Sound Proofing

mimi1234

Hi,

Has anyone had their walls sound proofed and does it make any difference?

I have the official neighbours from hell, that teamed with the fact that the walls are pathetically thin (you can hear hoovers which they like to use just before or after midnight!, light switches being flicked, footsteps in their houses) is driving me round the bend.

Now the neighbours from hell know how thin the walls are (as does everyone in our street) but they are not normal human beings and will slam doors that are joined to our party wall full pelt just for the sake of it. The doors that are not joined to our wall are closed perfectly normally.

We know how thin the walls are so we close doors and not slam them, we don't use electrical equipment which is going to make noise when we know the other neighbours are asleep etc.

Anyway, I digress. Has anyone had their walls sound proofed? Was it very costly? Did it make any difference? Which method or product did you go for? I've had a look at some forums on other websites and most people have said it's not a good idea. It takes forever to put up and didn't make much difference. We would be looking at 9 full sized walls that would need sound proofing to try and keep the noise at bay.

Thanks for any advice and tips.

anselld

Probably not going to be effective unless you do ceilings and floors as well since impact noise is transmitted through the whole structure of the building. Stupidly expensive and disruptive to get meaningful improvements.

andre_xs

We also looked into this, but have never done anything...
You could try doing just one room to see how it works (I would start with the bedroom you are sleeping in). From what I've seen is that it isn't horribly complicated, so if you are a DIY-er you may do it actually yourself. The very important bit is that you actually build a second wall in front of the first wall, and that this second wall does not touch the original wall. The new wall is just held by attaching it to floor, ceiling and the other two wall. These attachment points might also be done by inserting flexible materials to minimize sound transmission to the wall, you have to avoid any "sound-bridge" where the sound can travel through. You fill the cavity with sound-proofing material, e.g. some bitumen mats plus some foam.

However, if a lot of noise is indeed transmitted via the floors, then this might have only limited effect. I would guess that you might get some idea on how much noise is transmitted by the ceiling by checking how much noise comes through "diagonally". By this I mean the following: Suppose you have a bedroom on the first floor, which is next to their bedroom on the first floor. Below this bedroom of yours is let's say your living room. How much noise do you have in your living room (ground floor) when your neighbours are loud in their bedroom (first floor, diagonally above your living room). If there is virtually no noise coming through, then this may indicate that there is not too much noise coming via the ceiling/floor (*may* indicate, of course it may still be the case depending on the exact construction)

We just viewed quite a few houses and we always do a "noise test", where one goes to the neighbour and makes some noise, while one stays in the house we are viewing and sees how loud it is. Usually, the noise mainly comes through the walls, not the ceiling/floor, but we've seen one property which was ridiculous: It had a concrete ceiling, and you could very loudly hear every step of the person above you, even if they were in the remotest room. The whole floor got into vibration and carried it into every room of the flat below.

I wish you all the best, noisy neighbours can be a nightmare...

Kind Regards,
Andre

Edit: See here for a DIY guide to sound proof a wall. It is German, but the pictures still illustrate the idea:
http://www.selbst.de/bauen-renovieren-artikel/heizung-lueftung-solar-technik/schallschutz/gedaemmte-vorwandschale-verbessert-schallschutz-145701-Bild-1.html

Here's the link to the overview, which leads to different soundproofing, e.g. also the ceiling:
http://www.selbst.de/bauen-renovieren-artikel/heizung-lueftung-solar-technik/schallschutz/schallschutz-im-haus-laermfrei-wohnen-145679.html

auldblerk

Wow, do the neighbours actually let you in so you can make a racket ?

andre_xs

I know it sounds a bit strange, but when you first chat to them nicely and then mention that you have a "noise issue due to very bad past experience" (which is actually true), then so far everybody was extremely kind and immediately invited us in (well, not quite right, one couple did not invite us in, but they were still very friendly and turned the volume of the TV so much up that we could hear it on the street).

Maybe I was exaggerating with the "racket", it is basically loud talking walking around a bit with "heavy steps" and knocking at the shared wall. This takes ~5 min, is not really a racket, but gives you a very good idea about noise issues.

Our budget is so tight that if we made a mistake there, we could not easily move again a short while after. If there would be no option for a "noise test", then we actually would not offer on the house. Risk would be too high for us...

mimi1234

Thanks for the advice guys.

ANDRE - thanks a lot and I think you are right. It would be far too expensive. I might as well pay to have a new house built.

