Sound Proofing footsteps

[AnonymousAnxiety]

Has anyone had any experience using accustic underlay to reduce footstep noise travelling to the downstairs neighbours? I own a first floor flat. The floorboards are squeaky, which I plan to screw down, it’s an old property around the 20s-30s.

My neighbours told me they can hear a noise between 2-4am from a room that I don’t use at that time, it’s an office for when I work from home, I finish around 6 each weekday. It can only be the floorboards, but why would they make a noise when no-one is in the room to wake someone up?

What am I obligated to do?

What am I obligated to do?

Not a fucking thing. You are not making this noise. You can't stop doing something you're not doing. It's obviously not floorboards because no one is walking on them at that time.

Well, it might be expansion/contraction as the room temperature and humidity change, but you'll get that in an older house anyway. Just proceed as you planned ... and try to politely brush off the neighbours, as they sound like habitual complainers.

Once you've sorted your floors, rugs and soft furnishings will help to absorb sound. But a house will never be silent, they're designed to move a little.

Or leave this playing on repeat after you leave the office 😈

Could the noise be coming from another room and travelling? It's not always obvious where a noise is coming from. They may think it's the unoccupied room, but it may be travelling along walks/floors etc.

No, because the floorboards in the office are not not connected directly to other rooms, the hallway runs in parallel, but this won’t cause any sound to travel. All walls are essentially supporting and decide the floors.