what is a good way to soundproof floor

Hi, we will rent out the apt on the second floor of two apt brownstone and want to do something with the floor there to reduce any possible sound of people walking over our heads. Should I put carpet or some sort of soundproofing and hardwood over it. We have tin ceilings on the first floor so I cannot soundproof ceilings.

bobjohn

in Soundproofing 9 years and 3 months ago

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margaretasvensson | 9 years and 1 month ago

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There are many solutions available for your problem.You can go for flooring, [wall absorbers](http://www.kamak.se/ljud-och-vaggabsorbenter-i-snygg-design/), suspended ceilings and the good solution is that soundproofing pad,which gives you actual result for your problem.

bobjohn | 9 years and 3 months ago

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thanks all. this was useful.

gotham | 9 years and 3 months ago

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We moved into our apartment and put down thick rug pads and thick wool area rugs – but they take up most of the room, just a two inch open border on each side. Our downstairs neighbors say our two kids are so much quieter than the single woman who used to live there that had thinner carpet (and walked around with heels on). So I second the carpet with soundproofing pad approach, and request no shoes in the house.

edificerex | 9 years and 3 months ago

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You will get the best return on your money by using carpet with a soundproofing pad and sealing any holes between the units. The other systems work but get pricey. You will never eliminate the structure borne sound but you can reduce it. Also there is a sound reducing plywood underlayment if you want hardwood floors. I have never used it and am skeptical that it does much.

landlord | 9 years and 3 months ago

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I have an apartment that is directly over a loud bar. Before any work has been done to the apartment, I took out my trusty DB meter to take some measurements. At its loudest, the apartment showed a DB level of 95 (very loud). To combat this, I installed Roxul sound proofing insuration between the floor joists. Then the plywood over the joists followed by a sound proof isolation mate and on top of that…the wood floor. I took measurements again after the installation and the DB level went down to 50 (at its loudest). You must realize that no matter the amount of soundproofing….its very hard to eliminate low frequency sound (loud Bass). To combat this even further, I addressed the source of the noise (the bar). At the bar they placed large Bose speakers high up in the ceiling. Those speakers were capable of reproducing low frequency down to the 25hz range. I asked the bar to lower the speakers by 4 feet and to replace the speakers with smaller units that were rated down to 80hz. That seemed to solve the problem. If the source of the noise is from outside, you can address the issue by replacing the windows. Get a double pan window where the pannels are a different thickenss from one another (this way one will deflect a certain frequency of sound while the other reflects what the first let through) and also add a city window behind this double pan window.

Augustiner | 9 years and 3 months ago

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to really eliminate sound transmission you would need to do much more than that. (metal beams, floating floor, suspended isolated ceiling, isolate walls from ceiling and floors, stone wool between beams and so forth). To dampen high frequency footfall you can create a ‘floating floor’ kind of like you describe. As underlayment I would personally choose 1/4″ super-dense stone wool under an additional subfloor. But e.g. low density wood board can also be used to create a floating floor. Some people also do 2 layers of subfloor with Green Glue in between and a thinner floor underlayment on top. personally I don´t believe Green Glue works. All these solutions raise the floor by almost an inch, which needs to be considered in transitions to bathroom and common hallway. Be aware that these measures will just reduce the noise a bit, but they will not stop the floor swinging from the impact, which creates a bassy sound.