Restoring a floor in Victorian conversion and soundproofing

[pred02]

Hi,

I am getting a company to dispose of old laminate and restore the pine wood floorboards in the first floor of the Victorian conversion. I have fairly sensitive neighbors downstairs, so anytime I end up playing music a little bit they get quite disturbed.

The guys who are doing the floorboard restoration said that one of the options is to lift the floorboards and to put in mineral wool insulation between my floor and the floor below.

Not sure how much that will cost, or if it is a good option, I will ask for a quote but just wanted to see other peoples experience with this.

Thanks

 

[KenGMac]

Hi, pred02.

Sound / noise transfer is a very, very highly subjective matter as is " Playing Music a little bit"

Even the removal of the laminate and getting rid of the underlay will cause the Neighbour to experience more sound transfer, the underlay will be absorbing a small amount of the noise, if you do remove the laminate, and underlay you will then be walking and causing impact on to the original floor boards.

The noise of the removal of the laminate will be bad enough for the Neighbour, BUT! as for the sanding of the original floorboards, WOW that will really shake up the neighbour.

CAUTION! I have on a couple of occasions seen plaster cracking occurring on walls and ceilings and more importantly ornate Cornices [if you have them] on one occasion I attended at an Insurance claim where the ground floor room plaster, walls and ceilings had cracked up because of the sanding that took place in the Bedroom above, admittedly the upper room floor was stunning.

It is possible to "enhance" the probably existing Ash Deafening built in to the floor by adding one of the Proprietary sound deadening Quilts or bags, or granules.

But, there is always a But? to lift the original floorboards you will have to have the Skirting's removed, this may result in damage to the wall plaster plus the possible re-decoration cost of the walls, the actual removal of the original floor boards will inevitably result in damage to the floor boards and you will end up scratching around looking for Identical floor boards to get even a reasonable match.

The latter exercise will cause the neighbour a load of grief, the noise levels re shall we say high? Imagine all the squeaking of nails being removed then the floor being re-nailed, not to mention the potential for cracking of ceiling plaster as detailed above, Vibration damage.

The above is almost but not quite as bad having two, two year olds charging around?

Consider that if the work you intend to undertake could occasion damage to the down stair neighbour who may contra charge you for the repair costs despite your work to reduce the noise transfer ?

Some points to consider?

I have no doubt that there will be a post that suggests you revert to headphones, just ignore that one?

Ken

 

[pred02]

Hi Ken

Many thanks for your info - very insightful.

The removal of laminate and restoration of the floor will be done during work hours, so neighbors will not be at home I am not too concerned about the work itself but rather if it is worth putting mineral wool or insulation between the floor joists and if that will have any impact in sound/noise reduction from playing the stereo to the floor above.

All this work will be done by a professional. It seems that putting in the mineral wool, removing the floor boards does introduce additional risks/challenges that may not be worth it.

Thanks for your info

 

[KenGMac]

pred02 Hi Again.

As previous post, the introduction of the added Mineral Wool, or "Quietex" this proprietary product comes a graduals that can quickly and easily be spread on top of whatever original Deafening is in between the floor boards?

As a thought, all of this assumes that there is indeed original Ash [from coal fires] Deafening in there in the first place? it is not un-known for the Deafening to be removed in areas where there has for example been a water leak from your flat into the downstairs neighbours property.

Do you know if indeed there is any original Deafening in the floor ?

The largest draw back is the need to remove the Skirting boards then the original flooring prior to insertion of the added Deafening, This will cause a lot of added dirt and disruption not to mention problems in sourcing aged decent flooring replacements should any boards be damaged during the lifting process.

There is a high possibility that the ceilings and Cornices in the flat below could crack during the sanding process, is your preferred Contractor insured for such incidents? suggest you ask? I for one do not fancy an Irate neighbour complaining about a cracking, or collapsed Ceiling.

Finally the degree of added sound proofing will be highly dependant on the sensibilities of the neighbour? one mans sound is another mans noise?

Ken.