Soundproofing ceiling?

[CHM21]

Hello all,

I'd really appreciate some advice/feedback from anyone who has soundproofed their ceiling against upstairs neighbours. We own and live in a ground floor flat in a 1900s Edwardian mid-terrace. We have been unfortunately blessed with a particularly stompy and noisy neighbour (the wife is fine but we can sadly hear everything the husband does/says in a very intense, percussive way). We have previously spoken to them about this and pointed out that taking up the carpet in their living room isn't great (nor in the lease). We had to cease raising it with them as they became increasingly defensive and hostile.

We are now considering either moving (more disruptive/intensive) or soundproofing a few key ceilings. We got some installed in the kitchen but it did nothing - we wonder if this is because it was applied directly to the ceiling, not created a new lower ceiling.

Can anyone advise if some full-on, decoupling insulation will help deaden the impact and airborne noise? And to what extent it dampened the noise? Hoping for some success stories as we're at our wits' end!

Thank you :)

Our satiation is a little different t to yours as we used it in our house. We used this system under our bedroom ceiling, which is over our kitchen. https://www.noisestopsystems.co.uk/shop/ceiling-soundproofing/acousticlip-timber-ceiling/

it works well, but in our case it was to muffle noise from downstairs, not upstairs, and it doesn’t stop noise creeping up from open doors and areas where we don’t have soundproofing, so in your case it would be essential to have the whole flat done, not just essential areas. And then there’s no guarantee that you won’t be able to hear him after you’ve gone to all that work, as sound will travel through windows and doors. My husband would have had soundproofing everywhere, including on the wall adjoining next door, but I would not agree to this as it was a lot of work for an unknown outcome. I personally think moving house might be less disruptive!

Like you, I got desperate and spent a small fortune professionally soundproofing my last house using a well known company. It barely made a difference to airborne noise, no difference to impact noise. This was walls not ceilings. They did not decouple though, they just added lots of layers to party wall and flanking walls.

In fact they did so much (and did it very well too), I cannot believe how little difference it made in reality. It just shows how pervasive sound waves are. I also began to wonder how healthy living in a house with essentially loads of old tyres on the walls was. Admittedly sealed in behind plastboard and what not.

So I am probably not much help to you here, but I am highly sceptical about sound proofing now.

We moved house and it's bliss. Please think about doing that rather than spending more money on the problem. I was so desperate I spent thousands on soundproofing and redecorating and then had to move anyway. Wish I'd just moved and put the cash towards the stamp duty on the new place.

Thank you @smilingfanatic and @ClaredeBear ! Useful to know. We're in a tricky position as we want our next purchase to be put of London, which our current jobs don't allow for yet. So if we sold we'd take a £11k early repayment mortgage charge and be renting (likely an extra £600+ a month). So it might be cheaper to soundproof but - as you say - reluctant to do if it won't really work!

Ah I see. It's such a tough one, as once the noise gets to you that's it. You almost start waiting for it, and the anticipation then becomes as bad as the noise itself! I couldn't relax in my home in the end, it really affected me.

How long do you need to stay there for? If it's just a year or two, I would put up with it and keep reminding yourself that it's not for much longer.

If longer, can you DIY it? Would save a fortune. Do it in one room and see how it goes. I don't know what was added to your kitchen ceiling, but if it was just acoustic plasterboard overboarding it will do nothing. As you say, you need decoupling but also mass. Previous link looks good for DIY 👍

Good luck. From one noise hater to another, this will pass!

Sympathies OP. Tbh I’m not sure there’s a lot that will really work if you’re underneath a stompy and uncooperative person. Impact noise from footfall is as I understand it, best dealt with at source (ie inside their rooms) with an absorbing layer. Once the impact noise has made it into the surrounding structure/joists then flanking transmission will mean it’s coming at you from all directions pretty much.

If you could convince them to get something like that installed in their room/rooms you might get somewhere.

This is the sort of product:

I had my walls done in my favourite house and it was brilliant but this was about some sound (I could still hear the doors slamming) so sound proofing the ceiling from stomping about may not work.

It's so awful. Some people are just not decent.

Absolutely this! I would probs need therapy alongside any soundproofing to reduce the stress reaction 😅 thank you for the link and your help! Were planning to get an acoustic expert in to say objectively whether it could be done - otherwise as you say, worth maybe leaving it and holding on/moving! Thank you ❤️

Thank you! Yeah exactly, it's tricky because they've essentially asserted that they deserve to decorate their flat how they like and have forgotten an element of responsibility/lease clauses! Possibly wondering if we can sway them by just forking out for it ourselves and swallowing our sense of fairness. One to pursue I think..! Thank you 😊

I had my bedroom and office ceilings soundproofed with this "genie clip" system:

https://londonsoundproofingrus.com/ceiling-soundproofing/

It has worked reasonably well in my opinion, but I imagine it will depend on the specific of your ceiling construction. Of course it does not completely eliminate all sound, but it is much less noticeable than it was (both impact and airborne sounds). It also helped a bit that in the bedroom, the neighbors upstairs were willing to have acoustic underlay fitted when they changed carpet.

There are a variety of systems, where you basically have to trade-off between losing ceiling height for better results. The gold standard is to have a fully independent ceiling, but you'll lose 10-20cm+ off the ceiling height. The clip system seems pretty good, since you only lose 5cm or so, and it effectively physically decouples the floorboards from your ceiling. You can also add various upgrades like MLV (mass-loaded vinyl) sheets, and resilient bars. (I'd suggest to just max it out if possible).

It wasn't that cheap though to be honest. Looking at like £5k per room, then add decorating costs. Might make it easier to sell though, so arguably worth it (assuming it works).

Do you mind if I ask what you used, please?

We lived in the upstairs part of a maisonette. Converted Victorian house. We had really good underlay and good carpeting but downstairs always complained. It isn't great being the upstairs person either. They moved out and new downstairs did get ceiling soundproofed. From our perspective we hardly heard voices anymore from downstairs but I can't say how it affected foot impact. I would suggest it will always be a bug bear in a conversion like this

I can't remember what I used but I do remember it was developed for the space station and it was expensive. I've had soundproofing board on some walls here (with additional insulation in the dining room) and it's quite good for general noise. The soundproofing board isn't very expensive but it's not as good.

Following this but for us its the joining wall! Old Ewdardian terrace house and house next door used to be part of this house ( it was a shop I believe) We only moved in this year but by God we can hear everything.. as can they !
We bought ours, the rent theirs although are moving out in a few months as landlord is selling up.
I was going to try and speak to the new buyers and see if they'd be interested in " going halfs" on.. I have no idea what to suggest but the wall between us in literally a layer of plasterboard :/
It's ridiculous and neither of us are loud houses and pretty respectful.

You have my sympathies!

https://soundstop.co.uk/products/tecsound-50-acoustic-membrane