I agree - you'll have to choose between more allergy-friendly hard flooring or more noise. The sound barrier should help - you could also soundproof the ceiling (even adding a layer of drywall will help - you )

I have hardwood floors in the upstairs bedrooms. Before I added rugs, I could hear my kids drop a lego! I love how durable they are but I do think rugs are necessary for noise and coziness.

She is 14, so she is actually in her room doing stuff a lot when husband and I are trying to sleep. Husband wakes up at 4:30am and I wake up at 5am, so we go to bed MUCH earlier than daughter does (her virtual school doesn't start until 8:30 and all she does is roll out of bed to walk to her desk), so it is an issue and has been affecting our sleep this whole week. She also wakes up at least once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (she drinks tons of water) so that wakes us up, too. I'm just thinking ahead, too, of how much worse it might be when all of the upstairs carpet is gone, not just in the room above our bedroom. I really hate gross carpet, and with pets it gets gross very quickly (not to mention messy children), but I'm not sure I will be able to live with the noise if the noise reducing pads used between the subfloor and flooring don't work. How much do they ACTUALLY reduce the noise?

Maybe switch rooms with her?

In one word: Cork.

Cork can be found in a floating floor plank. It comes in thicknesses between 10mm and 15mm (10.5mm - 12mm is common). I would figure out how HIGH the carpet stood and how much clearance the door has and work with those numbers.

For instance, if your door has a snick more than 3/4" clearance, I would find a 10.5 or 11mm thick cork floating plank (7/16") and ADD 6mm cork underlayment (1/4") so that the TOTAL floor height is roughly 3/4" tall.

Do that for ALL areas. I would then go ahead and add (so long as the cork allows it) a coat or two of protective finish like Loba 2K Supra AT. This coating adds SCRATCH resistance AND slip resistance (it has some of the best anti-slip ratings on the market). It ALSO adds moisture resistance...such as when a leaking pet (or human...spills happen) accidently loses control, the finish on top will prevent permanent damage to the planks.

The cork will mimic the carpet absorption. Not quite perfect but very very close. You will still hear the deep thud of HARD footsteps (like thumping out of bed in a huff...whhhhhhaaaaaaat???Teenage girls NEVER do THAAAT ;-P

www.icorkfloor.com

Have a look. It can't hurt. If nothing else, it gives you a GREAT place to purchase 6mm or 12mm cork underlay for laminate. LVP does NOT like underpad.

LVP will mimic what you hear RIGHT NOW. It doesn't like underpad. So much so that most Condo boards do NOT allow LVP in living areas because of noise complaints.

The cork underlay sounds like something worth looking into. Switching rooms with her is not an option I'm willing to consider- our bedroom is the only one on the main floor and has a huge private bath. Upstairs are 3 bedrooms and one shared bath. I was just hoping to hear from people who'd used different types of underlay how much it actually helped with noise reduction.

I would do the engineered flooring and buy a nice area rug, which can be cleaned, often for her allergies. If the area rug is thick enough, it should absorb sound too. If you have a piece of carpet, or another area rug, lay it on the floor now, and try it out and see if it takes away a lot of the sound. You dont have to cover the whole floor, just the walking areas.