The noise also travels from other floors. When the NN slam a wardrobe in the attic, the impact can be heard two floors down in our front room. Likewise, when they start hammering at the party wall in the basement, I can hear it two floors up in my bedroom.

It would not just be a case of sound proofing the walls, it would be the ceilings and the floors as well.

Drat, I was hoping it would not have been this complicated or expensive. If only my Dad had bought the house from the man who was living next door when he moved. He actually offered it to him but Dad said no for some unknown reason. My Mom keeps saying he had the money. If only we could go back in time, we would not have been cursed with the nasty NN!

antilles

I have the same issue, the house I live in has thin party walls and you can hear absolutely everything from the neighbours - doors slamming, conversations, TV, radio etc, and they are very loud people! I re-plastered my living room a couple of years back and while I was at it I installed some dense soundproofing plasterboard (Gyproc soundblock). 2 layers of it to be exact, adding an extra 2 inches to the party wall. It did have some effect and there was a definite reduction in noise, but to be honest it wasn't significant enough to be worth the mess and extra work involved, if I hadn't have been re plastering I wouldn't have bothered, put it that way.

The problem is that noise also travels via ceilings and around side walls, and even through electrical sockets. This is called flanking noise, and as someone has said it's impossible to stop this without effectively building a suspended wall or whole suspended room within a room. which is beyond most people's budget, plus you have to do every room which is impacted by the noise. Not really feasible in a small house either.

There are various products you can buy (e.g. Green Glue) that claim to make things better but ultimately you cannot really stop the problem without major work.

I have found that the best solution is to create noise yourself to drown them out - by this I don't mean being a neighbour from hell yourself , but create low volume, ambient noise around the house. I am a quiet person and I don't watch TV which is why I notice noise more, but I started leaving the radio on low all day, this cancels out most of what I can hear from next door and you get used to it after a while.

Try also sealing any gaps around skirting boards and electrical sockets on or near the party wall, the sound escapes through these and creates further noise. Also things live heavy curtains, big fabric sofas, big bookcases against the walls will help. But nothing will stop the problem entirely.

On a side note I am selling the house, nothing to do with the noise by the way, but I'm planning to buy a detached house so I can get the peace and quiet, my brother has one and he doesn't hear anything from the neighbours...only way forward I'm afraid.

staffie1

The type of noise you describe as being particularly irritating is impact noise, which in my experience is practically impossible to eliminate. I have the same problem in my 1930s semi. Not NN though I should add - just ordinary people going about their day-to-day business.


They have cupboards / shelving along the party wall, and I hear things being put into the cupboards and the cupboard doors closing, plates/cups being put down on the kitchen worktop, veg being chopped, etc. Sometimes can hear raised voices but my neighbours do tend to shout at each other, and laminate flooring in their dining room and all those hard surfaces on their side tend to amplify the noise.

I had sound proofing put in either side of the chimney breasts upstairs and down, and insulation against the walls under the floorboards upstairs, with only minimal success. It's done nothing noticeable to block the impact noises. You do get used to it after a while - it's not terribly bothersome for me thankfully, and keeping the radio / tv on low during the day certainly helps. Mercifully they tend to be very quiet at night.


I think it's one of the hazards of semi-detached / terraced living. The only solution is to move when you can and either try your luck in another non-detached house, or of course go detached if you can.

Noctu

Agree with the other posters. We spent a lot of time and money soundproofing the entire party wall side of our house, with the best materials available.

Made about 10-20% difference to noise levels. Definitely not worth it. I so wanted it to work as we were in exactly the same sort of situation as you.

In the end we waited it out, made as much ambient noise (as another poster mentioned) as possible - didn't stop us from hearing the banging and shouting though! - and moved into a detached when we could afford it.

The noise made me ill and I was so glad to move. Move, if you can, would be my suggestion... Easier said than done though...

sniggings

antilles wrote: »

On a side note I am selling the house, nothing to do with the noise by the way, but I'm planning to buy a detached house so I can get the peace and quiet, my brother has one and he doesn't hear anything from the neighbours...only way forward I'm afraid.

Confused!!

andre_xs

sniggings wrote: »

Confused!!

There are many explanations for this. For instance, they may have to move house because of a new job, but now make sure that noise is no issue any more. It is like having an electric applicance which has an annoying feature. You may still use it until it dies, but when you buy the next one, you make sure it does not have this feature...