Soundproofing with independent ceiling: your experience please.

[MariscallRoad]

We decided to soundproof with an independent ceiling and thick layers of soundblocker under our existing ceiling. We live in a flat. The upstairs flat has laminated floors which cause noise to travel to us. Noise does not stop all day and continues till 3 am and beyond all night. We spoke with the landlady and tenants but no luck. So we had a company here who advised us to do the independent underceiling insulation. They said that some offending walls have to be soundproofed as well to stop noise travelling from joists down to us. So, does any one have this expeirience? Any company recommendations?

You have my sympathy, as we lived with this sort of noise for 2 years from both upstairs and downstairs (very early from 5am every single day). After lots of “nice” chats asking them politely to be more considerate, I decided to show them the impact of the awful sound insulation between the floors by playing heavy bass music for a week when I knew they would be asleep (around midnight). It helped to minimise future noise issues. I don’t think they understood how disruptive it was before they experienced it as the recipients!!

I'm reading this with interest. I live in a 1920s purpose built GFF with upstairs having loose creaking floorboards underneath (not very thick) carpet. We own a share of the freehold and the leasehold agreement states maintaining flooring, not causing annoyance through failure to do so etc. She refuses point blank to have them screwed down or have thicker, even acoustic underlay fitted. She denies there's a problem and has rented her flat out so I'm awoken nightly as tenants walk across the bedroom floor. I'm having a suspended ceiling with soundproofing fitted next month, I'm hopeful the impact creaking will reduce significantly and the conversation and other noise will be muted. Now reading the threads in concerned this isn't going to happen.

Hi there @Liketoshop and any others really! I am about to buy a flat in nw3 and also v concerned about the noise. Flat above is lovely but we are early sleepers and risers. They have parquet flooring and you can hear every step they take. How successful was your suspended ceiling.
thanks

Hi Master Mark. Was the impact noise reduced by the ceiling? Or were you just able to reduce it by changed flooring above?

I wouldn’t buy the flat!

I eventually phoned a company about getting my hall ceiling done. £1,500 then he said there could be a problem with the noise goi g down the walls and they would need done. I bought a white noise machine ( Lectrofan) but haven’t tried it yet as I’m not in my own house at the moment, also bought Bose Noise Reduction headphones, these are good. Bose are also bringing out sleep buds that plays something like white noise but these aren’t available till the end of 2018 and I think they’ll only be available in America at first.

Hi all, so I finally decided to take the plunge and get a suspended ceiling put in. I did all the ceilings apart from the bathroom (currently having leaking issues from upstairs) . I haven't slept in the flat yet to comment on its effectiveness. But the whole procedure so far has gone smoothly. I'm just hoping it works. I'll keep you all posted on how it's worked out.

Jesp , I also agree with Tas I wouldn't buy the flat, if you can hear it before you've moved it, you'll hear it 10x more when you do.

Update on my situation with wooden floor upstairs. I couldn’t cope with the noise and moved to my sons for almost 4 months. I moved back to mine and then the upstairs neighbours put a laminate floor in their living room ( previously carpeted - hall had laminate and was a huge problem ) even though they knew how the noise was affecting me. This woman is training to be a midwife, a profession ! No caring nature needed these days then! Pity I can’t add a video I have of the noise on here.

For anyone interested in Bose sleep buds, could also be used during the day to block the sound of laminate-hopefully!!!

Hi MasterMark, Groundhogdays,

Can you confirm if you did take off your existing ceiling before doing the work? or just add new joists below the existing ceiling?

I'm also having the same issues. Impact sound is the main issue from my neighbor upstairs although also hear their baby crying in the middle of the night.

I am started looking for solutions soundproofing my ceiling, I don't want to take off my existing ceiling if that is possible.

So just an update on my soundproofing with suspended ceiling. I can honestly say that the impact noises are still there although the airborne noise has reduced a lot. This being said with the gift of heinsight I would probably not get it done again and would use the money towards moving. I think I didn't really appreciate that the soundproofing doesn't go above doorways so I can still hear doors banging closed (upstairs is HMO) . I also just think I wouldn't move into a flat unless it was a more recent build with soundproofing solutions built into the fabric of the build, sound travels too easily if not.

@ jesp @ yeeha

sorry it's taken me ages to reply, I wasn't getting any updates on this thread and just happened to check it out by chance.

Jesp - there was an improvement to the impact noise from the independent ceiling (no work done to upstairs floor yet). Hard to quantify, maybe a 40-50% improvement? It's definitely better, but I can still hear stuff. Also just spotted you were looking in NW3. That's where I live! Probably a bit late but let me know if you want to chat.

yeeha - existing ceiling was retained. It was the original lathe and plaster, and everyone told me to retain it both because removing it makes a MASSIVE mess, and also because it has better soundproofing properties than normal plasterboard.

Reverse position here, we are thinking of buying the flat beneath as we want to stay here but we also want to feel more in control over potential noise.

We have lived here 18 years. Years 1-3 were really bad. The neighbours below did try to seal off their ceiling and we put in carpets. It got better when they moved out and let the property- they chose quiet tenants to avoid any further trouble.

The latest tenants are not noisy but not quiet either and it’s bringing back bad memories. You know how it is once you’ve become sensitised.....