Soundproofing ceilings - any experiences?

[whereamIgoing1]

I live in a block of flats. It's relatively new - 7 years old - and I own the flat. I am on the first floor and have neighbours above me. I think the floors are concrete.

I am at my total wits end with the noise that they create. I don't actually understand how people can stomp around so HEAVILY and so MUCH. I don't know if they sleep much either because they can be stomping around at midnight and then again at 6.30am.

The only solution that blocks out some of the noise I have found is wearing my AirPod pros. However I know that's not a sustainable idea because it's not practical nor probably healthy to be wearing headphones 24/7.

I have decided to therefore seriously look into soundproofing the ceiling above. I am fortunate enough to be in a position to have some savings where I could afford to do it in the worst area of my flat - the living/dining area.

However, it is still not cheap and I am worried I would spend all of the money for it not to have much of an impact.

If you have soundproofed your ceilings, please give me your honest reviews! Did it work?

We soundproofed our family room ceiling when we knocked it through to the kitchen as our bedroom is above the family room and I don't want to hear the crap films DH watches late at night. The sound proofing works well at preventing downstairs noise reaching upstairs but can't really say how well it helps upstairs noise going down as we have carpet in the bedroom

Thank you for the reply anyway @WhereDoesThisToiletGo

Anyone else?

Watching with interest as we can hear everything from the bathroom above our bedroom (all same house, town house). I’m not sure floor insulation will solve the problem because it’s noise from the toilet too (yes that grim) so I think ceiling is better.

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo did it reduce the ceiling height by much?

Our downstairs neighbour did this (we had a hyperactive 1yo at the time). It doesn't help. I can hear him sigh... He spent 6 bloody months having it installed during lockdown 1, while I worked from home...

What's helped him, is us buying crash mats. 8x4ft ones for bouncy castles. They absorb a huge amount of the sound. It's a huge pain in the ass for us, particularly for cleaning, but I'm sure his life is better, and ours is less anxiety ridden. They're pretty cheap, you could suggest or buy for neighbour?

Note - if these are stompy adults then I have no suggestions, sorry!

Anyone else ?

Bump… would really appreciate any advice if anyone has been through the same thing!

Does your lease require soft flooring? Hard or laminate flooring is very noisy and transmits shocks like stompy feet. See if upstairs can voluntarily or be forced to manage the noise at source.

Concrete floors are usually really good at sound insulation. But bangs travel through.

Have you spoken to the neighbours?

I am commenting on this again to hopefully get more responses as I am tearing my hair out every day listening to the racket they make upstairs 😣

Soundrpoofing is expensive with unpredictable results. I would chalk it up to experience and move to a flat where you don't have someone above you, some people are fine with it, it doesn't work for me either. Now you know.

In the meantime the only thing that's going to help, other than practical steps ie ear plugs and white noise, is reframing it that they're not doing it to annoy you, they are good people going about their normal life with no ill intent, it isn't personal, it's the situation. Then work on changing the situation.

I actually can't take the noise anymore. It's destroying my sanity. Is anyone out there who has been through the same situation and can help me?

Anyone?? 😣

We’ve done one room, above my husband’s study, because it has absolutely zero insulation and every step echoed right the way through while he was working. We did it by insulating the floor rather than the ceiling, so it may not help you. But fwiw, we had a layer of hardboard, then a layer of rubber type stuff, and then a very thick, dense underlay, and then a fairly dense carpet. It cost an absolute fortune- nearly 3k for a fairly small room- but the results are amazing, not one sound carries through. It has also made the study downstairs retain heat much better- it’s north facing- and the feeling underfoot upstairs is gorgeous.

@LoobyDoop2 thank you. Yes I would be looking to sound proof the ceiling. I know there are lots of options out there, but as you said, it's not cheap and I don't want to waste my money. I just don't understand how people can not realise that slamming the floor will create noise downstairs... I mean the ceiling literally feels like it's vibrating so their floor must have vibrations too. I just feel like I am at my wit's end with it all.

What did you use to do this? My dd is above our kitchen and can hear up chatting in there, although can't quite hear every word.

I did my bathroom which is above my holiday cottage. It has worked quite well in that it's so much better than it was- you used to be able to hear conversations word for word now it's muffled.

I know it would improve if we added a suspended ceiling downstairs, ie if the sound proofing were on both sides.

You'd be far better off talking to the upstairs neighbour about putting soft flooring down. It may well be a requirement in the lease. There was a case reported where someone had wood block flooring put in at great expense and had to get it all covered with carpet!

You’ve been asked several times if the neighbors would be cooperative but for some reason you don’t answer. From this post it sounds like you haven’t even told them it is bothering you? I would certainly start there before I would even consider spending thousands of pounds to soundproof from below. Soundproofing from the floor above is much cheaper, less invasive and more effective than trying to mess with the ceiling and as PPs have pointed out your neighbors may be required to have rugs or soft flooring for this exact reason.

Soundproofing is very expensive. I lived in a heavily soundproofed apartment building and I could still hear my neighbors yelling on the phone and the child running around all day. This was on laminate though.

I've had really noisy neighbors so I get it OP. It broke my health in the end.

i have had similar in the past (not interested in being civil & toning it down)& in the end decided to meet like with like. I found white noise (not music) all day (ideally when you are out) wound them in a bit. Literally something like ocean waves, rainfall etc

Architect here. A quick lesson on sound in buildings - sound is divided into impact noise (eg feet hitting the floor) and airborne noise (eg people talking). In new build apartments, impact sound is reduced by having a separate 'floating' floor above the main floor structure which sits on a rubbery or 'resilient' layer and stops the vibrations traveling down through the structure. A separate ceiling is then added underneath to stop the airborne sound traveling up through the floor. The walls similarly have different layers, and all the wall and floor layers are stopped from touching each other by soft edging strips which stops the sound being transferred from floors to walls etc. Unfortunately if you cannot change the floor above, you can only add something underneath which will have limited effect on the impact noise. In conversions for hotels, for example, you effectively have to line all the surfaces to get the layers and separation - walls, floors and ceilings. For you, unfortunately, it would be hugely expensive and at the end of the day, it would only reduce the noise and you would still be able to hear them.
Sorry this won't be what you want to hear
Check your tenants agreement to see if they're allowed a hard floor finish.