Rachel wrote:
I'm thinking of buying a ground floor flat with acoustic problems (by
which I mean, them upstairs play music which you can hear from
downstairs and I don't like their taste in Elvis...)

I know it is possible to fit acoustic insulation, e.g., a couple of
layers of special damping fabric designed to take some frequencies out.

Does this work? I'm interested in both directions of noise
transmission - I might not like his Elvis, but then again, they might not
like our live saxophone, guitar and singing either.

I guess the real question is:

(a) if you buy a flat, can you acoustically insulate it completely from
hi-fi noise from above?

(b) can you stop the people above having problems from the noise you make
below?

(c) are these the same question? or are there different considerations?

The flat in question has a high ceiling, so we're happy (within reason) to
spend time and money to fix the problem if it can be fixed.


The short answer is that you can get pretty good results, the extent of
which will be directly proportional to the depth of your pockets.

This question has come up on numerous occasions, and it would be well
worth your while to google this group for "sound insulation". The
consensus seems to be that the only effective solution is large mass
insulation, such as a layer of sand between your ceiling and the floor
above.

--
Grunff