I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they all
claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.

Thanks.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
This is as bad as it can get, but don't bet on it

On Jul 29, 1:38*pm, "Jeff Gaines" wrote:
I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they all
claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.

Thanks.

Prety much any underlay is sound deadening, but you'll need to do far
more than that to get a decent result
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?...n_a_Wood_Floor


NT

In article ,
Jeff Gaines wrote:
I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they
all claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.

If it is footsteps on a hard floor you're hearing, any underlay and
therefore carpet will stop this. As you are eliminating the source of the
noise. Rather the same as turning off a radio. Trying to block actual
noise is rather more complicated.

--
*When she saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought she'd dye*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Jeff Gaines wrote:

I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

a bit. It does a bit.
If there are bare woood or tiled flors above, it turns the clonks into
thumps, that's all. If there is carpet, with underlay, it does the
square root of **** all.



There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they
all claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.


It will for sure help impact noise.

But the key thing for reducing transmission is mass damping and airtightness

so making sire the ceiling is airtight and covering it with the sort of
heavy rubbery gooey plastic stuff used to soundproof cars, is a lot
better. Or using sand bewteen floors to fill voids.



Thanks.

On 29 July, 13:38, "Jeff Gaines" wrote:
I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they all
claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.

Thanks.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
This is as bad as it can get, but don't bet on it

Read Part E of the Building Regulations Approved Documents:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/eng...oveddocuments3

- lots of well-proven practical advice on soundproofing.

wrote:
On 29 July, 13:38, "Jeff Gaines" wrote:
I live in a flat, converted from a large house in 1960 or so, with no
sound deadening between ceilings and floors.

I have agreed with my upstairs neighbour that we will investigate the
possibility of sound deadening underlay.

Does anybody have any experience of whether or not this stuff works and
how effective it is?

There's loads of them around in thicknesses of 3 mm to 18 mm and they all
claim to be effective but are they really?

Main issue is impact noise although I can hear some speech through the
floor as well.

Thanks.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
This is as bad as it can get, but don't bet on it

Read Part E of the Building Regulations Approved Documents:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/eng...oveddocuments3

- lots of well-proven practical advice on soundproofing.


golly. Good thing my house was built before that lot!
Id have had to have built a new celing over my exposed beam ones!

Anyway, yes, thumbs up to that. Looks lie adding extra plasterboarrd is
more useful than anything.

In article ,
wrote:
Thus spake "Dave Plowman (News)" ) unto the assembled multitudes:

If it is footsteps on a hard floor you're hearing, any underlay and
therefore carpet will stop this.

I beg to differ. It'll certainly help, but it won't stop it. You'll
still be able to hear people moving about.

Well, yes. But it will reduce footsteps to near zero.

And it won't make a lot of
difference to airborn sounds.

Never said it would. Although good underlay and a thick carpet will help
slightly over either a bare floor or a hard covering.

In the 1980s I lived in a flat which was
probably like the OP's and despite thick underlay and thick carpet, I
could still hear the neighbours changing their minds.

Sounds like you had other problems there.

I guess it depends how noise-tolerant the neighbouring occupiers are.
It really got me down. After two years I bought a house and saved my
sanity!

Indeed. There should perhaps be noise separation measurements as part of a
survey for flats

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Anyway, yes, thumbs up to that. Looks lie adding extra plasterboarrd is
more useful than anything.

I've been saying that for ages. It's the easiest and most cost effective
way.

--
*Time is fun when you're having flies... Kermit

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
Thus spake "Dave Plowman (News)" ) unto the assembled multitudes:

If it is footsteps on a hard floor you're hearing, any underlay and
therefore carpet will stop this.

I beg to differ. It'll certainly help, but it won't stop it. You'll
still be able to hear people moving about.

Well, yes. But it will reduce footsteps to near zero.

IME not near zero. In our parlance it puts an estimated 12db/octave low
pass filter on them, which does not a lot sub 100hz, quite a bit uop to
800hz, and almost completely removes any higher harmonics :-)

On 29/07/2010 in message Dave Plowman
(News) wrote:

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Anyway, yes, thumbs up to that. Looks lie adding extra plasterboarrd is
more useful than anything.

I've been saying that for ages. It's the easiest and most cost effective
way.

I've got a quote for:

* Fix a suspended ceiling
* Fill ceiling void with 100mm Acoustic Soundslab
* Line ceiling with 2 layers of 12.5mm SounDbloc board
* Plaster skim finish

Perhaps that's a better solution. It's not possible on all the ceilings as
some are highly decorative but it can be done in the bedroom.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
If you ever find something you like buy a lifetime supply because they
will stop making it

wrote:
Thus spake The Natural Philosopher ) unto the assembled multitudes:

I beg to differ. It'll certainly help, but it won't stop it. You'll
still be able to hear people moving about.
Well, yes. But it will reduce footsteps to near zero.

IME not near zero. In our parlance it puts an estimated 12db/octave low
pass filter on them, which does not a lot sub 100hz, quite a bit uop to
800hz, and almost completely removes any higher harmonics :-)

Strangely, I never thought of the problem in those terms.

I am bloody surprised mate!

thunder is after all merely a spike wots been rolled off massively above
a few tens of hertz, and passed through natures own reverb system :-)




I just used to
say, "F*cking hell, the herd of elephants is on the move again." :-)

The thunder of massive hooves as against the patter of tiny feet..

Its all in yer spectrum innit?

I designed something I called a 'whisper filter' once. 18dB/octave
peaking high pass centred around IIRC 5Khz. The idea was to increase
Tannoy intelligibility in reverberant places like railway stations.
Being as how the lower the frequency the more it flops around. High
frequency sibilants have plenty of intelligibility, but decay fast,
reducing perception of delays from distant speakers and reverberation stuff.


Bench test were promising, but it never got taken up..

Strangely, its pretty much what my wife's hearing aid is set to...