maybe buy the upstairs neighbors [a thick white carpet and] foot
slippers for everyone. maybe trade in the super ball for a nerf ball.
i had a tenant many years ago in a lower who complained about having
her peace disturbed by the late night arrival of an inconsiderate upper
tenant who wore "clogs" around the house was the complaint. we followed
it up and got no cooperation about asking her to slip off her noisy
wooden sandals at the entry. after a few subsequent inconsiderate
actions like setting off the smoke alarm on several late nights after
passing out from drinking after putting food in the gas oven and
burning it, we asked the upper tenant to move.
as a tenant, your think outside the box solution might be to find the
noisy folks a nicer or bigger apartment or home with yard to rent. have
a look and see if your area is listed at: www.craigslist.org
don't be surprised if you find a nice place for yourself there also.
you might even look for those who need an apartment like the one
upstairs in the wanted list.

888eight888 wrote:
Hello,

Between the ceiling and the floor of the upstairs apartment and mine;
there is no insulation. Not only can I hear every footstep, but the
neighbors are extremely active; something is constantly hitting the
floor unannounced. (Don't ask - I don't know, either.)
The landlord doesn't want to pay for/put in any insulation. Apparently,
it would involve ripping up the ceilings.

As far as putting something on my side of the ceiling; I've heard that
Home Depot has "foam boards" and I've heard of ideas regarding putting
up layers of rugs, etc.

I need clarification on how to and what materials to use, (as cheap as
possible), that I could affix, screw in or whatever to the ceiling and
possibly something on the walls (?) that would successfully reduce the
amount of noise.

If you have specifics regarding materials, posting a link to Home Depot
web pages would be helpful.

http://www.homedepot.com

Otherwise, the general name of a material is good enough.


It's a rental, so I can't go crazy with marring the ceiling. But I
guess I could put in screws that can later be filled in.

I am just going to do something to the bedroom only; roughly a 20 ft.
by 12 ft area.

Whatever ideas people have; don't worry about how it will look; I could
always drape something over whatever work is there.

Thanks A LOT for any input.