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Soundproofing against neighbours noise

lilyflower — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:45:26 -0800

How do I soundproof my home to reduce noise coming from our neighbours? I live in flat with neighbours on both sides who produce noise which bothers me. I would like to soundproof the walls in the rooms where I am most affected by the noise, I would like advice on a cost effective solution.

I am based in England and have found a company which supplies rubber panels which are glued onto the walls and then covered with two layers of plasterboard. This system seems quite expensive at £30 per square meter and I was hoping for advice on what alternatives there are.

I am concerned with blocking noise from neighbours, products like this foam seem mostly about reducing noise transmission out of a room, so am I right in thinking that these sort of products do not apply?

Further information:

The noise that disturbs me is high pitched children's screams.

The flat was built in 2001 and the walls seem to be standard cheap new build; plaster on both sides of a hollow stud partition - is there a way I can fill the partition to soundproof, or in conjunction with some sort of panelling on the wall?

All the rooms that I want to soundproof have enough space which may allow for layers to be applied to the walls.

I would prefer a DIY solution to help save money, but I am open to the option of a contractor carrying out the work if necessary.

Both of the properties are rented so them soundproofing their side of our adjoining wall is not an option. I have also spoken to both neighbours about their noise and although they are slightly quieter they are still disturbing me.

I am sensitive to noise, I would prefer a detached house but unfortunately it is not an affordable option at this time.

Either She's The Neighbour From Hell, Or I Am

turgid dahlia — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:34:16 -0800

Quick, Easy, Cheap (or Free!) DIY Soundproofing? So my housemate has moved out and I’ve taken his room upstairs in our two-storey townhouse. It’s a good room, very spacious, and with plenty of power outlets (a rarity on the Brisbane rental market), so I said to myself “Huh, might as well put my home theatre setup in here” (TV, 5.1 sound, Xbox, etc.). So I did and I was listening to some Beatles whilst I pottered about, and it was at what I thought was a very reasonable level (as in, I could hear it from the lounge room adjoining the bedroom but not really from anywhere else in the house), but within a few minutes my next door neighbour was banging on the door demanding I turn it down. I complied, even though it was only about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, but I was pretty pissed off about it because she has a crap car and doesn’t know how to drive so her brakes are squealing for about 45 minutes every morning and evening as she figures out how to use the driveway.

Anyway, I understand how annoying noise can be and I appreciate that it probably upset her (she’s entitled to quiet enjoyment of her home, after all). This is a block of five townhouses, only a few years old, but it appears no consideration was given by the builders to the fact that noise travels and that two plaster walls and wooden floorboards are basically only conduits for sound. I don’t want to be kicking back and have her bashing on the door again, since we’ve all got to get along. And my guess is it’s the subwoofer (which sits directly on the floor) that is the chief point of concern.

So, what are some cheap and easy ways to stop people from complaining about noise? Should I put the subwoofer on a stand of some kind? A big bookshelf is going against the wall most directly attached to her, which should suck up some of the sound, but it probably won’t be enough. I can't drill holes in the wall or pump foam anywhere - I basically have to use what I've got, or what can be gotten cheaply, and I have to do it myself without doing anything to the house.

I'm also going to go around tonight with a bottle of wine to apologise, and give her my mobile number so she can just text me if it gets too much for her again (I'm think she's in the middle of some kind of nervous breakdown - I can sometimes hear her sobbing and sort of scratching at something, and she also drops a lot of plates - which is relevant because when you're already mad, even tiny things are going to make you madder).

Please note that I don’t play my music above what I would call a very reasonable level. Honestly, I hate having it up loud, and one could very easily have a normal conversation if one was sitting directly in front of my setup. What do?

How do I soundproof a ceiling without ripping it up?

zembla3 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:00:19 -0800

I live in a rental apartment and would like to block out noise from the apartment above me. I have a ceiling fan, ear plugs, etc., but would prefer not to have to use those things. Is there some kind of insulation or paneling that I can glue or tack on without having to rip up the ceiling? (Please don't respond with suggestions about talking to my neighbors. I'm specifically looking for information about soundproofing the ceiling.)

Soundproof windows?

pipti — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:38:10 -0800

I'll soon be moving to the SO's apartment, which is perfect in every way except for the street noise. It's fine with earplugs when sleeping, but we hope to procreate, and so the question arises: have you ever installed noise-reducing windows? and have they worked? And who did you use?

