Multi-level living done properly: fire-rated carpet, hard floors on acoustic underlay, and no vinyl.
Two things decide an apartment floor, and developers and owner-occupiers weigh both: it has to sell or lease the unit on looks, and it has to satisfy the fire and acoustic rules that come with stacking homes on top of each other. Across Victoria, Urban Commercial Flooring handles apartment flooring and multi-residential flooring end to end. Bedrooms and living rooms take soft residential carpet; a living room can instead take laminate, hybrid or engineered, laid on an acoustic underlay so the floor meets the BCA; corridors run fire-rated commercial carpet. Vinyl stays out of the tower.
Footsteps travelling down into the unit below are what the Building Code's impact-sound limits exist to stop, so every laminate and engineered floor has to be laid on a rated acoustic underlay — and expect the certifier to want the test data on file. Plenty of premium buildings set their target well above the BCA minimum.
On the spec:AAAC / Lₙ,w rated acoustic underlay beneath every laminate and engineered floor.
Stack homes vertically and the fire rating stops being optional — it applies to the residential carpet inside the units just as much as the commercial carpet in the corridors. Our team specifies carpet that clears the critical-radiant-flux figure set for that building class.
On the spec:fire-rated residential carpet inside units, fire-rated commercial carpet in corridors.
What a buyer or tenant walks in on is what sells the place. Design-grade laminate, engineered timber and soft wool-blend carpet read warm and expensive in person and in the marketing photos — all achieved without vinyl.
On the spec:design laminate or engineered through living, wool-blend carpet in the bedrooms.
Repeat the same apartment fifty or two hundred times and small variations become expensive. Choosing a sensibly priced floor that lays the same way in every unit is what holds the programme and the budget together.
On the spec:one repeatable carpet or hard-floor build-up, rolled out in stages.
Soft residential carpet, or laminate, hybrid or engineered sitting on acoustic underlay.
Quiet, warm fire-rated residential carpet — or carry the living-room hard floor through.
Laminate or hybrid rated for moisture, again on acoustic underlay.
Wet-area trades tile and waterproof these; our flooring meets theirs at the doorway.
Shared circulation runs fire-rated commercial carpet, tile or broadloom.
Carpet carrying the required critical-radiant-flux fire rating.
Inside the unit, soft residential carpet with a multi-level fire rating suits bedrooms and living rooms. Shared corridors get fire-rated commercial carpet tile instead. Where a living room calls for a hard floor, laminate, hybrid or engineered all work — but only ever on an acoustic underlay, from the suppliers listed further down. Apartment towers get no vinyl at all.
Wool and cashmere-touch broadloom that brings warmth and quiet to bedrooms and living rooms, carrying the fire rating a multi-level building needs.
Broadloom made here in Australia: tough enough for daily living-room and bedroom use, and we specify it fire-rated so it suits multi-level buildings.
Fire-rated commercial carpet tile, Australian-made, for corridors and shared spaces — it takes constant traffic and a damaged tile lifts out on its own.
Hybrid, laminate and engineered aren't ranges we catalogue ourselves. Instead our team specifies and lays product from the strongest suppliers operating in Victoria and nationally. Every one of those floors goes down on acoustic underlay so it clears the BCA impact-sound rule at minimum — premium buildings ask for more — and carries a fire rating suited to multi-level living. Carpet is different: it keeps its own brand pages and catalogues.
A hybrid, laminate and engineered range specified on Victorian jobs constantly — laid over acoustic underlay and fire-rated for apartments.
For premium apartment living rooms: engineered timber on a rated acoustic underlay that usually beats the BCA minimum.
Two sets of rules govern an apartment floor: the impact-sound limits the National Construction Code places between units, and the fire requirements attached to the building class. We write the specification against both, then pass the building surveyor the acoustic and fire test data to close it out.
In practice: rated acoustic underlay goes under all laminate and engineered work, the carpet inside units is fire-rated residential, and common egress paths take fire-rated commercial carpet. Where a premium building aims above the BCA acoustic minimum, that target gets written down and proven rather than taken on trust.
Residential carpet with a multi-level fire rating covers bedrooms and living rooms, and a living room can take laminate, hybrid or engineered instead. Whatever hard floor is chosen, it goes down on a rated acoustic underlay so the neighbours below don't hear footsteps. Corridors are fire-rated commercial carpet. No vinyl goes into apartment towers.
They do. A rated acoustic underlay under laminate and engineered is the minimum the BCA impact-sound rule accepts, and many premium developments write a stricter target into their brief.
We can. Apartment flooring across Victoria is supplied and installed by Urban Commercial Flooring at whatever scale the job needs, one unit or an entire tower, laid unit by unit in stages so the build programme holds.
Send through the building and what sits where, and our team will put together the fire-rated carpet and the acoustic-underlaid laminate, hybrid or engineered to suit — samples and an installed price included, whatever the scale.
Request samples & a quote
