Anyone had success with soundproofing?

VioletBaudelaire

I live in a top floor flat in a Victorian conversion and there is no soundproofing at all. I can hear everything from the flat below including conversations. Ther'e's also impact noise where I can hear them stomping across the floor.
There are awful tenants living there at the moment who never seem to leave the house and sit up until 4am every night talking loudly, which is making life unbearable. I've tried talking to them but they're morons with absolutely no consideration for others. The last tenants who left in July were fine because although it was annoying to hear everything they were doing, they kept conventional hours and were good about talking quietly in the evenings and not slamming doors.
I'm thinking of doing my flat up (decorating, new flooring etc) and although I've read before that soundproofing is unreliable, I wondered of anyone had experience of even partial success and how they did it.
I'm desperate to move, but my flat has been on the market for months with no sign of an offer high enough to enable me to move to any of the places I actually want to live. It could really do with a bit of updating and I thought I'd make the best of things by doing that, then at some point in the future looking into renting it out. If there was any method of soundproofing I could try, it makes sense to do it along with the other refurbishment.
Thanks.

m_13

When was your flat converted? There have been strict soundproofing requirements since 2003.

What is your floor covering? If it's exposed floorboards then this is less flexible in terms of putting down acoustic matting etc.

What is your ceiling height like? If you lost inches from your floor would your head be on the ceiling?

I sympathise as noise is very difficult to deal with.

VioletBaudelaire

Thanks for replying. I believe the house was converted in the 70s.
I have carpet (floorboards underneath) and so does the flat below. My ceilings are fairly high.

m_13

Thanks for replying.

I think you might have success with taped and sealed acoustic matting. Acoustilay is one but there are others. They say it can reduce sound noise by up to 30db with a good carpet on top:

Acoustilay 3, 8 or 15 on timber joisted floor, carpet finish30dB impact

I don't know about costs but it does seem to be something that can be done on a DIY basis although it will obviously be disruptive.

[Deleted User]

http://www.soundstop.co.uk/solutions/floor_access/

VioletBaudelaire

Thankyou very much M_13 and Kittie for your replies. I shall investigate!