A colleague of mine asks what to do about noise eminating from the five young kids living in the condo below her. It’s wood construction, wood joists, OSB floor deck, and obviously it’s a bit late to install resilient channels & extra gyp board @ the first floor ceiling.
We’ve discussed extra thick carpet padding, blowing insulation into the joist cavities, installing a layer of celotex over the subfloor, but I don’t know how effective any of these remedies might be.
Perhaps she can install speakers in the joist space, facing down. Broadcast demonic messages, sudden loud noises at 3AM, etc….maybe the neighbors will move out. Passive-aggressive, I know, but satisfying to comtemplate.
Replies
A pair of 650 watt sub woofers should work just fine.
Big speakers playing Lawrence Welk.
You need more mass in the floor. One option is to add one or more layers of appropriate material on top of the existing subfloor. Filling the joist cavities might work, but that could lead to other problems, like encapsulating recessed light fixtures that are non-IC, and possibly causing the sheetrock ceiling below to pull loose from the joists.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
move
An inch and a half of gypcrete would make a huge improvement.
Blue,
The thankful thing is that the noise is below.... At least she is another few feet above it as she's standing or walking, vs if the noise was coming from above where she would be actually closer to noise.... The apartment owner and the manager helped us with added padding and carpeting when we lived below an "active" newlywed couple...and his weekly/weekend visiting kids. It was the low frequency sound from the pounding of running feet and the cracking and popping noises amplified by woodframing and hard surface of a sheetrock ceiling that were the worst....
Going with a dampening factor like the blown-in media and the extra thick padding and premium carpeting throughout the common floor plan below is about the only help she can hope to buy.... Off the record, a small hole drilled between the HVAC closets above and into the one below and from your Denist, get a bottle of Nitrous Oxide....it might quiet them a little long..... ;>o ???
Bill
Edited 12/24/2008 12:56 pm ET by BilljustBill