The short answer
Yes, a treadmill can work in an upstairs apartment, but it takes preparation, and no preparation comes with a guarantee. The noise that bothers the apartment below travels mostly through the floor structure as vibration, not through the air as sound, which is why mats help but never finish the job. The checklist that the sources support: check the lease and get written landlord approval, place the machine in a corner near a load-bearing wall and never above the neighbor's bedroom, build a vibration stack (dense mat plus isolation feet), keep to daytime hours your lease defines, maintain the belt, and talk to the downstairs neighbor before the first workout. A walking pad (41 to 81 lb) is the more neighbor-friendly starting point than a 200-plus lb full treadmill, though it is not silent either.
Step 1: Check the lease before the machine ships
Some leases explicitly ban heavy machinery or fitness equipment upstairs. Even without a named ban, general clauses on damage and nuisance can be applied to a treadmill. Check the "use of premises" and restrictions sections, plus any HOA or building house rules. If there is any doubt, get the landlord's approval in writing; verbal permission is hard to prove later. Do not assume that a lease staying silent on treadmills means treadmills are allowed.
Step 2: Understand what travels downstairs
Footstep impact travels through floor joists and structural columns as vibration. An acoustic consultant interviewed on the subject stated it plainly: the noise from exercise equipment is transmitted through the structure itself. That is why the thud below persists even when the motor is quiet, and why surface treatments have a ceiling. A structural engineering professor cited in the same interview noted that treadmill pounding can shake the structure enough to be felt clearly below.
Step 3: Test your building with the heel-drop test
Stand on your toes in the planned spot and let your heels drop naturally. Have someone listen in the apartment below and in adjacent rooms. This simple test, documented in apartment treadmill guides, tells you how much your building's structure amplifies impact before you spend any money. A wood-frame building that rattles on a heel drop will rattle on a run.
Step 4: Pick the least-bad spot
- Place the machine in a corner or near a load-bearing wall, not in the middle of the room, where floor deflection and vibration are strongest.
- Keep it away from walls shared with neighbors, and never above the downstairs neighbor's bedroom if you can avoid it. An interior wall that is not shared with a bedroom is the better choice.
- Leave at least 8 feet of clearance behind the machine, per NordicTrack's user manual, along with a level surface, a mat underneath, athletic shoes while training, children under 12 and pets kept away, a grounded 15-amp-plus circuit, and no extension cord.
Step 5: Build the vibration stack
One layer is not enough upstairs. The supported stack:
- A dense rubber mat, 3/8 to 1/2 inch. FlooringInc's official FAQ recommends a 3/8-inch equipment mat specifically for second-floor use; other apartment guides recommend at least 1/2 inch of high-density rubber. Thin 1/8 to 3/16-inch mats protect the floor but do little for vibration.
- Isolation feet under the machine's feet. Documented examples include 4" x 4" x 7/8" rubber-and-cork pads and paired front-and-rear isolation systems. They decouple the frame from the floor at the contact points.
- A layered build for the worst cases. Guides describe rubber mat, then EVA, then a rigid board to spread the load as more effective than any single layer.
Cheap soft pads are the documented failure mode: too little density damps little and can make the frame feel unstable. The treadmill mat guide covers selection in detail.
Step 6: Walk more, run less
Walking produces far less impact than running, and multiple apartment guides state it as a standing rule for upstairs use. The physics is the same as everywhere else on this site: harder foot strikes make more vibration, which makes more sound. If your training needs running, confine it to daytime hours and keep the full vibration stack in place.
Step 7: Know the numbers in context
Published figures are all measured at the machine, not in the apartment below. For context: one engineering source places treadmill machine noise around 40 to 70 dB, and a legal guide places walking pads around 42 to 57 dB, roughly conversational level at the machine. There is no reliable measurement of what the downstairs neighbor hears after floor transmission, so do not translate machine-side numbers into promises about the unit below.
Step 8: Talk to the downstairs neighbor first
Two independent user discussions converge on the same advice: talk to the downstairs neighbor before the machine arrives, introduce yourself, exchange phone numbers, ask about their schedule, and agree on training times together. A face-to-face conversation beats a note; several guides warn that notes read as passive-aggressive. Ask the leasing office the same questions, since some complexes ban workout equipment on upper floors outright.
Step 9: Keep to daytime hours
Train during the day and respect the building's quiet hours. Typical quiet hours run 10 pm to 7 am on weekdays and 11 pm to 8 am on weekends and holidays, but those are typical values from a leasing guide, not universal rules. Your lease and local ordinances define your building's actual hours. Do not hard-code anyone else's schedule into your routine.
Step 10: Maintain the machine
A dry belt and loose hardware get louder over time. Lubricate the belt on the manufacturer's schedule (about every 90 days is the interval one apartment guide suggests; brand manuals range from 50 hours to 6 months), tighten loose bolts, and keep the belt centered. The brand-by-brand reference is in the belt lubrication guide.
If a complaint comes anyway
The documented escalation path runs: a warning letter, then fines, then a cure-or-quit notice typically giving 10 to 30 days to fix the problem, with possible eviction proceedings after that. Repeated quiet-hour violations can start the eviction process. A real user case describes a building requiring the treadmill's removal after multiple neighbor complaints. If you are complained about: listen without arguing, apologize, adjust your hours to the neighbor's preference, share your contact details, tell them what you changed, and involve building management before positions harden. The neighbor-first strategy is covered in treadmill neighbor etiquette.
The single highest-leverage move upstairs is choosing a walking pad over a full treadmill in the first place: 41 to 81 lb instead of 187 to 277 lb, lower speeds, and lower impact forces. Everything else on this checklist then works better.