Sound proofing a wall to reduce noise from neighbors - anyone had experience?

MeticulousMark

Hi all!

I live in a three-story small block of flats in built between the wars. The walls are of masonry construction. 

There is one other flat on our landing. Unfortunately, and it is a very long story short, there are up to 16 people living in it - it is a two bedroom flat. I am two years into trying to get the council (and police, as there were sometimes dozens of people coming and going a week from abroad during the most stringent periods of lockdown) to do something about it but I can tell it'll be a long, long road. We will probably move in future but not in the short term, the issue is not actually as bad as it sounds and not enough to make us need to move imminently. 

I only share one wall with the neighboring flat, but unfortunately its in my bedroom, and right behind the headboard. There are no other rooms in the house which will take our bed and due to radiators and fitted cupboards etc. nowhere else the bed can go. The good news is that the neighbors very rarely play loud music or anything like that, it is just that because of the sheer number of people, every room is a living space and people are up talking until 1am every night without fail. They talk incredibly loudly and continuously for hour after hour, and their normal speaking volume is a shout - you can sometimes hear them talking from away up the street. 

I am conscious that I am a very light sleeper in any case, but even with ear plugs I end up on the sofa a couple of nights a week. Realistically it is not that loud (not enough probably to trigger a noise complaint), my partner can sleep through it. However, I just can't. Also I feel like removing this issue would hugely relieve my overall annoyance at the whole situation next door, which is getting me down. It is airborne noise and I feel pretty confident its not being transmitted through the floorboards, which I don't think are shared. 

So, is this a case where soundproofing this one wall could actually work? I am also conscious that if we come to sell it may be quite attractive to be able to say the only shared wall is sound-proofed. With that in mind, has anyone had experience of doing this? Any idea of products/costs? Is there any way of testing if it would work before investing?

I love these boards and look daily, so I am aware some won't be able to resist giving me advice about dealing with the general neighbors but I have that in hand as much as it can be, and rest assured I have tried or am trying everything. I would appreciate advice to be restricted to the sound-proofing issue only!

Maybe one day I will post the whole story for your amusement...

I am in Scotland so will not be obliged to report this issue when I sell, before anyone comments.

Racky_Roo

I bought oak acoustic panels from naturewall and used “green glue” to attach it to the wall along with the odd screw to block out my neighbours tv which is wall mounted with a sound bar on the adjoining wall. 

It was easy to install (just a bit tricky to cut out the plug sockets) and seems to have worked but wasn’t cheap. Think my 3.4m wall was about £900 to do

I did look at creating a void with plasterboard but I’d have needed to get it skimmed or wallpapered it and preferred the look of the slat wall 

If you do get the green glue, it really smells for a few weeks until it totally cures so do it now whilst you don’t mind the windows open

ka7e

A bit "outside the box", but have you tried using white noise to replace the sounds that disturb you? You can use an app to find the right sounds - whether it's an actual sound, like rainfall or a continuous drone like a fan. It doesn't have to be loud, but it sort of "distracts" your aural sensitivity. My husband suffers from a medical condition that means he makes a lot of noise while asleep and I use the sound of waves lapping with great success.

Ikea also sell noise-absorbing panels that you could hang behind the bed like a modern sculpture! https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/oddlaug-sound-absorbing-panel-grey-00427366/

MeticulousMark

Thanks both! Tempted to give the cheap ikea panels a go to see if they do anything in the first instance... 

amanda_p

Many, many ,years ago we lived in a semi with incredibly noisy neighbours. They were a family with 3 teenage boys, one a set of twins and were just a noisy household. We could hear everything, the walls were paper thin. We paid out and had proper acoustic soundproofing put in, where they leave a gap  between adjoining walls and build a new acoustic wall. We had the whole of the party wall done upstairs and down. It made little difference, maybe muffled sounds a bit but not really sufficiently.A year later we sold the house and moved into a detached house and have never looked back. 

paulj2021

I looked into it at one time but decided to sell instead! There’s some interesting videos on the subject on YouTube, look for the ones by soundproofing store, they cover a number of techniques 

MeticulousMark

Thanks for the extra tips. Yes we won't be here forever and will move to something detached in a couple of years more than likely, but would be willing to invest in something cheap.

Amanda hopefully our situation wouldn't be the same as we solid masonry walls and it's only one wall, but very good to know.

Sandtree

Have done soundproofing but for the opposite reason, ensuring my sound doesnt annoy the neighbours.

The best way to do it will depend on the construction of your property and whilst in principle its very simple (add mass and decouple) small errors will allow a disproportional amount of sound through. As such it gets fairly expensive if you get experienced pros doing it because the margin for error is much smaller (you cant just tape over/filler a small gap).

We removed the dot and dab plasterboard and replaced it with two layers of acoustic plasterboard joined with "green glue" and attached this to the wall with some decoupling brackets. Previously we could hear the neighbours TV or baby crying occasionally but now nothing. The Mrs has occasionally turned the TV/Music up to levels I found uncomfortable in the room and the neighbours state they heard nothing (I hope not stiff upper lip but no way to tell)

MovingForwards

Can you swap rooms around so the bedroom becomes the lounge?

Potentially no cost, just time and setting the rooms up.

user1977

MovingForwards said:

Can you swap rooms around so the bedroom becomes the lounge?

Potentially no cost, just time and setting the rooms up.

From the OP:

"There are no other rooms in the house which will take our bed and due to radiators and fitted cupboards etc. nowhere else the bed can go."

MovingForwards

user1977 said:

MovingForwards said:

Can you swap rooms around so the bedroom becomes the lounge?

Potentially no cost, just time and setting the rooms up.

From the OP:

"There are no other rooms in the house which will take our bed and due to radiators and fitted cupboards etc. nowhere else the bed can go."

Missed that!

OP:

Buy a smaller bed or different style, stick it against the wall so only one person has direct access off it and the other has to hop off the end. Fitted cupboards can be used for clothes.

Take an objective look at the rooms as soundproofing questions pop up here and the DIY section, there's no guarantees it will work. You could end up paying out for no benefit.