The apartment is rent-stabilized and on a very noisy street in NY. I highly highly doubt the landlord would install soundproof windows on his dime, so we will have to pay. Two of the bedrooms have one window; one bedroom has four windows. I thought we should start with putting one soundproof window in one bedroom, when and if we expect a child.

Oh: it's a 4th-floor walk-up. Is it ridiculous to expect that it will be doable for a pregnant person (that will, god willing, be me) and after, a person with a baby?

A room of one's own... please.

purplefiber — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:15:30 -0800

My friend recently moved into a new apartment where the two bedrooms are separated by french doors (with glass panes). What is the best way to soundproof this wall? Interested in both the cheapest and most soundproof solutions. Thanks!

How to run collective no-budget underground studio?

yoHighness — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:24:19 -0800

RecordingStudioFilter: Advice sought on how to run a collective no-budget underground (literally) studio; starting immediately. lots Affectionately nicknamed the "cave flat", two stories below the center of a largish UK city dwell five musicians, the emissions of their drumkits, amps, PA's (and occasionally, 100's of partygoers) shielded from the ears of neighbours or police through several feet of 1700's sandstone wall. The landlord is cool with it. Loads of bands come to practise as there is a lot of cavernous space. We have now raised enough £££ to rent cavernous space for a recording studio. As luck would have it, the "music room" cavern and what is to be the control cavern already have a room-to-room window between them. The latter is also much less echo-y and could be treated for echoes (I've been looking up related ask-me's).

We have all the musical gear and recording people, but on the recording gear side there's only:

Adequate silenced Dual-Core PC with 22" TFT (mine)
M-Audio USB interface with 4 preamps and 2 additional ins, 6 outs
Bunch of Shure SM-58 and some low-budget "studio" mikes (100£)
Nice Neumann KM-140's, AKG 414's I get to borrow from Uni, studios I get to mix in at Uni

We're gonna start on the 1st of June and run it for three months or so at first, and see if something happens. I've got three months of free time on my hands, collaborators, and many musicians are already on a waiting list to be recorded with a no-budget approach. There's few other studios around town and none central.W e might not have the sound gear, but the place is very cool. Decisions about running the studio will be voted on by the collective, and it is not linked to any commercial interests. We would never pass fire & safety regulations anyway, though.

The idea is to put out as many live sound low-budget demos, myspace tracks as possible, as well as some low-budget actual studio recordings with more work on overdubbing. And for all the flat's bands to be able to record their practise sessions in a jiffy.

If you have been in a similar situation, I would very much appreciate any advice you've got about how to pull this off. My apologies for lengthy posting.

Noisefilter (possibly literally?)

synecdoche — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:10:33 -0800

Is there anything we can do to keep our apartment a bit quieter? My girlfriend and I just moved into a new apartment, which we like very much. However, there is one problem: noise. We're on the top floor, but we can hear quite a bit of what our neighbour directly below us is up to.

I don't think he is (often) being excessively loud. For instance, right now, he's talking on the phone below me at what seems to be a reasonable volume, but I can still hear him and even, occasionally, make out the odd word. When his computer makes noise (such as when he gets an instant message on MSN) I know about it too. Things are a bit more frustrating when he listens to music. While there have been a couple of times when he has turned up the volume, for the most part it is, I think, fairly reasonable; it just seems as though the floor between our apartment and his is very, very thin. (I am not sure how much of what we do he can hear.)

I'm not sure what we can do. The floor is well-padded carpet through most of the apartment, though it is an older building. Most of the time he isn't really doing anything wrong, and it isn't as though we can ask him to not talk on the phone or ever listen to music.

Any tips on dealing with this? We're both grad students who do work at home, and would love things to be a bit better than "just tolerable." We're in Southern Ontario, if it matters. Thanks.

How can I soundproof an old, unused door?

deafmute — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:09:26 -0800

Help my soundproof the door between my room and my roommates' room. I live in an old rowhouse, and there is a very thin door between my room and the bedroom that my roommate and his girlfriend both share. I can hear EVERYTHING. I would like to fix this situation.

The door opens into their room, so the jamb is on my side and I have a little bit of space in which to install something.

Based on previous ask threads, I was thinking about making some kind of sandwich of acoustic tiles, foam, or egg crates and installing it in the door frame. Will this work? Where can I get these materials?

