Thanks Jan, and points taken. The house is not an open concept barn, it's a 1958 home with doors to every room (even the kitchen), but hardwood floors throughout and large windows. Sound really seems to carry between the two floors. The rugs we've added so far have helped. We will just keep adding more as the budget allows.

I would still appreciate any advice on whether it's feasible to lay down cork underlayment as an area rug. I really need a runner for a long upstairs hallway that's 15' x 4', with a couple of jogs. Decor isn't really important in that space, just sound absorption. Cutting pieces from a roll of cork would be much easier than piecing together area rugs to cover the 3 different sections. The hallway connects all of the bedrooms, and the stairwell funnels downstairs noise straight up to the hallway and bedrooms.

The point is there is NO POINT to cork. It will do no more than a good rug pad. A waste of time, effort and money.

Put a runner on the stair if it BARE now. Buy solid core doors. Make sure you have soft window treatment in bedrooms, versus BLINDS and especially no wood or metal blinds.

Anything else is a waste of effort. Simply counter hard with soft. Or buy earplugs. Cheap and effective to sleep with.. My sister is earplug dependent.....we call it E.P.D.

Cork may scratch the hardwood flooring. Look at Ruggables nonslip runners. The padding should help with sound reduction in your hallway.

geez.. politician answers you got there.. I happen to have a big roll of cork, wanted to know if I really need go out and buy padding.. these answers were lame.. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Did you do the cork? I can’t see a downside..

I'm curious too. Every layer on the floor does add some sound control. I've tested it. (I have a teenager and a grand piano. Darn right I've tested it!)

I didn't try it. I have a lot of faith in Jan's advice. Also the need for noise suppression has gone down lately, as children have grown and changed habits.

I use nice felt pads under my area rugs and they will do as much as cork will to help a bit with noise transference They also protect your hardwood .All the soft surfases are great at controlling echoes but do little to control noice tranference between levels .