Hi,

I've just bought a first floor flat. We get a fair bit of noise from the flat below.

It's an old building and the flooring is about 130 years old so there are a fair few gaps! All that seperates us in that case from the flat below is a bit of plaster board (their ceiling).

I'm just trying to see if there are any products I can use to act as a sound barrier and in the winter as heat insulation too.

Oh all the pipworks is under the floor to so it can't be anything that 'sets' hard.

Any idea's?

i looked into this for exactly the same reason quite a few years back. the options i found were;
1. fit impact insulation over existing floor, raise skirtings and doors to suit. this is likely to be the most effective solution
2. lift floor and insulate the existing void - the denser the material, the better but remember the weight issue! much less effective.
3. live with it.

or if you get on with your neighbour and remember they would benefit from this too - fit a new lower ceiling on a metal grid in their flat with double boarded plasterboard and as much insulation as you can get in there. this is the most effective solution, but does of course rely on co-operation from your neighbour.

you;re not just getting noise from airbourne sound - impact noise will vibrate through the structure (and as the ceiling in their property is directly fixed to the underside of your floor joists, noise will be transmitted through these areas too - and vice versa of course).

HTH

PS - you can always lift the floor for pipework access if necessary - hatches are easily fitted.

Thanks.

think option 2 is the most likely - something like Crown Wool should do the trick. Only trouble is the 1700 sq ft of boards to lift ...

1) Impact sound proofing is to stop noise from you walking on your floor transferring down stairs.
2) Putting rock-wool/glass-fiber on top of their ceiling is the best at stopping noise traveling up but the less dense possible is best, leaving at least 2 inches from the top of the insulation to the underside of your floor boards. If you don't want to put back the original floor boards you can get sound deadening chipboard, a sandwich of foam a dense material then chipboard laid as a floating floor on rubber strips that you lay on top of the chamber joists.

quite right...less dense. more dense would make it worse!

impact sound proofing (ie sound deadening chipboard flooring as a floating floor) would create a barrier between the existing floor and the new floor surface which would be less "active" in transferring noise.

i opted for 200mm crown wool in the end. tried one room first and it made so little difference i didn't bother with the rest

Thanks.

I noticed all (well most) of the skirting boards don't meet the floor so I guess that won't help either!

Need to see what's in the loft too.