Flooring Advice? Noise reduction

[mysticmark]

In living area of our 1st floor flat we have good quality underlay on floorboards and laminate on top of that, laid by pros - not bodged by me - a couple of years ago.

Downstairs neighbour who I've come to care for a lot has said the noise coming through is orrible, and we want to sort out any way we can (within reasonable cost limit)

- Will a a layer of underlay and carpet on top of laminate likely solve it?

- Better to remove laminate and then more underlay n carpet?

- Top-notch silencing headphones as present to neighbour?

- Your suggestion please?

(is this post in right section?)

[yeknomyeknom]

We have used sound proofing methods twice for similar reasons. The problem is, no matter what you spend or do, you will struggle to make much impact. As one professional explained to me, noise is just like water. If you totally sound proof your flow the noise finds a way to seep down the sides of the wall etc. If the specific noise problem is footfall then of course rugs etc soften thins but if it's talking etc the headphones might be the only real option. However, if you wanted to proceed (we did, despite the above, thinking any little surely helps" then you could lift your laminate and use a sound proofing underlay which you can mum fairly reasonably online. Good luck.

[Peckhampam]

Laminate will always make foot fall worse. Carpet and underlay is much better, sound proofing is best

[Rosetta]

Lots of leases say carpet is required precisely for this reason. Have you checked your lease?

[Calsug]

The only way to solve the problem is to get the floor or your neighbours ceiling professionally soundproofed, underlay really doesn't do anything

Cost to soundproof properly is at least 100 pounds per sq metre...

[Penguin68]

Sometimes it may be as simple as wearing slippers or soft shoes. Hard shoes/ high heels (and robust walking about) can easily be transmitted down. It is worth checking what 'the noise' is - is it walking, music, talking/ laughing? The easiest solution is rugs/ carpets. These are normally quite sound insulating (and can probably be taken away by you when you go - so are less of a sunk cost). Maybe check what your rooms are above - perhaps no late night dance-athons over someone's bedroom?

But people can get readily sensitised to sounds (vide discussions on this forum about airplane, dog and even bird sounds - so what would normally be a solution might not be for your neighbours, if they have become so sensitised. Fingers crossed, eh?

[picmicnic]

http://www.soundstop.co.uk/solutions/ceiling_access/ceiling_solution_1.php

i.e. this is probably best addressed by the flat below you installing an additional sound proofing layer to their ceiling rather than you doing anything to your flat.

[alex_b]

Rugs on the floor should deaden the noise as would you ripping up the floor and installing carpet. Not wearing shoes indoors etc would also help.

However if they really want to get decent noise reduction they'll need to create an air gap between your floor and their ceiling and install some acoustic material. The best way to do this is by them lowering their ceilings not by anything you can do.

[Seabag]

It's the laminate that's mainly the culprit, it's hard and sound transmitting qualities are noticeable above another room

A thick rubber type underlay http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-crumb-rubber-and-felt-underlay/p2501090?sku=235446358&s_kwcid=2dx92700016650035400&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=CjwKEAiAtefDBRDTnbDnvM735xISJABlvGOv_VYO9UCRBwU7Gn39AgMDRoc_RRw-04dRJ9vNYzlxfBoC2KDw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#media-overlay_show doesn't cost too much. Carpet over that adds further sound muffling.

[mysticmark]

-- moved topic --

[malumbu]

Carpet.

The removal of carpets from most of our pubs (irrespective of how grotty they were) has accentuated the noise, as they are sound deadening.

[Countrlass22]

Laminate is worst noise offender

Thick underlay thick carpet.

Plus below soundproofing ceilings.

[ultraburner]

The soundstop products look good. Look at the floor soundproofing underlay boards that reduce impact noise.

In your case I'd guess the problem is mainly impact noise so something like that with heavy underlay, and then carpet would be quite a bit better than what you have now.

[*Tee*]

Laminate flooring isn't allowed in most top floor flat conversions and I would check your lease.

It causes terrible noise to your neighbour below.

Install carpet with acoustic lay and the neighbour will have to soundproof their ceilings

[mysticmark]

THANKS ALL! Happy New Year!

[mysticmark]

Think I'll go with idea of removing laminate flooring - was a v cheap buy a few years ago - and putting the underlay recommended above and a thick carpet.

Any suggestions on where to get a thick 5m x 6m thick carpet in a neutral colour at a good price?

[Rosetta]

Did you check your lease? Make sure you check your floorboards as well so you don't have any loose squeaky ones before you change the flooring. That noise can be very intrusive to the person below, and I'm speaking from personal experience.

[doogsey]

Having been on both sides these are the things I've picked up.

Best things you can do are:

1. Ensure your living areas are aligned. E.g. don't put your kitchen / dining above the neighbours bedroom

2. Don't wear footwear inside the house, ever

3. Be light-footed when walking around. Some people naturally stomp around like elephants, and that is the biggest contributor IMO

Carpet is not necessarily the saviour, especially because some areas can't be carpetted like a kitchen or bathroom so you need insulation anyway, and people might wear footwear on carpet thinking the carpet will compensate, when it'd be better to go barefoot or slippers on floorboards.

Fake ceiling is one of the most expensive things to do and the least ideal for the neighbour below because they lose ceiling height, have to redecorate, e.t.c. It doesn't stop much impact noise either.

When re-doing the floor, I'd recommend:

1. Re-fixing the original floorboards. These are likely to be nailed down but screws are FAR better at making the floorboards a solid base and prevent squeaking. Some builders also suggest replacing original floorboards with ply

2. You can also put insulation beneath the floorboards at the same time. This will stop a lot of airborne noise but not impact noise

3. Glue a very dense sound proofing underlay to the floorboards. The more dense the better

4. Lay an underlay for either carpet or laminate

What you do after that doesn't really matter, so long as you have living spaces aligned, don't wear footwear and are light-footed.

[LondonMix]

Its entirely possible to do adequate sound proofing in a flat. Modern purpose built flats have very little noise transfer.

When we lived in a flat we were in the top floor. The neighbor below us was an architect so when we approached them about installing engineered wooden floors in our flat, the only thing he stipulated was that we use a sound proofing underlay called the Isocheck Mat 200 which at the time (2011) met UK building regs for soundproofing flats. The area before had been covered in laminate which alongside carpet were the only things allowed under the lease. We needed our neighbors consent as joint freeholder to make the change.

After doing some research we found an underlay that was thinner and higher spec: TimberTech HD Contract 5. We sent our neighbor the information on it and he agreed we could use that instead.

After the underlay was installed and the laminate was replaced with engineered wood, he and his wife said the noise reduction between our flats was dramatic. Basically they were thrilled with the results.

Given that, we've used this underlay under the wood flooring we've installed on the upper levels of our house to reduce noise transfer between the bedrooms etc. I have to say, it works brilliantly.

If you are thinking of replacing your flooring anyway and getting an underlay I'd strongly recommend using a soundproofing underlay specifically. I'm sure there might even be better products on the market now as our experience of this was years ago.

Good luck and its nice you are such a considerate neighbor!