Whole-Upstairs Impact Soundproofing with Plush Carpet
Superpad under plush Stanton carpet on the stairs, hallway and upstairs rooms — footfall and stair noise cut at the source, with a soft finish underfoot.
Before & after
Project photos
Stairs are the loudest path in a house — they got the full pad build-up. The hallway transition, pad edge butted flush so nothing telegraphs through. Wall-to-floor clearance checked room by room. 
Doors came off, then went back on with clearance over the thicker floor.
Build timeline
- 1
Walk-through and pad selection
The client wanted to upgrade the carpet on the stairs and the upstairs rooms, and wanted the floor to feel and sound quieter. We specified Superpad under the new carpet — a dense rubber underpad that in most cases replaces the standard carpet pad outright and adds real impact isolation instead of just cushion.
- 2
Tear-out and floor prep
Old carpet and pad came out, the subfloor was cleaned and checked for squeaks and high spots, and doors were taken off so the new floor build-up could run through the openings without a fight.
- 3
Underlay and Superpad
Underlay and Superpad were laid across the hallway and room spaces and cut into the stair geometry, with seams butted tight and vents cut in cleanly so nothing telegraphs through the finished carpet.
- 4
Plush carpet and stairs
The client chose Stanton plush carpet in Jazzy Snow. It was stretched over the pad in the rooms and hallway and wrapped tread-and-riser up the full staircase — the noisiest path in any two-storey home.
- 5
Doors rehung and edges finished
With the floor thicker than before, every door was rehung with proper clearance, edges were tucked to the baseboards, and the transitions between spaces were finished flat.
Materials & system summary
The key soundproofing components used on this build, grouped by the job each layer does in the assembly.
Impact isolation layer
Dense recycled-rubber underpad laid beneath the carpet — in most cases it eliminates the need for a separate carpet pad while cutting footfall and stair impact noise.
Underlay
Rubber-composite underlay across hallway and room spaces to add mass under the finished floor without stacking up excess height.
Finished floor
- Stanton plush carpet — Jazzy Snow
Client-selected plush carpet; the soft pile adds its own absorption on top of the pad and gives the upstairs a quieter, warmer feel.
What was the sound concern?
A San Francisco family wanted to replace tired carpet on their stairs and throughout the upstairs — but the real complaint was noise. In a two-storey home the staircase and upstairs floor are the loudest structures in the house: every footstep, every trip up and down, transmits straight into the rooms below as impact noise that a normal carpet pad barely touches.
What was our plan?
Rather than treat this as a flooring swap, we treated the floor as an assembly. Superpad, a dense rubber acoustic underpad, would go down in place of the standard carpet pad — in most cases it eliminates the need for one entirely — with acoustic underlay across the hallway and room spaces, then the client's chosen plush carpet as the finished surface. Stairs would get the same build-up, wrapped tread and riser, because that is where the impact energy is highest.
What further issues did we need to resolve?
A thicker floor assembly changes everything that meets it. Door clearances had to be reworked, air-vent cut-outs had to land exactly right so the carpet finishes flush around them, and each transition between the stairs, hallway and rooms had to stay flat with no lip to catch a toe. All of it happened in an occupied home, so the work was staged space by space.
What was our final Sound Solution?
The finished upstairs is quiet underfoot from the bottom step to the last bedroom: Superpad and underlay under plush Stanton carpet in Jazzy Snow, tight edges at every baseboard, clean vent cut-outs, and doors rehung with proper clearance over the new floor. Footfall and stair noise into the rooms below dropped noticeably, and the home gained a soft, warm finish in the process.
Want a room like this?
Tell us the size of your space, where it is, and whether you're trying to block sound or clean up the sound inside it. We'll come back with a scoped estimate — usually within one business day.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (415) 864-4440.