I hope someone with laminate experience will come in here and give you some good advice. I have only two comments: 1. Check your condo agreement or check with the condo "board", if you have one. There may be a particular laminate underlayment required. 2. There are many "mass loaded" soundproofing underlayments in the marketplace. Make sure you use one rated for sound attenuation.

Good point glensfc to check with Condo Assn. I know it's allowed because many owners have already changed out their carpet for hardwood/laminate floors. However, if I do so, I want to do the right thing for my downstairs neighbor. It's just me so any noise made will be minimal. I understand that laminate is more durable than actual hardwood and much cheaper so that's why I was considering going that route. Thanks for your input.

Don't know about the condo noise issue but we had laminate put in where carpet used to be a month ago - love it so far. We have a fireplace in the living room. It has tile around it - about 2 ft out from the fireplace. We removed all the carpet and left the tile. We did not want laminate right against the fireplace. It looks nice that way. If you give me an email address I will send you a pic - not sure how to link it on this site.

My friend put it over her concrete sub-floor and I couldn't help notice the "tink tink" sound when you walk on it. Her dogs nails made a noise on it too.

We put it in our basement over an insulated sub-floor and we don't have that problem.

Any pics would really be helpful. My email address is lcoffey525@verizon.net