I live in a flat in a converted victorian townhouse which has cheap and
nasty laminate flooring throughout. We get a lot of noise from our
neighbours downstairs and in certain spots it sounds as if they're
pretty much in the same room.

In the bedroom we are about to relay new flooring having ripped up the
old stuff but want to install some good soundproofing first. We are
undecided as to what we'll lay as a floor but it def will be
wood/solid.

Can you recommend a decent soundproofing system that is fairly simple
to DIY? I have looked into floating floors etc but it seems a little
involved for my limited skills.

Thanks in advance.

L

lozoz wrote:

Can you recommend a decent soundproofing system that is fairly simple
to DIY? I have looked into floating floors etc but it seems a little
involved for my limited skills.

It doesn't exist.

We managed to cut down a huge percentage of "conversation" and impact
(shoe and dogs claws) frequencies from being transferred to the
downstairs bedrooms by removing upper level floor completely (which
needed replacing anyway) then running 6" of loft insulation between
every joist, which also included full re-wiring, then adding Underfloor
heating before re-flooring with new chip board and wood surface.

Because the downstairs ceilings are directly fixed to the joists, and
the upstairs chip board is also directly screwed to the joists, even the
addition of a floating floor doesn't do a lot for lower base
frequencies, but every other sound has gone.

Before we ripped up the floors there was an extremely deep pile carpet
with a pretty dense underlay in the lounge and that did absolutely
nothing to stop sound getting through, so don't waste money there.

Also, I can guarantee it's far worse for them downstairs with you
walking on their ceiling.
:¬)

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lozoz wrote:
I live in a flat in a converted victorian townhouse which has cheap and
nasty laminate flooring throughout. We get a lot of noise from our
neighbours downstairs and in certain spots it sounds as if they're
pretty much in the same room.

In the bedroom we are about to relay new flooring having ripped up the
old stuff but want to install some good soundproofing first. We are
undecided as to what we'll lay as a floor but it def will be
wood/solid.

Can you recommend a decent soundproofing system that is fairly simple
to DIY? I have looked into floating floors etc but it seems a little
involved for my limited skills.

I used a belt and braces approach.
screwed down the 200 yr old floorboards,
8mm Redupax+
then 5mm Impactafoam
then 15mm Kahrs engineered floor

http://www.soundreduction.co.uk/10.html
http://uk.unifloor.nl/default.asp?030070000000/001
http://www.kahrs.co.uk/

The redupax is easily cut with a stanley knife, Impactafoam with
scissors, etc



--
David Clark
http://www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk
$replyto = 'an.rnser.is.reqird'

In message om, lozoz
writes
I live in a flat in a converted victorian townhouse which has cheap and
nasty laminate flooring throughout. We get a lot of noise from our
neighbours downstairs and in certain spots it sounds as if they're
pretty much in the same room.

In the bedroom we are about to relay new flooring having ripped up the
old stuff but want to install some good soundproofing first. We are
undecided as to what we'll lay as a floor but it def will be
wood/solid.

Can you recommend a decent soundproofing system that is fairly simple
to DIY? I have looked into floating floors etc but it seems a little
involved for my limited skills.

I used Reduc Strata between my ground floor flats and basement flat. It
made a big difference, (from hearing them talking, to a vague noise),
although an even bigger improvement was made with 2 layers of
plasterboard on the basement ceilings.

http://www.acoustic.co.uk/H&H/overlay.htm

this is the stuff, but I got it from a firm in Merseyside - cant
remember what they were called.

--
Richard Faulkner

Tim Lamb wrote:
In message om, lozoz
writes

I live in a flat in a converted victorian townhouse which has cheap and
nasty laminate flooring throughout. We get a lot of noise from our
neighbours downstairs and in certain spots it sounds as if they're
pretty much in the same room.


Isn't sound attenuation a requirement for split residences?

Is by the most recent building regs, but most older conversions fall far
short.


--
David Clark
http://www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk
$replyto = 'an.rnser.is.reqird'

lozoz wrote:
I live in a flat in a converted victorian townhouse which has cheap and
nasty laminate flooring throughout. We get a lot of noise from our
neighbours downstairs and in certain spots it sounds as if they're
pretty much in the same room.

In the bedroom we are about to relay new flooring having ripped up the
old stuff but want to install some good soundproofing first. We are
undecided as to what we'll lay as a floor but it def will be
wood/solid.

Can you recommend a decent soundproofing system that is fairly simple
to DIY? I have looked into floating floors etc but it seems a little
involved for my limited skills.

Thanks in advance.

L

The very very first thing to do is to hermetically seal the floor. That
means probably laying hardboard all over, and using a mastic round all
the edges, especially in cupboards etc.

Realistically, that plus a foam underlay is all you will be able to so -
unless you start e.g. sand filling the floor.;-)