Neighbour complaining about noise

[mariner]

dabd, are you willing to provide sound-proof underlay at own cost? I doubt your LL will be prepared to pay & you will still need LL permission.

[Hooper]

It's an overreaction to suggest that you need to live on a ground floor. It is perfectly feasible to have well insulated upper flats with wooden floors. All my upper flats have it.

However, it is expensive to retrofit properly - you can't be half-arsed about it. So getting your landlord to do it might be tricky, I'd guess. Although faced with the prospect of constantly losing tenants he might...

Pragmatically, unless the landlord is particularly on board with the idea of sound proofing, I'd say you should move on asap. All properties converted after about 2001 have had to be sound tested so should suit you -although (and I'm not sure how you'll get around it) be careful that they weren't sound tested with carpet before having it removed. A good sign that the wooden floor was probably tested is that the finished floor surface runs under, rather than up to the skirting boards.

In the meantime, every time she bangs on the ceiling unreasonably, turn your stereo on full blast.

(that's a joke, of course)

NB I agree with you about carpets, by the way. Nowhere in my house or in any of my flats - other than some stairs because, amongst other things, they are hard to soundproof with a wood finish.

[DPT57]

I had 'sonic gold' underlay put under my laminate floors in my rental flats but I have to say that it seems to have made little difference and the neighbours still occasionally complain to me about noise from my tenants. If its a converted flat, there may be something in the lease about having to fit carpets to comply with the terms so its worth checking that with the landlord first.

[Hooper]

When converting we would always overdo things just to be sure as it was a nightmare putting things right if you failed a test. On a typical timber suspended separating floor we would hang 30mm of extra dense plasterboard from separating hangers under the joists; 100mm rockwool slabs beween the joists; then on top of the joists an 18mm deck (glued and screwed), 15mm plasterboard laid flat, 8mm foam another 18mm deck (floating), 2-3mm underlay and then engineered timber. Every gap would be sealed. Great result.

[Notyetagain]

So what happened before you moved in? Either the people before you were much quieter so the lady didn't have any issues, or they were, she complained and you would have thought that in that case, she would have put carpet before advertising the property.

Do nothing, she is likely to start harassing your landlord (and I wouldn't blame her), leading to your landlord asking you to go when your fix contract expires (and put new carpet in the property which many people would consider a bonus).

[HantsAgent]

Sorry, but I doubt very much that your landlord is going to care enough about this to act.

I doubt the council will be able to help the old lady (if she complained to them about noise) because I doubt the noise you're generating is loud enough or at unreasonable hours.

So she's going to complain about your occasional noise and you'll get annoyed at her complaints. It's not ideal, but I expect the two of you will have to learn to live with one another or one of you will have to make the decision to move on.

[buzzard1994]

footsteps on laminate flooring - even footsteps in slippers - can sound like a herd of elephants. We have it downstairs, with one of the more expensive underlays and I would never have it upstairs. Perhaps if you got someone to walk around the flat while you visit the other property you'd find out just how much noise you make.

Previous tenants may have had their own rugs, gone barefoot and/or been of lighter weight or simply less heavy footed.

I doubt anyone will do anything about the noise unless there is a covenant requiring carpeting - that used to be common in flats.

[dabd]

I hear my neighbour from the flat above and it does not bother me nearly as much. I think it is a bit exaggerated to say the noise gets amplified that much.

[DNM2012]

I think it is a bit exaggerated to say the noise gets amplified that much.

Trust me it isn't, having lived in a conversion flat below someone with laminate flooring, it was hell.

Every sound as well as footfall is amplified, carpets and soft furnishings absorb airborne noise as well as cushion footfall, laminate amplifies it.

Drop keys on carpet nothing, on laminate it's a different story.

You may have people above you with carpets and light feet, it may change and you get riverdancing elephants with clogs in future

Doesn't sound like any of this is your fault, it is normal everyday noise the lady is hearing, but I totally sympathise with her.

[DPT57]

DNM2012,

I agree. When we lived in a converted flat we spent several thousands of pounds having an Instacoustic floating floor fitted in the flat above, with the leaseholder's permission of course and I was finally able to move from the extension into the bedroom to sleep at night