Sound proofing between floors

I live in an upper flat of an Edwardian conversion apartment in South London. I have a problem with the downstairs neighbors complaining of noise when playing music on my stereo. I only use the system for audio, no HT and do not play excessively loud.

Irrespective of the issue, I am going to be restoring the old wood floor in my house. As such, the builder offered the option of adding insulation mineral wool (15mm) between the floor joists to increase noise protection. This would cost me about £600 and would be done as part of the process

How effective is this against reducing noise between floors?

I am sure a number of people live in period properties so any info on sound reduction is much appreciated.

Comments

  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Restoring the floor to use without carpets?. This will increase the noise transmission. Do you have carpet now?. Moving the speakers off the floor and on to wall brackets may help.
  • pred02
    pred02 Posts: 218 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts I've been Money Tipped!
    Today there is laminate that is going to be removed and the old wood floor will be restored. I am wondering if putting in 15mm insulation (mineral wool) between joists between my floor and one below will help reduce the noise.

    Thanks
  • sniggings
    sniggings Posts: 5,281 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 8 May 2015 at 3:56PM
    pred02 wrote: »
    Today there is laminate that is going to be removed and the old wood floor will be restored. I am wondering if putting in 15mm insulation (mineral wool) between joists between my floor and one below will help reduce the noise.

    Thanks

    You will get more complaints not less, you really think 15mm of wool will block out more noise than the laminate!

    You really need to consider underlay and carpet, that will be more affective.

    You will never block out enough noise to please downstairs, without spending thousands, these types of properties are not made well for flats.

    You need to do as much as you can i.e underlay and carpet, then be considerate, then if you still get complaints, it's not because you are noisy but because of the poor flat build, and your neigbours need to either learn to live with this fact or move.
  • PheoUK
    PheoUK Posts: 351 Forumite
    check out soundstop.co.uk they have good advice. Realistically you need to isolate the floorboards from the joists, stick 100mm of acoustic rock wool (not the insulation type its too light) in between the joists, and then you need to seal the floor, and put a membrane over it.

    Anything else is likely to be !!!!ing into the wind TBH!

    Have you checked your lease? Are you allowed solid floors?
  • Try Trim Acoustics http://www.trimacoustics.co.uk/ - they're in South London and deal with this sort of thing all the time. They are happy to give advice over the phone and can steer you to the right product / solution.
    As a fan of THE NUMBER THREAD, our NUMBER IS £22,000 a year = FREEDOM
    Amended 2019 - new NUMBER is approx £27k pa nett (touch wood)
    Amended 2021 - new NUMBER is approx £29k pa nett - heading that way...fingers crossed!
  • muckybutt
    muckybutt Posts: 3,761 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    15mm ? of insulation wont make the least bit of difference
    You may click thanks if you found my advice useful
  • 27col
    27col Posts: 6,554 Forumite
    15 mm. Sounds like a figure plucked at random. It's not even as thick as the existing floor boards.
    I read somewhere that some of the grand old mansions had thick layers of walnut shells in between the floors to deaden sound transference. Obviously not an option here.
    I can afford anything that I want.
    Just so long as I don't want much.
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