If you live in a flat, do you get noise from the flat downstairs?

[icecreamsea]

I live in a flat and get woken at night by footsteps and creaky floorboards whenever the person upstairs gets up to go to the loo, which happens a lot. The sleep deprivation is unbearable. I've tried all types of earplugs, and had my bedroom ceiling soundproofed, which reduced the sound but not enough for me to sleep through it. I'm wondering whether to move to a top floor flat, even though I love my flat and the location. I don't know whether it would be worth it, though - I wonder what the chances are of being woken by noise from downstairs (or from the next-door flat)?

I would imagine that in general there's less likely to be noise from downstairs than from upstairs, but it would be really good to know what people's experiences are.

We lived in a top floor modern (1990-ish) flat with concrete floors, we fitted thick carpet and underlay (to lessen sound transfer to the flat below). They could still hear us walking about. We couldn't hear a thing from the downstairs flat though.

Upstairs flat was also far better for security too, but a pain in the backside if we had loads of shopping, furniture to take upstairs etc.

I'm in the middle -- we have people below us and people above. It's a Georgian flat in central Edinburgh. It is pretty leaky, sound-wise.

The floors are extremely creaky. We can hear upstairs walking around and I'm pretty sure the neighbours downstairs can hear us. DH and I try to walk gently if we get up in the night but there's literally nowhere you can step that doesn't creak.

I can hear the downstairs neighbours if they shout, and their dog barking. I can also hear them playing the piano (luckily they're exceptionally good) and their grandfather clock chiming. They're selling the flat at the moment, I live in fear of it being bought and used as an AirBnB with all the noise (and mess) that entails. It's the one thing that would push us to move out ourselves.

We've spoken to the factors about the creaking floors but they/the owners are utterly unwilling to do anything about it. I think the reality is that replacing floors in a Category A listed building in Edinburgh would cost many tens of thousands and they don't want to spend it.

I lived in an ex-council flat, mid floor. In 7 years, I never heard any noise from any neighbours, except once when I could only conclude upstairs were hosting some sort of furniture throwing party! God knows what they were doing, but I was glad it was only the one night! Apart from that - it was blissfully quiet. I'm totally sure it was because of the solid construction.

I've lived in three different top floor flats over the years and the one in a Victorian conversion was a nightmare for noise and also cooking smells. I really felt like sharing a house with my downstairs neighbours... It wasn't just the noise but the vibrations from doors being slammed and kids running around (floorboards + carpet flooring).

The purpose built (1980s built estate of all similar looking blocks of flats) was much better with very little neighbour noise coming in.

Another purpose built (1950s ex-council maisonette) was also fine, although we heard next door's loud music a fair bit, but otherwise it was very solidly built.

We're on the third floor of a purpose built block (2009), downstairs they have a dog and a 5 year old. We hear nothing. There's also very little noise from upstairs.

We're in an upstairs one from a four in a block. Downstairs has been empty for a year but before that we heard some noise from them. They had hard floors so heard their toddler running up and down the hall very clearly, couldn't hear music and TV unless it was loud but we did hear them singing along at times, and I heard snoring some nights. We don't hear either of the flats next door to us though even despite the adjoining wall. They have to be really shouting on their kids for us to hear a thing and even then it isn't loud. They're pre-war in era so some of the walls are really solid so I guess it's from that.

OP buy a white noise machine for sleeping (or you can find an app for white noise)

I'm top floor. I hear next door from time to time through the shared wall, but never a single peep from downstairs, not in 3 years living there.

I've lived in a few flats from different eras, always on a mid floor ( flats above and below). Ranging from the noisiest to quietest:
Victorian conversion - could hear both upstairs and downstairs, even talking
1950s low rise - could hear DIY and other noises from upstairs and downstairs.
1960s high rise - could hear upstairs but not downstairs, but not as loud as above so didn't disturb us
2000s modern new build - quietest, we hear upstairs neighbours children as they run around a lot, and very loud DIY noises but nothing else.

I've found terraced houses noisier than the 1960s/2000s flats so it's not just a flat problem either. I think having solid concrete floors makes the difference.

Hi! My partner is looking at buying a flat on the top floor (there are just two floors below) The building was built in the 1980's, it doesn't have concrete floors. He thought he would be less likely to hear noise from the flat below, so better for him, but he is now worrying whether the people in the flat below will hear him. His hobby is listening to his music, he has a big collection, and this is his main enjoyment/relaxation. Thing is, he does play it rather loud, often for a few hours solid every day, but never late at night. But the last thing he wants to do is upset the neighbours, as if they complain, he would be upset and then keep the music quieter, but he would then be wary about playing it, if there is the risk of it disturbing people. The people in the flat below are retired (but not hard of hearing) and are home a lot of the time. It is really weighing on his mind and worrying him, to the point where he has thought about soundproofing the floor with special underlay, which is quite expensive and no guarantee it would be particularly effective. He keeps trying to convince himself it will be ok, but wonder if he should pull out of the sale, incase he regrets it. Any thoughts please? 🙂