Deafening speaker bass from flat upstairs

[Andy_C]

1910 victorian house split into two flats. We live downstairs.

We've got a problem with bass coming from speakers from the flat upstairs. It's not continuous but its something we'd like to do something about.

In the next few weeks, we've been told by the owner ( we get along well) the flat upstairs is being re-wired and having a new kitchen and we have been told that both floors are being lifted, giving us the ideal opportunity to do something about the noise - but we don't know what.

What material can we use to sandwich between our ceiling and his floor which will cut - or at least reduce - the bass from speakers being heard downstairs?

any info gratefully received !!

 

[EddieCurrent]

Hi Andy,

Last year I worked on a few house to flat conversions that used a dense rubber matting, laid on top of the existing floorboards, then another 'floor' laid on top of it.
It turned out to be good soundproofing, but was very expensive.
I will be seeing the builder involved later this week and will try and get some more info etc.

ps On the downside, the upstairs 'footing' seemed a little too bouncy for me !

All the best.
Ed.

 

[Andy_C]

Thanks Ed, but I had in mind something that was 'invisible' to the guy upstairs, there must be a solution which is a little more subtle.

I had more in mind some sort of material which was able to be fitted between the joists rather than over them acting as some kind of suppressant. Any ideas?

 

[FredFlintstone]

Your solution would stop sound traveling through the airspace between the two floors but you'd still get sound through the joists (from their floorboards, to the joists, to the ceiling).

You can buy special sound proofing plasterboard which could be used on your ceiling which may help slightly but, given it's the flat upstairs that's being renovated and not yours, this is likely to be incredibly disruptive.

Have you spoken to the folks upstairs? Maybe they don't realise just how much nuisance noise they're creating.

You could also ask them to place their speakers and sub woofer on spikes which may help prevent the bass from passing through the floor.

Fred

 

[jashton]

Adding infill like DFM doesn't help much with low frequency sound. I've done this and wish I'd done more research first. The only way to cure low frequency is to decouple the floor/ceiling. This means using something like resilient bar to hang a new ceiling. It's the best option if you don't want to lose ceiling height. Best thing is to remove old ceiling, install DFM (for high freq) between joists and then install resilient bar, 19mm soundplank and then a final layer of plasterboard. This is what I'm planning for my main bedroom. remember to use accoustic hoods/accoustic downlights (or both) if you're installling recessed lights