Wood Floor Acoustics: How to Make a Wood Floor Quieter

A wood floor affects acoustics in two separate ways. Inside the room, its hard surface reflects sound, so a sparsely furnished room with wood floors can echo. Below the room, footsteps and dropped objects travel through the structure as impact noise. Echo is solved mostly by soft furnishings and the room itself; impact noise is solved by how the floor is built and installed, above all by a resilient layer between the wood and the structure.

Do wood floors make a room echo?

They can. Wood, like stone, tile and concrete, is a hard surface that reflects most of the sound that hits it. A room with a wood floor, bare walls, large windows and little furniture lets sound bounce around for longer, which makes voices sound sharp and conversations tiring. The floor is rarely the only cause; it is one large hard surface among several.

No hard floor absorbs much airborne sound, and that includes wood. The fixes are in the rest of the room:

• Rugs, the single most effective addition, especially under seating and dining areas.
• Curtains in heavy linen or wool over large areas of glass.
• Upholstered furniture, bookshelves and soft cushions.
• Acoustic ceilings or wall panels in large open spaces such as restaurants and offices.

Musical instruments make the point the other way round: they are made of wood chosen to resonate and carry sound. A floor needs the opposite, a surface that is dense, well supported and damped by what sits on it.

Why are wood floors noisy for the neighbors below?

Footsteps, chair legs and dropped objects hit the floor and set the structure vibrating. That vibration travels through the slab or joists and is heard as noise in the room below. This is impact noise, and it depends far more on the build-up under the floor than on the wood on top.

The usual solution is to separate the floor from the structure with a resilient layer, so the vibration is damped before it reaches the slab. Acoustic underlays made of cork, rubber or dense foam do this job. In apartment buildings, local rules or the building's own regulations often set a minimum level of impact sound insulation, so check them before choosing an installation method. Ratings exist for this: IIC in North America, and an impact sound reduction figure (often written ΔLw) in Europe. Compare products on the same rating, tested on a similar build-up.

Hotels test floor acoustics hardest, with guests above and below every room. At Claridge's Hotel in London, Forêt, a composed endgrain oak floor, is paired with a large rug, curtains and upholstered furniture, the combination that keeps a room with a hard floor from echoing.

Glue-down or floating: which is quieter?

For the sound inside the room, a floor glued fully to a flat subfloor is usually quieter. A floating floor rests on its underlay without being fixed down, and the small gap and movement under the boards can make footsteps sound hollow and drum-like. A glued floor feels solid underfoot and sounds duller and more muted.

For the neighbors below, a floating floor on a good acoustic underlay can perform well, and glued floors can be laid over specific acoustic underlays made to be glued on both sides. Which works best depends on the building, the subfloor and the rating required, so it is a question for the installer and, in apartments, the building's rules.

Is end grain flooring quieter?

End grain has a reputation for a softer, quieter footfall than plank floors. On an end grain floor you walk on the ends of the wood fibers rather than along them, and the surface is broken into many small blocks rather than long boards. Heels and hard shoes tend to make a duller sound on it than the sharp click they make on long planks. End grain floors were once used to pave city streets, Paris among them, partly to quiet the noise of hooves and iron wheels.

Two cautions. End grain is still a hard floor and does not stop a room from echoing; rugs and soft furnishings still do that work. And it does not replace a resilient layer when impact noise to the floor below is the issue.

Restaurants combine both problems: many voices in one room and constant footsteps. At the Hotel Dame des Arts in Paris, Opus, an endgrain oak floor in an organic pattern, is laid in Black, with upholstered banquettes and slatted wood walls doing much of the work against echo.

A checklist for a quieter wood floor

• Decide which problem you are solving: echo in the room, or footsteps heard below.
• For echo: add rugs, curtains and upholstered furniture; in large spaces, plan for acoustic ceilings or panels.
• For impact noise: specify a resilient underlay and an installation method that meets the building's requirements.
• For a solid, less hollow sound underfoot: prefer a floor fully glued to a flat, sound subfloor.
• For a softer footfall: consider end grain.
• Use felt pads under chairs and tables; they cut scraping noise as well as scratches.

Frequently asked questions

Is wood flooring louder than carpet?

Yes. Carpet absorbs sound in the room and cushions footsteps, while wood is a hard surface that reflects sound. Rugs, curtains and soft furniture close much of the gap inside the room, and a resilient underlay reduces the footsteps heard below.

How do I reduce echo in a room with wood floors?

Add soft, absorbent surfaces: rugs, heavy curtains, upholstered furniture and bookshelves. In large or sparsely furnished spaces, acoustic ceilings or wall panels help most. The floor itself absorbs little sound, whatever it is made of.

What is the best underlay to soundproof a wood floor?

There is no single best material. Cork, rubber and dense foam underlays are all used. Choose one rated for the installation method you are using, glued or floating, and compare products on the same impact sound rating tested on a similar build-up.

Is a glued wood floor quieter than a floating floor?

Inside the room, usually yes: a fully glued floor feels solid and avoids the hollow, drum-like sound a floating floor can make. For noise heard below, both can perform well when laid over a suitable acoustic underlay.

Is end grain flooring quieter than planks?

It has a reputation for a softer, duller footfall than plank floors, because you walk on the ends of the fibers and the surface is broken into small blocks. It is still a hard floor, though, so it does not replace rugs for echo or an underlay for impact noise.

Quiet floors by OscarOno Paris

OscarOno Paris's endgrain floors are Cube, a simple grid of endgrain oak blocks, Forêt and Opus. Each is an endgrain oak top layer on birch plywood (6 mm on 10 mm for Cube, 8 mm on 12 mm for Forêt and Opus), with joints under 1 mm, in Natural, Smoke or Black. All three are rated usage class 34 for very heavy commercial traffic, carry a Cfl-s1 fire rating and are FSC and PEFC certified. For installation and acoustic build-ups, see the spec sheet for each floor.

Order samples, and find spec sheets, CAD and 3D files in the library.