#21

my ex recently did this as her downstairs neighbour was complaining about the noise - mainly of her young son stomping about the place

I think it worked ok

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#22

I think I am just going to be noisy myself until it is sorted, so far I have been a bit self conscious, so if there has been something ridiculously loud (like actual shouting) I will turn things up but feel bad and bring it back down. Might just set things at the volume I need to not be distracted by them, and if it causes them problems at least it will bring the problem to ahead, might cause a sonic arms race though (again talking face to face with them is not an option)

#24

Yeah I think floors have a drum effect where the sound reverberates around the void. I dont know if my footsteps are causing them a problem, i’ve got decent underlay for impact sound and can’t hear my own steps but no idea what it sounds like down there. Floors creak a lot though which might be a problem

No kids down there

Don’t want to speak to them because i’m awkward, and like you say they are just going about their own lives. However I do think they are taking the piss a little, they must be able to tell how poor the soundproofing is, so to regularly be shouting (like proper rowdy lads in a pub watching a game levels) is inconsiderate imho, its not like it is just weekends it is most evenings. I can handle computers games, and tv sounds, but sudden shouting is really unnerving.

Only actually spoken to them once after I moved in, the guy said ‘we’re pretty quiet’ and I remember thinking ‘the audacity, you are lying to my face right now’ should have said that right then nipped it in the bud

#26

Alright, H P Lovecraft

3 Likes
#27

about to pull the trigger on £2k worth of soundproofing on a credit card.

for the benefit of those who may have been researching this and arrived here by google, those soundmat with vinyl layers sandwich foam are really misleading, when they say a 43db reduction they are including the existing floor, a couple of layers of acoustic plasterboard and a few more gimmicks, on their own they do very little, nearly ordered them so glad I stumbled on a supplier that was actually honest about it.

found another product called SBx phonestar boards, that claim to do 35db reduction in isolation, full of sand

looking forward to cocooning myself away from the jovial lads downstairs for good

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#28

have you tried eggboxes on the walls

we used to have to go round semi regularly to tell our neighbours to stfu with playing their shitty music dead loud all night. usually they were ok about it and just said sorry and turned it down but the most recent time i went round the guy was on one, fully coke raging at me, i asked him to turn it down coz it was like 2am or something and he just went yeah, but 2am on a saturday. and i said i dont really give a shit what day it is mate, just turn your shitey music down and dont be a dick? and he was shouting at me in albanian i think they are? and his wife was trying to get him to calm down and i told him to fuck off and went back to bed and he was shouting call the police! call the police! and anyway they turned the music down and havent been playing it loud since

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#29

I’m afraid of confrontation. I’m not sure if egg boxes would work as it is coming up through the floor, I think I need to do something permanent because I’m just always on edge when they are home, and it also inhibits me with playing musical instruments and stuff

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#30

I was always taught that proper soundproofing means building a room within a room. = v. Spenny

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#31

yeah, I am not expecting complete sound isolation but based on what ive read this will bring it down to much more tolerable levels

#32

I hope it brings you both peace and joy

3 Likes
#33

Anyone suggested this yet?

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#34

I manually do this, think it just escalates things

#35

I would absolutely have called the police fwiw.

I have previously called the police on neighbours being completely unreasonable.

It’s fine.

#36

as i understand it they dgaf about noise complaints, it’s the council you’d need to speak to

#37

Doing some boring marckeeing googling and it seems to be discretionary for each force, as they don’t have any prosecution powers in the area (councils do tho). I remember in London calling the council once over an outdoors party that went on well past 3 on a Saturday.

Just checked my council and they don’t seem to have a noise service past midnight, cheers austerity

(Someone on here at the time was like “blah blah ITS SATURDAY” and I was like “Nope :wave:”)

Might be different in Scotland, mind. Definitely got the police out once when a post graduation party kicked off at 4am on a weeknight. Ended up causing probably more noise, obviously.

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#38

Hope it works out m8. Do report back, because this is really useful info - we were looking into stuff for our last flat, but never pulled the trigger on anything.

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#39

thanks, will do

this is the stuff:

plus two layers of this (think those SoundMat vinyl mats are just this stuff with foam in the middle, and the foam is more for impact noise than airborne which is the bit I’m trying to stop):

https://www.soundstop.co.uk/ZTECSO50.php

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#40

Best one we did was when we were at ATP and called Pontins security to shut down our own chalet party after it became too full of twats who wouldn’t leave.

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#41

Ah, FFS. I recall when we went to the local flooring place in Holloway to get our laminate laid they were pretty clear about us being ground floor, said they would only fit it on first or higher flats if the owners paid for the very thick underlay (I mean they said that but money talks, eh?). It’s definitely a problem with the non-carpet world we’re living in now.

@TTF Good luck with your new soundproofing. I guess you had no luck sealing the corners? One thing I wondered was about your windows. Is it really good double-glazing? I think a lot of noise seems to travel up that way from my experience of flats and rooms in houses. If you can close your windows and the traffic outside is pretty much gone then you’re in a good position to judge how much noise is drifting through the floors.

I remember 20 years ago looking through a brochure for a music company that was based in Camden for mics and stuff and they had whole little rooms you could assemble inside your house purely for playing your instruments (and recording them) as loud as you liked. But I recall the cost even then was about £8000 for one big enough to squeeze a drum kit in.

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#42

I didn’t try sealing anything myself, I think the problem is so severe it must be the floor, I can even hear people on the other end of the phone down there sometimes.

The windows are double glazed, I dont think they are great as I’m always surprised how clearly I can hear conversation if people are outside. but I think if that where the main source of travel I think it would be worse in summer when both mine and their windows would be open. im pretty sure it is the floor, if I rest my ear on the sofa I can hear it coming through like the sofa is coupled with the floor.

I dont expect this soundproofing to eliminate the problem, but significantly reduce it. the company doing it says typically a 60% reduction, and i’ve read lots of positive reviews on check a trade

1 Like