Noise Problem/Sound Proofing
Hello! I live in an 8 unit condo building, 4 units are owned by individual owners, the other 4 are still owned by the original owner and rented out to tenants. The original owner did a mediocre job of renovating the units, 1/2 of the floors in our unit are the original floor that is…
Hello!
I live in an 8 unit condo building, 4 units are owned by individual owners, the other 4 are still owned by the original owner and rented out to tenants.
The original owner did a mediocre job of renovating the units, 1/2 of the floors in our unit are the original floor that is in semi-bad shape with no sub-floor, and from what I have seen in a couple of the tenant’s units, the floors are really bad.
I live below a tenant. In 2 rooms the squeaking and footsteps are extremely loud above me, and you can hear EVERYTHING that goes on in their bedroom, we ended up making the room below them as the guest room as it was pretty uncomfortable.
These tenants have moved out. The owner is now contemplating renting or selling.
My questions are:
If he rents out the place, can I ask him to fix the noise problem so we don’t have to hear our neighbors sex life?
If he sells the unit as is, I am hoping he’ll re-do the floors, but if not, I suppose we’ll have to negotiate with the new neighbors.
But before I approached the current owner I wanted to get your opinion of how to approach and what rights if any do I have to get him to fix it.
Thank you!!!
You’ll likely have to deal with the noise issue yourself. The biggest piece of sdvice I can offer is not to rely on a pure ceiling treatment. You can blow in celulose and risk compaction, making things worse. You can spend a lot on MLV and quiet drywall products, but ultimately the problem exists initially in that subfloor overhead.
If you remove your ceiling, you’ll have direct access to that subfloor above and you can treat from below. Then install standard fiberglass batt (data shows this is about as good as you can get).
See many options, and their relative value here: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/solutions/soundproofing_ceilings/
Jeez BHS – no, I don’t presume it is others’ to solve and I don’t presume I have “rights” to get them to do work to satisfy me. I have no idea why you are reading into my questions like I am some kind of entitled a-hole, but if you want to be assumptive, I won’t stop you.
Yes I was aware of the bad conditions of the floors, I will ask the next person to punch me in the face for it, if that will make you feel better. 🙂
Sorry, forgot to mention – brokelin, no I never did talk to the tenants as I knew they were moving out when the lease was up and I had used the room below their bedroom as a guest bedroom. They were nice – they weren’t trying to be loud and I didn’t want to embarrass them. Now that they have moved out, I wanted to work with the sponsor on this issue before he either rented again or put the apartment on the market for sale, because eventually that will either be my or my baby’s bedroom.
my irritation was with your presumption that this issue was others’ to solve, and that you had “rights” to get them to do work to satisfy you. Of course I understand how annoying, frustrating, and sometimes gross it can be to hear others, but your approach didn’t sound very cooperative.
You were aware of the bad condition of the floors in your unit and lack of subfloors when you purchased/rented your unit, and that the unit upstairs was renovated by the same person. So it seems like it should have been clear you were taking a risk of noise from above.
Thanks all! Twinkletoes – I will check the by-laws, but rather just go the polite route first with the sponsor like you say.
Thanks for the suggestions BrooklynLandLord, doubter and brokelin – I will start researching what I can do with the ceiling – and the cellulose option. The only issues are that I like my plaster high ceiling with the rounded edges and don’t want to alter it (or drop it). Also and I am concerned that since some of the flooring is in bad shape in my place, (where I can see through the large gaps in the boards that there is no subfloor in some sections) I am guessing that it is the same for those 2 rooms above and if I spray cellulose, it would probably shoot through their floors… But if I want to reduce the noise and not hear the neighbors I’ll have to do something…
Ageee you’d probably do best to do what you can to soundproof your ceiling. Anyway, you’d be in control of that, not the sponsor…I’d prefer that. Which isn’t to say you can’t also get the carpeting rule enforced if there is one in your building, or amend to get one if there isn’t. It is likely that doing a number of things will each help some. Consider also whether there isn’t some other factor causing noise to come through you walls, like a former airshaft, etc.
Did you try talking to them? Many people don’t want to be heard, and will themselves address with rugs, padding, quiet bedframe, etc. if you let them know you hear everything. You can always talk to the next folks, be they renters or owners.
Blow-in cellulose insulation in your ceiling and then slap on a sheet of quiet rock. Our bedroom is directly above the kid’s; this has completely eliminated any sound of footfall from above in his room (which tended to wake him up or keep him up.) And yes, a rug will help.
STARGAZER – I hope they just try and sell off the unit.
BHS – Trust me, I don’t intend on ‘demanding’ anything and really don’t see a problem with my questions asking for information/advice, I apologize if they offended you.
Unfortunately, I (like most people) didn’t get to sleep over or inspect the unit above me while I was purchasing the condo unit. While looking at the house, I did hear footsteps upstairs above the living room and kitchen and they were muffled enough. However, there are 2 other rooms where the sound is unbelievably clear.
Sorry to hear – it’s not just old buildings – our new construction condo has the same problem. The folks on our side of the building all worked together to help each other. We’re on the second floor, with folks above and below. The two guys upstairs are quiet as church mice, but put rugs down. We put down rugs, but our floors are particularly crappy, and our hours different than our neighbor below, so we continued to wake her. We offered the women downstairs two possible solutions. We would either fully carpet, with thick padding, our bedrooms, which we didn’t want to do, or give her the same amount as the cost of the carpet toward her soundproofing project (she went with insulation and double sheetrock – I liked mass loaded vinyl and isolation clips). She opted for the $$ assist, and we’ve all been happy.
Not going to be easy to do with renters, but if you own, I’d probably just bite the bullet and pull down the ceilings and soundproof.
Dan B