Sound proofing the ceiling in a flat?

bestpud · 20 June 2007 at 12:39PM

I'm asking on behalf of my parents.

They live in a ground floor flat and the person above has recently taken up their carpets. This has had a big impact on the noise levels below!

The flats are in an old building, converted from a three storey house years ago (victorian style). The floor boards are the originals.

My parents have been told they can add some sort of layer to their celings to sound-proof them and this is their only option. They were ok with this, although a bit miffed at having to pay and lose some of their room height, but when they got a quote from a builder they were told it may not even work!

Does anyone have any experience of this kind of problem or know who they could ask? Obviously the last thing they want to do is shell out thousands for something that won't make much impact on the noise levels!

Any advice is welcome - they're really fed up of feeling like a herd of elephants is living above them!

Tia

Bestpud

Lennylegs · 20 June 2007 at 2:02PM

Hi

Do they rent or own ?

It's just in my lease it says asides the bathroom and the kitchen, floors Must be kept carpeted, i live on the ground floor and sought permission to have tiles through my hallway - being ground floor they agreed to it but upstairs had permission denied for just that reason.
Maybe something you could check ?

Leonie

cattie · 20 June 2007 at 2:26PM

In a couple of the leasehold flats I owned in the past the lease stipulated that all floors must be carpeted as in Lennylegs post.

If you parents lease states such a condition then your parents, or you on their behalf, could have a word with the owner of the upstairs flat & invite them down to listen to how noisy it is without carpets down.

If the owner is reluctant to do anything to remedy the sound issue then it's possible to make a complaint to the freeholder, as they will be infringing the terms of the lease by not having floors carpeted.

HugoSP · 20 June 2007 at 3:18PM

The above 2 posts are valid, and this avenue should be checked out first.

It is quite possible that the occupants of the flat upstairs had the option of putting in soundproofing underlay under their floor, but didn't know of its existance.

In the event of this line of enquiry drawing a blank, I recently discussed this very issue with a building control officer and he says that his office recommend that a separate ceiling structure be put in place.

This would probably take away up to around 9 inches of room height. Essentially it would not depend on or be in contact with the existing floor/ceiling structure, so as to minimise noise.

bestpud · 20 June 2007 at 7:36PM

Thanks for the replies.

I don't know about these things so apologies if this is a very dim answer!

They own the flat but there was some sort of lease when they first bought it. They paid so much a year to someone. I'm fairly sure though that the three flats got together and bought the leasehold from the original owner a few years back. Does that sound right - I'm sure it's what happened but like I said, I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to such things.

HugoSP - that sounds like what they were advised to do (and they were not overly happy about losing the ceiling height!) but when they got a quote the builder said it may not work anyway. That is just one builder though.

tomstickland · 20 June 2007 at 7:40PM

Maybe they bought the freehold collectively but still lease the individual flats from the freeholder. ie: all three flats together are a company who own the freehold and each individual flat has a lease from that company.

Either way, check the lease because many stipulate that bare floors are not acceptable. Also speak to the people upstairs and explain the problem.

andipandi_2 · 20 June 2007 at 8:03PM

impact noise from above is almost impossible to cure from below
what is needed is a product called acoustalay ( sorry couldn't find a decent link but if you google it you should get there) or similar,its an underlay with rubber and foam, its also quite expensive.

only other way is false ceilings in your parents flat but it must be independent of existing ceilings( not connected to) and expensive , disruptive to do, stuffing insulation between joists will not do much,also consider that sound will flank (leak ) down existing chimney flues and partition walls.

littlejaffa · 21 June 2007 at 10:46PM

before we're calling in builder and looking at leases, have your parents actually spoke to the neighbour?

surely that's the first step and might be the only step needed

Liz1966 · 22 June 2007 at 10:40AM

Hi,

I live in a ground floor flat & recently had it soundproofed. This involved removing the existing ceilings, adding dense insulation product in between the joists, replacing ceilings. It cost about £1800 for a flat that is 20' x 30'. It has muffled the sound abit but it doesn't tackle footfall noise or the very noisy water pipes.

I wouldn't have it done again because of the major disruption in having all the ceilings removed & only partial effect on the sound. I didn't want to add false ceilings so this was the only option.

There is a clause in the lease for the flat that says they should not make a noise nuisance but I've found the noisest people are usually so inconsiderate that talking to them about the noise doesn't help & I don't want to take lengthy & expensive legal action.

Other options:

Getting to know the neighbours - if you know them then the noise from them will be less irritating.

Making a noise yourself - if the neighbours don't hear noise from your parents they will assume your parents can't hear noise from them. They may be a bit quieter if they realise everything they do can be heard

Embarrass them - If you can hear their conversations why not join in? When he's shouting that he can't find his socks give him some helpful hints & if they're noisy when making love (as my neighbours used to be) shout some words of encouragement so it's over a little bit more quickly or record it & play it back when her mother is visiting etc.

Good luck!

Best wishes,

never_enough · 22 June 2007 at 11:16AM

Agree with previous posters, check out the lease as it's quite likely bare boards are not allowed. Either way having a word with the neighbours is a good idea. I think the idea of joining in with their conversations may be taking it a bit far for your parents (though fun...;)

:rotfl: ) if they realise quite how much your parents can hear they may be encouraged (embarrassed?) enough to do someting about it.
I have lived in a ground floor victorian conversion. My upstairs neighbour had hard floors & I could hear her tottering around especially in her heels, using the bathroom, her tv & telephone conversations. Nice!

Then she had the cheek to complain about music coming from my flat...when it was actually from the flat above in the next building! My point from this little ramble is that in those type of conversions it is notoriously dfficult to pinpoint where the noise nuisance is coming from or guard yourself against it. TBH I would be dubious about carrying out soundproofing works. I was advised against it for similar reasons to the above posters & decided to use the money to move instead as it made much more sense.

bobthebuilder2 · 10 November 2007 at 1:07AM

Many flats and flat conversions built in the uk, are substandard, often the companies given the contract to build them, cut corners and made cost savings by using beams which were not strong strong enough to adequately support the floor above, the beams between flats or conversions, should be 8 or 9 inch thick, and the floorboards should also be strong enough to prevent them creaking under the weight of a person. the problem ? once something has been nuilt it's not so easy to change. one solution is expanding foam, or cavity wall insulation, this is minimally invasive and provides both noise reduction and strength to the inferior floor above without increasing it's weight greatly, this can also be done in the walls to prevent sound penetration travelling down them. However, companies such as carpetwise have a lot to answer for, selling thin, poor an inadequate carpet and underlay, at overinflated prices, this has the effect of people choosing the much cheaper option of laminate flooring. Filling the cavity with expanding foam will work very well, however, you will not get a builder or tradesman who will reccomend this, simply because, if any work needs to be carried out, electrics or pipework, they must first remove the foam to get access to whatever they need access too. It should be the responsibility of councils to ensure the properties they own, were in the first place, built to the right specification and it is also there responsibility to ensure adequate soundproofing in there properties, instead, people feel hate towards there neighbours, simply from walking accross the floor.

Sound proofing the ceiling in a flat?

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