Carpet is the best type of covering to deaden the sound of footsteps and chairs being moved across the floor. It absorbs the sound of voices, conversations and music, and thus avoids the annoyance of hard floors creaking or the noise of heels on tiled floors!

This is a major asset in view of the fact that noise is cited as the main source of nuisance for a majority of French people.

It is therefore no accident that carpet is to be found wherever a certain degree of acoustic comfort is required (cinemas, restaurants, offices, etc.).

Changes in European standards have led to the need to adapt the noise regulation of 28 October 1994; two new European standards must now be used to calculate standard noise performance assessment factors for products and buildings. The statutory values, names and notations of the assessment indices in the new noise regulation of 30 June 1999 were thus amended and are now expressed in a different unit, but the intrinsic performance required for buildings is of the same order as previously.

For renovation works, the rule is that the replacement carpet should have the same or better properties than the old carpet.
The courts have indeed upheld a complaint for noise resulting from a carpet being replaced by a wooden floor in a building (annulment of 5/1988): in such cases, it is advisable to insulate the floor with carpet to deaden the sound of footsteps.