AT,
We just moved into a 6-unit Victorian that's only slightly less drafty and for the first time in our adult lives we can really hear our neighbors. We're considering something we discovered online - sound dampening/
deadening paint, with two goals in mind: 1. keep our neighbors from hearing us and 2. keep us from hearing our neighbors. We're mostly coping with footfalls and voices, not nuisance-level noise. Does anyone know anything about these products and whether they work? How do they work? Other than the obvious - carpets - do you have any other suggestions for dampening the sounds of our neighbors above us and adjacent to us?
Thanks!
Paige & Brent, Noe Valley
Note: Include a picture of your problem and your question gets posted first.
Email us with QUESTIONS in subject line: sf(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com
Link To All Good Questions
Paige & Brent,
Not long ago we lived in an apartment beneath the absolute neighbor from hell. We wish it had been footfalls and voices! (Obviously we're not alone -- check out Good Questions: How Do You Quiet Your Neighbor on AT:NY.) Our apartment had other issues, so we were able to move after just two nightmarish months, but we really sympathize.
We're intrigued by the paint -- and we like that Acousti-Coat, at least, is advertised as being environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and fast-drying. But according to their FAQ, the paint was "developed as a relatively inexpensive, easy to apply solution for situations where echo within the room needs to be reduced and where sound in the Speech Range frequencies needs to be reduced through the coated surface." It also says that "it's not designed for EXTREME sound control nor will it help with sound transfer through, Wall penetrations, Door and window openings, Stomping and banging from the floor above or a blasting powerful stereo in your neighbors unit next door." We assume that the same is true for other acoustic paints. Whether or not it would offer enough sound control for your situation is the question. (It certainly wouldn't have helped in ours.)
AT:NY has quite a few posts on the subject of noise and neighbors and soundproofing. Here are some links to take a look at:
• Good Questions: Interior Wall Alternatives
• Good Questions: Ceiling Insulation
• Good Questions: How Do I Dampen the Echo
• How to: Soundproof Your Home
• Extreme Soundproofing
Has anyone tried acoustic paint? Any other suggestions?
Image: teachersparadise.com
I am sorry to hear about your situation. There is good news and bad news.
The bad news is after consulted with many professionals, the only true way is to use a soundproffing drywall material. It basically goes over existing drywall on the ceiling of the apartment below the footfall. It is expensive, messy and obviously your landlord will have to pay for the upgrade if you are a renter and...after all the work there is NO guarantee the improvement will be worth all the trouble.
The good news is...you will get used to the noise. I lived in a top floor apartment for 10 years before moving to a small studio directly below my landlords son. My experience was that my senses were shocked by ALL the noises, including footfall,tv and voices after first moving in, but by end of month 2 i was hardly bothered.
On a side note I just moved into a great top floor 1bdr off of 16th/valencia that is actually quiet, but today while trying to nap during my day off I heard what sounded like a puppy barking for 5 hours straight in the partment below me. PLEASE let them be only dog sitting :D
view regus_fillman's profile
For me, the best noisy neighbor solution was to get to know them. It's not as annoying to hear people you like laughing or talking or walking around, even though it's just as loud. Plus, if you're friends, you can call in those times when you just really need a nap and they happen to be rocking out. (I know, not all neighbors are befriendable, but it's sure worth a shot.)
view erica's profile
I am assuming you are in the same structure as your neighbor. The trick to soundproofing is adding mass, absobsion, and isolation. The basic idea is it is harder for sound waves to move through a heavy cement wall than it is to move through a wall with drywall and 2 by fours. A heavy wall will transmitt less sound. The easiest way to deaden the sound through a wall is to use silicon glue (for isolation and absorbsion) to glue the thickest sheetrock you can find to the wall. Commercial buildings use 2 layers of 1" thick sheetrock on both sides.
Completly cutting out the sound is not pratical but cutting it down by 50-70% is possible.
The paint is just a marketing gimick. It has neither mass nor isolation.Green glue is another gimmick to stay away from.
view jussipoika's profile
I don't have experience with that type of paint, but think it's worth a try because it's your easiest first step, and there is "blow in" insulation (not sure of its industrial name) that can be added in stud-walls easily (not plaster and lath) usually for a few hundred per wall. In that case, a hole is poked into the wall, and insulation is blown in to fill the empty cavity completely, offering insulation and sound dampening as well.
Home theaters employ the use of padded walls, to improve acoustics within the room, but also to deaden sound transmission into the room. You might check into that as an option because you could come up with a solution that's portable/reusable from home to home (what's a sound deadener in one space could become a headboard or another? OK, it's early, and I'm not a coffee drinker!). I know in their case that it's multiple layers but ends up looking like a padded and fabric wrapped (specialty) board.
You will adjust to the noise, it takes a few months though, unless it's extreme. I lived in one place, where the neighbors were very loud throughout their apartment when having sex, screaming and pounding their fists on the walls for "added emphasis". It was so entertaining to my dinner party guests that they'd do the wave or imitate them en masse (the first few times it was funny but, quickly grew old, so I finally stopped inviting people over to my house). I tried every homemade padding I could think of including putting acoustic tiles all over the wall covered in fabric, but the noise was still coming through the floor and ceiling, so I'd encourage you to look for solutions that the professional market employs (even then, do you really want to live in what would amount to a padded cell?) In our case, multiple tenants had alerted the landlord, and she wanted to evict them but insisted on mediation as a first step toward evicting them (a memorable experience on its own). Talk about great motivation to become a homeOwner! However I have reused Most of my old homemade sound deadening wall padding as corkboards in my office, art room and kitchen, I simply added new fabric over the top.
view Rucy's profile
My neighbor mentioned that she could hear my sub-woofer, so I called an insulation company about spraying foam into the space between our two condos. Fortunately the salesman was honest and refused to take the job, and explained basically what Regus and jussipoika pointed out.
If you Google for soundproofing, it'll also tell you the same thing.
I solved my problem by moving the sub-woofer.
Like someone said - avoid the paint. It won't help you.
view boomer's profile