me a fiber underlay that seems to do a good job of reducing noise. See the link below for the stuff I used.

Fortunately, hardwood manufacturers have kept pace with demand to provide appropriate products for installation in condominiums, with their concrete “sub floors”. There are a number of products to choose from, besides solid wood parquet, which is glued down. There are also laminated products, built like plywood, with a few layers of wood running in different directions, then with a solid wood (say oak, but could be other species). Some are meant to be glued down, while others “float”, which means the tongue and groove is glued together on each panel, to hold the floor together, but otherwise is just sitting on the concrete floor. There is a foam pad which is to be used under these floors. (Some versions of this floor do not require gluing the tongue and groove together, but have special joints that click lock each panel to the next and can be disassembled. In the case of reduction of sound transmission, it is very effective to install cork sheeting first.The cork could be installed with a quick dry parquet adhesive for floating floors. It should be rolled with a weighted roller to make sure of good grab between the cork/floor and the adhesive.

recently worked in a luxury home and the home owner decided on a rubber material that could be put under the hardwood floors

In all seriousness, walking on the floor with bare feet, socks, slippers or sneakers is the kindest thing you can do for the people below. Even with cork, sound will transfer (although lessened) if wearing hard soled shoes.

In most condos cork is required under any hard surface as in wood flooring. Also area rugs on top finish the room. Use 1/4″ cork. Will cost about $1 for the cork and about $ .35 for the glue for the cork, per sq. ft.

Cork, we have to use it as soundproofing in the Hancock Building in Chicago, it works quite well.

I put the laminated wood flooring all through my home by my self and it is not at all hard to do. There is a insulation that you have to buy that goes under the flooring. It comes in big rolls and you just roll it out and cut it to the size and shape you need to fit the floor. I used ducked tape to secure the lining to the floor. It has helped make my home more energy efficient and more sound proof too. I don’t think there is any way to cut down on noise while your putting it down as you do have to cut the boards to the right size and tap them into place. so there is sawing and hammering involved. one very good tip if you do put one of these floors in make sure you buy the special tool to do it with! Its a BIG help! I love my floors now and it was well worth my effort.

I’m guessing carpet is out of the question. The only recommendation I can think of would be laminate flooring or possibly engineered wood flooring. During installation there is a this cushion that goes between the current floor and the laminate. I don’t have any practical experience on the affect this will have on the downstairs neighbors, but of all the floorings, it seems to be the best bet.

I’m not sure what kinds of flooring can be installed over something I saw once in Europe. It was Styrofoam sheets with a thin aluminum veneer on top. The sheets were about 5/8 inches thick. They were designed to have hot water tubing run between the sheets in order to have a heated floor. This kind of sub floor would give more insulation that the standard padding that you get with laminate wood floors, but I just don’t know if you can install laminate on a cushion that think. Good luck!!