flooring

[wolf63]

I live in a second floor flat (I have the third floor as well). After I get a wall knocked down my whole first floor will be one L shaped room. It will be my livingroom, computer area/study and my kitchen. I WANT wooden type flooring. I also plan to get a cat or two in the next few months. Can I get a linoleum type flooring that would dull the sound going to my neighbours down stairs but will look like laminate (or whatever it is called)? I don't really want carpet in the kitchen but want flooring to be the same everywhere. I used to have carpet in the kitchen, and I also had a dog who was a very messy eater and this did not do the carpet much good. I am going to get laminate upstairs, but at a much later date.

[vehelpfulguy]

Have you checked the wall you are knocking down is not a supporting wall.

Make absolutely sure before you knock it down.

If the building collapses you could face a criminal conviction, mabe manslaughter if someone dies.

[buildersmate]

Yes, the wall knocking down exercise requires Building Control approval if the wall is a load-bearing wall. You need proper advice about this. If you ask a couple of builders and they both say, yes it's loadbearing but they will just put a lintel in, alarm bells should start ringing - such work MUST have BC approval first.
The answer to your question isn't straightforward I'm afraid. The recent rush towards use of wood-type flooring has caused all sorts of problems for downstairs neighbours in flats that many leasehold and freehold flats have constraints on them to prevent the fitting of such surfaces. The very action of fitting such a flooring reduces the sound-deadening properties between the 2 dwellings. It may be acceptable to fit cushion flooring if that is acceptable to you, or laminate on a 'floating' substrate - using what is effectively a large sheet of doublewrap under the floor to act as a sound deadening layer.

[wolf63]

I had a builder up to look at the wall and he said that it was a partition wall (he called it something else though) and not a load bearing wall. He quoted �1500 to have it taken down. I am going to see if a joiner would do it cheaper.

As to the flooring it is a matter of I WANT wooden flooring but I will probably have to go for carpetting.

I live in Scotland and the words freehold and leasehold mean nothing to me.

But thanks for the guidance guys.

Susan