Soundproofing floor - nuisance neighbours

I live in a flat in a converted Victorian house. For three years everything was fine but last February new people moved into the flat downstairs. They were fine until last Christmas when they seem to have got a surround sound system which they insist on using even to watch Eastenders and Dragon's Den.

Having talked to both our neighbours and the Council the results have been predictably rubbish. I've now decided that I will pay for soundproofing which I will need only on the floor of my living room. I'm a bit relucatnt because I don't know how effective it is so I'm looking for some feedback from people who have had this kind of work done.

The noise is from the television (airborne noise) and comes throughtheir ceiling/our floor. There's various systems that I've seen, some involve packing between the rafters, others are just like a soundproof underlay. SOme are very expensive and I don't really want to shell out if I'm not going to hear a noticable reduction in the noise level. This isn't a constant booming noise but it is very loud and can always be heard even over the sound of our own TV.

So does anyone have any recommendations on soundproofing a floor or direct expereince?

Thanks

Hi

I recently insulated the floors in our victorian flat with rockwool rw3 100mm 60kg.m3 density. This is higher density than the Rw45 product. we are frist floor and while we didn't have any particular issues, thought it would be a good idea while we had the floors up installing electrics and heating. It made a difference, but not as much as I thought. Conversation beforehand was almost audible, now very muffled. Can't hear their TV, and the new baby can only be heard on a few occasions. I thought it would eradicate sound completely, but it's harder to deal with than I first thought. I would recommend this as a minimum as once it's in, it's in, and it doesn't affect your floor height as almost every other product does. Issues to consider are can you pull up your floors easily and the cost of replacement boards etc. We haven't had carpet laid (being done today in most rooms) so this is a response with bare boards on 1st floor. (Oh, and if you're nailing down boards use a nail gun if they have an old lath ceiling or be preapred to pay for repairing a cracked ceiling beneath due to the hammer hits. - as we did in one room, oops) Pros are easy to install, cut etc and seem quite effective.

I did quite a bit of research on insulating solutions and found most of the effective oners are full systems which include the ceiling below for best results. No matter what you put in the joists, soound can travel up around the edges of the room which might be hard to get to properly with the batts alone. It would seem that you've got a fairly serious issue with this noise and I'd consider using the batts in association with another solution. The acoustilay flooring / underlay looks like quite a good product to me - quite pricey but could be worth it.

lastly, I reckon with such things that it's best to get a professional install done. I didn't and had to rip up my floor and relay what the builders did as they just didn't appreciate how well these solutions need to be laid to be effective. any gaps and sound will get through.

Also, if they have down lighters take the time to put hoods in as they can be a fire risk. you can get acoustic hoods.

the base sound isnt realy effected by the insulation as the base sounds travels through joists with the floor acting as a sounding board you need to break the physical connection/path

Aye suspended ceiling is your only hope really and obviously that can only be installed from underneath. There are no magic fixes with sound insulation. Separation is the only effective method really, even then as mentioned already, the bass will still get carried through the structure. You're limited to adding an acoustic underlay and insulation within the depth of the existing floor zone and measurable sound reduction is largely a personal thing, what's a good sound reduction to one person will be rubbish to another and vice versa, its extremely hard to quantify.

If it was me, i'd knock on the door and ask them to turn the tv down..

lmsava said:

Having talked to both our neighbours and the Council the results have been predictably rubbish.

Click to expand...

One assumes that the neighbour in question has already been approached.