Sound Proofing Terrace House

looknohands

I've just moved from a rented terrace and Bought a similar property. Having lived in a terrace I'm aware you can hear a lot going on through your walls and it never bothered me before hearing my neighbours having parties, kids screaming and other things...

The house I've bought though one side is so noisey, it's the side with the chimney, we have open fireplaces in all four main rooms, which seemed liked a nice feature but beginning to wonder if this is the problem, my old neighbors had parties with 15+ people and barely heard a sound (that house had blocked fireplaces) this is just 3 kids playing and it sounds like they're in my house.

I'm not going to grouch about kids playing so would rather sort the issue out my side if possible!

Anyone found open fires to cause this? Worth blocking them up to see what happens, is it a DIY job or worth getting a pro? I've also heard it could be floorboards lacking insulation but assumed the party wall seperates these mostly. Any other tips on what could be done.

Any advice from anyone who has sound proofed would be great, thanks in advance!

G_M

If I had a £ for every time a noise problem came up.......

Never really come across a good solution.

Age of property? Many chimneys join halfway up, so sound can travel up, then down. You should be able to tell though if noise is travelling via the chimneies.

You could put up insulated plasterboard along the shared walls. It'll make the rooms marginally smaller, and won't guarantee...... Sound does not just carry through the walls, but through floor, joists etc.

Sadly the solution is in the basic structure of the building. A major fire could give rise to an insurance claim, and a complete re-build?

More helpfully, I asume you've put 'sound proofing' into both the forum search, and google?

looknohands

I did search, though I hadn't thought the chimneys might be joined. Google said its most likely not fireplaces, as they're fire proof and should be thicker, but maybe it is the fireplaces being connected by chimneys.

My house was built in 1890, my old house was 1880 but the fireplaces were filled in chimneys, the neighbours there were an audible mumble, where as here I can hear kids clearly talking... Kinda creepy, maybe it's ghosts.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Sound "proofing" is virtually impossible in an old building.

Sound reducing can be attempted, but it's expensive, and often not particularly effective.

Sound travels in two ways.... Through the air and via the structure.

And the frequency of sound also matters, higher frequencies transmit better through air, lower frequencies through the structure.

If you're hearing children's voices clearly then unless your party wall is wafer thin it's probably an airborne transmission and happening as a result of gaps in the building somewhere.

It shouldn't be shared chimneys, however if anyones ever done any work on them and knocked through into the wrong chimney they might be a reasonable bet, as are air gaps under the building, between the walls, through roof spaces, etc.

Step one is to try and figure out where it's coming from. If it's through the fireplace via the chimney then it's easy to figure out, find some off-cuts of carpet, trim them to the size of the fireplace, and then tape 3-4 layers tightly in place over the fireplace. That should be more than enough 'sound deadening' material to deal with children's voices via the chimney.

If that works then you've found the problem quickly and cheaply and can brick it up.

If it doesn't work, then it's a long hard expensive hunt... You'll need to take down interior plaster walls, find the transmission source, block it, etc.

If I were determined to sound 'proof' a room I'd take down the plasterboard to walls and ceilings, apply heavy sound deadening insulation behind it and around any socket points, put up new sound resistant plasterboard, lift the carpets, apply several layers of sound reducing underlay, replace the carpets, block the chimney, fit new heavy duty doors and perfectly fitting doorframes, install triple glazed windows, etc...

And even then I'd expect only a moderate level of noise reduction.

In most cases/areas it's probably cheaper to upgrade from a terraced to a detached than to properly soundproof a terrace.

But good luck anyway.