Reducing the Acoustic Shadow

Minus215Cee — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:47:19 -0800

Soundproofing material: What is this stuff called, and where can I find it? I'm looking to soundproof the basement of the house I live in with five other musicians. A few years ago I read in a magazine about this sound insulation material, formerly used in jet airliners, becoming available, repurposed, for retail and commercial use. Ever since then I've been unable to locate it. I've looked here, but the site provides very little in the way of real information.
The ex-jet stuff seemed like the cheapest, and most fireproof, option. We want to give our neighbors a break. Any specific information would be super helpful, just so I can present my roomates with a budgeted estimate.

Keeping the Rock Alive

tmcw — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:22:40 -0800

I've always been annoyed by people who make a racket in the neighborhood. I'm likely to be one of those people next year. How can I soundproof a room, pacify neighbors, and avoid police? So, I have a band - a rock band, and we're living in a house next year. We're all in college, and the house is in our sort-of-college-town (Williamsurg, VA). There's one good-sized bedroom which will definitely fit out instruments and amps, and we can change it up a bit, but we're still renting. By instruments I mean two electric guitars, a bass, and drums. Amps are 60W, 15W tube, and 85W bass amp. So it can get a little loud. The house next door will be cool with a bit of noise, but the one across our backyard has (oh, no...) old people.

So, foam on the walls? Soft furniture? Should we talk to them first, or see if we can get away with it? Anyone been in a similar situation?

Help me compensate for my abrasive personality

alphanerd — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:06:48 -0800

I'm looking for ideas on how to reduce wind noise when I have the top up in my 2002 Toyota Solara convertible. The car is just about everything I hoped it would be, with the exception of wind noise with the top up at highway speeds. I'm wondering if anyone has ever come up with an economical solution to this problem. I'm thinking perhaps that a "second headliner" could be fashioned from one of these products and attached to the interior for long trips.

I'm pretty sure the top is the place to go to deal with the problem, but I'm not sure. I've seen advertisements for noise reducing headliners for the Ford Mustang, but nothing for the Solara. I've also read of other manufacturers placing noise reducing material in the first joint of the convertible top above the driver and passenger.

Can anyone confirm that the cloth top is the place to go to reduce this problem? Is it something else (poor sealing around the windshield for example)? I'd be extremely interested in finding something that would solve the problem that could permanently be affixed to the headliner, if indeed that's the way to go to fix it. The fabric listed above is probably not to heavy for the roof to support, but would probably place a lot of wear on the convertible top motor if left in permanently.

Solutions for a sound-leaky door?

dorothy humbird — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:08:52 -0800

Help me muffle (or eliminate) the sound escaping from my badly-hung door so that my roommates are less likely to figure out what sort of shenanigans I'm up to in my room... I live with three roommates in the first floor of an older house that was probably built around the turn of the century. The door to my room has, through warping, terrible carpentry, or mere settling of the house over time, become so NOT-square that there are significant gaps at the top and side where sound easily leaks out.

As you can see, there is a latch affixed to the interior so I can lock the door. This was done because the handle hardware and the door latch on the frame no longer match up.

When we moved in, my landlord had the bottom of my door planed off so the thing would actually shut, because it protruded below the top of the floor in the hallway and wouldn't shut all the way. However, I'm still stuck with the gaps.

For normal everyday activities, I couldn't give a shit that some sound is getting out of my door, but my boyfriend will be visiting on some weekends while we live here, and I'd like it if we didn't have to be silent as the grave while misbehaving.

Short of having the door entirely replaced, what can I do to block the sound from escaping through those gaps? Is there any sort of stripping (like weather stripping, but not as ugly and for interior doors) that I could affix to the top and side of the door?

I'd also like something pretty permanent, rather than stuffing scarves in the gaps or something every time we go in the room, because that would be a) conspicuous, and b) a pain in the ass.

Noise reduction help.

Optamystic — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 03:53:07 -0800

I need advice on dealing with the noise produced by our neighbor's autistic sons. This weekend, my wife and I moved into our first house together. It's a London "terrace home" which means that we share common walls with neighbors on both sides. On the west side lives a mother with two autistic adolescent boys, one of whom is prone to constantly making loud "hooting" noises, punctuated by screams. The other one cackles and grunts loudly. Yesterday, the noise started at 6 am, and went until about 8 pm.

