soundproofing
Any advice on soundproofing btw thin sheetrock walls in a post-war co-op AND for hardwood floors? We’re on the top floor and don’t want wall-to-wall carpeting. Other flooring solutions?
Any advice on soundproofing btw thin sheetrock walls in a post-war co-op AND for hardwood floors? We’re on the top floor and don’t want wall-to-wall carpeting. Other flooring solutions?
search the forum archives for more soundproofing advice, but in the meantime, i don’t think people need to be jumping all over the OP for asking a question. they WANT to do something about sound traveling through the floors, they’re just trying to find out what options are available. well, there’s lots you can do to a floor. but when it comes to impact sounds like footfalls, there’s really nothing like a padded rug/carpet. you can put layers of soundboard and ‘green glue’ and whatnot, but it’s really so much simpler and cheaper to get a big rug. you don’t have to carpet everything, just get some big oriental rugs so you still get to see some of the floors. i guess if money is no object you can look into the serious floor soundproofing, but if money was no object you’d probably have your own house 🙂
Better Carpet Warehouse on Atlantic has an extra dense, soundabsorbing pad to go under area rugs and carpet, which we used on our creaky stairs and it literally silenced the creaking. It’s good stuff.
In apartments and condos, I don’t understand why people want their neighbors all around them to hear every word they say! Which is what will happen when there are no rugs to absorb and isolate the sound in a space. I personally need to have some sense of privacy wherever I live.
While I agree that rugs with thick padding are the best and most efficient way to do it, I disagree about the insulation comments.
To soundproof your floors you’d have to take up the floorboards and subfloor, install fiberglass insulation between the joists, cover the joists (where they meet the subfloor) with a mid-density sound-absorbing matting, relay the ply subfloor, put in a layer of sound-absorbing foam, another sheet of ply, felt paper and floorboards again. That’s a LOT of work and money, but the most complete way to do it.
As far as walls, I assume they already have insulation in them. I’d hope, at least. the best way to soundproof ( that I know of) is building out a wall in FRONT of the existing party wall but not touching it, filling it with denim or fiberglass insulation, sheetrocking using 5/8 rock, then using green glue (google it) to attach another sheet of 5/8 to it. Again, expensive and labor intensive. And, of course, there’s always the ceiling to deal with.
If you’re dead set against carpets ( and believe me, area rugs with heavy padding will do a LOT to help; wall to wall isn’t the only solution) then you should expect to do at least what I’ve outlined above.
Damn “Dwell” magazine for convincing everyone that everything should only have hard, cold surfaces. And in NYC, no less. Hi, you all are living in one of the most densely populated cities in the world. You DO have to think about your neighbors once in a while. If you hate rugs that much, buy a house. Meanwhile if you are in an apartment or condo, be civil and considerate and abide by the law and get rugs.
In our co-op apartment we had to live below someone who refused to put in throw rugs. And the co-op board would not make her do it because they didn’t have rugs either. We weren’t even asking for wall-to-wall, we just wanted even some rugs! HORRIBLE noise from above, awful. Her son running at full speed all the time. I don’t know what bugged me more, the noise or the fact our neighbor upstairs didn’t give a crap about us. Meanwhile of course we ourselves DID put in rugs ourselves, out of consideration for our neighbors below.
Anyway to answer your question, if you want to pay a huge amount of money to rip up all your wood floors, put in insulation, then recover the floors in wood again then that’s the way you’d have to do it. In order to not have to get rugs. As for walls, you have to tear down the sheetrock, put up insulation then install new sheetrock again. Or plaster, even better, because it’s more soundabsorbing.