How to sound proof floors so the children wiil not disturb the neighbours.

[RP66]

We live in a late 1930's semi detached house, built on hill, sloping from the front to the back.
The foundations therefore have a large void underneath which can be entered via a door from the rear and which is used to store garden equipment and house the central heating boiler.

Problem being that we have two young children 2 & 4yrs old who like to run around and play as all children do, but this has caused problems with our neighbour as the sound travels through to her house, she keeps coming aroud complaining or banging on the wall.

It's now come to the point where we are thinking of moving again, something we do not really wish to do as we like where we live.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how we could possibly sound proof this void, perhaps from below?

Thanks for any help offered.

 

[vinn]

Carpet would deaden some of the sound but I doubt that its passing down to the void & then across and up to the neighbour's living room? If I understand you?
Perhaps ask permission to go across and listen when she next complains - sound travelling through your living room party wall can rarely be muffled - but maybe she exaggerates the level of noise?

 

[RP66]

Thanks for your reply, we have been in and listened and the sound does not come through the walls, it is defintely transfered via the floor void, it acts as a drum.

 

[bernardgreen]

it acts as a drum.

Then hang several curtains of heavy material in the undercroft to absorb the sound and "de-tune" the drum. Old carpets would be suitable.

 

[Rad1o]

If the house has a party wall and no gap, the problem is the wall itself. Your floor boards sit on the joists which sit in the party wall and sounds gets straight across.

Your little angels need to learn to fly and float.
My brother-in-law's neighbour renovated his house and drilled into a singe skin wall and the drill ended up in his house. Not much privacy.

 

[vinn]

Sound definitely will travel down but down and then sideways and then up is odd - how come others with basements, to my knowledge, dont seem to complain of this happening or how come sound is not dropping into the millions of suspended floor voids and doing the same?
My take, from this distance, would be that its typical sound transmission through the joists, and passing through a 4" party wall - brickies constantly "tip" their perp joins leaving some party walls sound porous.

To repeat, catch it at source, lay carpet & thick underlay.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Seems like what OP is saying is the sound of his children when running/jumping thumping the upper floor etc gets amplified by the empty void below, which then acts like a speaker enclosure and a baffle and so sounds gets more base like, one way would be to prop several extra supports from the floor to the void ceiling, to stop the upper floor from resonating and damping it down so that low frequency sound waves, that can travel through walls and floors gets damped a good few degrees more, I can see where then problem is arrising from but not sure what would really resolve it, propping from below may help, or experiment with thick blankets on upper floor, if that helps, get another layer of thick pile carpets. Or even try experiment with children wearing soft sole shoes whilst running around so their shoes cushions the impact on the floor. The floor needs to stop moving like a diapghram of a speaker, i think. (kind of what Bernard green suggested, so it becomes like a drum)

 

[catlad]

This should help absorb some of the noise.

k/itm/Plyteq-GenieMat-5mm-Acoustic-floor-soundproofing-concrete-and-timber-floors/252712200590?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38661%26meid%3D6aa208842bae405cae32bbba11003220%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D252712200590

 

[Mikefromlondon]

catlad Problem with the link you pasted above

 

[Ian H]

I would either check the joist are secure in the party wall, then fit some noggins and acoustic roll to the under side of the floor.

Or

Invite your neighbour into your cellar. Then lock the door. The smell should go once she is fully decomposed

 

[endecotp]

Here's a crazy idea. No idea how practical it is!

In your cellar, build a brick or block wall parallel to the existing party wall and about 200mm away from it. Join the existing floor joists to the top of this wall - somehow - and then separate them from the party wall (from above).

Also consider some sort of treatment to the wall.