So I have two questions. First, under UK housing law, were the vendors or the agents required to inform us of the situation as part of the Replies To Inquiry? Second, now that we're here, how can we best reduce the noise without spending a fortune?

P.S. I realise that my wife and I are the parties least affected by this tragic situation. I in no way wish to add to the burden of the family next door. But the situation is what it is, and I need guidance on how to deal with it.

Thump thump thump thump

davidnin — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:31:53 -0800

My downstairs neighbor won't tolerate the sound of my treadmill. Any ideas? My girlfriend recently moved in with me, bringing her treadmill with her. One of the first times she used it we got a knock on the door from the downstairs neighbors to cut it out. What I need to know is, is there any effective way to minimize the noise of the running impacts on the treadmill?

I have hardwood floors that I'm sure are just perfect for transmitting the noise down to them.

I've checked this soundproofing thread but since I'm renting, changing the construction of the floor isn't an option. Places like soundproofing.org sell products, but I'm not ready to buy until I'm sure they're going to work.

Any ideas?

Soundproofing/patching

jon_kill — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:13:37 -0800

Two questions about recording studio design... 1) We're in the top floor of an old factory. The guy who lives downstairs doesn't think the soundproofing is adequate. We were told that there was a foot thick slab of concrete between the floors, but that isn't true. Now, before we get all uppity with the landlord, we need to know if the foot of concrete is gonna make a difference.

What we were planning to do was lay a frame down around the entire room on a layer of Sonopan, and then fill it with concrete (this is good, because that way we can have the snake pop up out of the middle of the floor along with electrical outlets and headphone amps. Convenient).

Is this gonna do anything in terms of limiting sound transmission? Do we have to get an engineer to approve the project?

2) We have four heads, four cabs, a bunch of effects, and a bunch of guitars and synths. Does it make sense to hook them all into a patchbay so we can route guitar A through head B through cab C, for example, and then change that routing just by repatching one cable in the patchbay? Does that work?

We wanna just be able to say, "Okay, I want this guitar [patch] in this head [patch] through this cabinet [patch]."

How do I solve my band's residential noise problem?

cortex — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 21:11:19 -0800

I'm in a band, and we practice in our drummer's basement. He has a next-door neighbor who can't stand our noise. Do we soundproof? Do we relocate? Details:

We've been practicing in Ed-the-drummer's basement for about 16 months now, off-and-on. Mostly on. [We spent two or three months practicing in the basement of a friend of Ed's, but stopped doing so for a variety of reasons including lousy security.]

In that span, we've acquired a bassist and bigger, better amps. We've also dealt with occasional letters from the neighbor, who has become increasingly impatient with our band noise. Though we only practice two weeknights a week (with probably one of those nights off every couple weeks, on average), and constrain practice to a 7:30-9:30 PM window, we've still gotten increasing friction from her, and the kicker has been a couple visits from summoned cops in the last month.

We need to do something. The two solutions that seem obvious to me are (1) moving to a rented rehearsal space of some sort or (2) soundproofing the shit out of Ed's basement.

Both will cost money, obviously. However, I don't really know how much is fair/reasonable for monthly practice space (nor do I know what sort of security/etc a band can and should expect from such an arrangement).

On the other hand, the basement is something like 20x20 feet squared, ceilings about 7 feet high with exposed wooden rafters, cement walls, and several windows set near the top of the walls at ground level. Occasionally damp, as Portland basements tend to be. If we're going to spend the money to soundproof the basement, we need to do a pretty damn good job, because the neighbor lives next door and is becoming uncompromisingly psycho about this.

Home Recording Studio

grumblebee — Sat, 03 Apr 2004 07:02:03 -0800

I'd like to set up a cheap "recording studio" for dialogue (not music). I'm shooting for NPR/"This American Life" audio-quality. What do I need and how much will it cost me? I'll probably have to do this in my apartment, so considerations include sound-proofing a small room in addition to recording equipment. One thing I don't need is a PC or sound-editing software. I have that. But I need recommendations for recording devices, mics, etc. This is for "audio drama" in which several people might be talking at once.

DIY cheap soundproofing

Mossy — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 13:20:57 -0800

Any easy and cheap methods to soundproof a basement room for guitar playing? Something about egg cartons?