Let Acoustic Supplies Deal With Noisy Neighbours

How to Approach Neighbour Noise Soundproofing

Noise travelling between neighbouring homes can take many forms. Conversations, televisions and music may be heard through a party wall, while footsteps and furniture movement can travel through floors and ceilings. In other cases, the concern may be noise from your own home disturbing an adjoining property.

Home soundproofing can help reduce sound passing between properties, but it cannot control how a neighbour behaves or guarantee complete silence.

The most useful starting point is to identify the type of noise, the surface through which it appears to travel and any surrounding weak points. This helps avoid spending money on a wall, floor or ceiling treatment that does not address the main sound path.

Communication May Be a Useful First Step

Where it feels safe and appropriate, a calm conversation may help. People are not always aware of how clearly their television, speakers, footsteps or household equipment can be heard next door.

Simple changes may reduce the problem, including:

• Moving speakers away from a party wall
• Using isolation pads beneath audio equipment
• Adding rugs or suitable underlay to hard floors
• Repositioning exercise equipment
• Avoiding furniture movement during quieter hours
• Closing doors more carefully

These measures will not correct a weak separating structure, but they may reduce the sound entering it. Soundproofing should complement considerate behaviour rather than be treated as permission to produce unlimited noise.

Identify the Type of Neighbour Noise

Most noise between homes can be described as airborne noise, impact noise or structure-borne vibration. Some situations involve all three.

Airborne noise

Airborne sound travels through the air before reaching a wall, floor, ceiling, door or window. Common examples include:

• Conversations and raised voices
• Televisions and radios
• Music and home cinema systems
• Dogs barking
• Kitchen and household appliances

Reducing airborne noise usually involves adding suitable mass, closing air gaps and creating separation between layers of the construction.

Impact noise

Impact noise is created when something makes direct contact with the building. Examples include footsteps, dropped objects, moving furniture and exercise equipment.

The impact produces vibration that can travel through floorboards, joists, concrete slabs, walls and ceilings. Resilient floor layers or isolated ceiling systems may therefore be more appropriate than simply adding board to a wall.

Structure-borne vibration

Subwoofers, washing machines, pumps and other equipment can transfer vibration directly into the building. The vibration may then travel through connected structural elements and become audible elsewhere.

Isolating the source from the floor or wall can sometimes support a wider soundproofing system.

Locate the Main Sound Path

Noise does not always travel directly through the surface where it appears loudest. It can pass around a separating structure through adjoining parts of the building.

Common sound paths include:

• Party walls and lightweight partitions
• Floors and ceilings
• Timber joists and structural beams
• Chimney breasts and fireplaces
• Loft spaces and ceiling voids
• Pipework, ducts and cable routes
• Electrical sockets and service openings
• Doors and communal hallways

Sound that bypasses the main separating surface is known as flanking transmission. For example, noise may travel through the floor or ceiling and around a newly treated party wall.

This is why covering the most obvious surface does not always produce the expected result. The surrounding junctions and connected structures should also be considered.

Soundproofing Party Walls

Voices, music and television noise are often heard through shared walls. The most suitable wall soundproofing system will depend on whether the existing structure is masonry, blockwork, timber stud or another form of construction.

A complete system may combine:

• Acoustic insulation within a cavity
• Resilient bars or isolation clips
• An independent supporting framework
• Dense acoustic boards
• Sealed perimeter joints

Creating separation between the new lining and the original wall can help reduce direct vibration transfer. However, the correct arrangement depends on the available space and the construction being treated.

JCW Silent Board Plus may be used within suitable wall or ceiling systems, but no single board should be regarded as a universal answer. Performance depends on the full build-up, fixings, cavity treatment and installation quality.

Reducing Noise from Above

Noise from a flat or room above may include airborne sound, such as conversations, together with impact noise from footsteps and furniture.

The preferred place to reduce impact noise is usually at the floor above, close to the source. A suitable floor soundproofing system might use an acoustic underlay, resilient deck or floating floor arrangement.

Where the upper floor cannot be accessed, ceiling soundproofing may help. Possible systems include insulation between joists, resiliently mounted boards or an independent ceiling.

Treating the ceiling from below may reduce the direct sound path, but impact vibration can continue through surrounding walls and connected structural elements. This limitation should be considered when setting expectations.

Reducing Noise Travelling Upwards

Music, television and voices from a lower property may travel upwards through the ceiling and floor construction. Gaps between floorboards and openings around pipes or cables can also contribute.

Depending on the structure, treatment may involve cavity insulation, added mass and a resilient floor layer. Floor work can affect thresholds, doors, skirting boards and fitted furniture, so finished floor heights should be considered before installation.

Substantial floor systems may be better installed by an experienced tradesperson familiar with acoustic construction.

Check Gaps and Service Penetrations

Even a substantial wall, floor or ceiling can be weakened by gaps. Areas to inspect include:

• Openings around pipes and cables
• Gaps at skirting boards
• Board joints and perimeter edges
• Back-to-back electrical sockets
• Openings into floor or ceiling cavities
• Junctions between different surfaces

A flexible acoustic sealant can be used around appropriate joints as part of a complete soundproofing system.

Sealant does not provide enough mass or structural separation to soundproof a surface by itself. Its purpose is to reduce small air paths that could otherwise weaken the main construction.

Service openings may also require tested fire-stopping measures. Acoustic improvements should not compromise the fire performance of a separating wall, floor or ceiling.

When Doors Are a Weak Point

Noise can sometimes travel through an internal doorway or enter a flat from a communal corridor. Lightweight doors and gaps at the frame or threshold may reduce separation between spaces.

A soundproof door may be appropriate where the doorway has been identified as a significant sound path. Its performance depends on the door leaf, frame, perimeter seals, threshold and standard of installation.

A specialist door is unlikely to provide a major improvement if most of the sound is travelling through a party wall, ceiling void or adjoining floor.

Flats, Apartments and HMOs

Noise transmission is often more complicated in multi-occupancy buildings because several homes can share floors, ceilings, beams, voids and service routes.

A sound that appears to pass through one wall may have travelled along a floor slab or through a connected ceiling cavity. Converted buildings can also contain lightweight partitions or hidden gaps that are difficult to identify from inside the finished room.

Our information on flat and HMO soundproofing explains some of the additional factors involved.

Leasehold restrictions, permission requirements and fire compartmentation should also be considered before altering shared structures.

Reducing Noise Leaving Your Own Home

The same principles apply when the aim is to reduce noise escaping from your property. Music rooms, home cinemas, televisions and exercise areas may require treatment to walls, floors or ceilings, depending on the room and adjoining spaces.

Moving speakers away from shared walls and isolating equipment can help reduce vibration at its source. Doors, windows and ventilation openings may also be important, particularly where louder activities take place in the room.

Closing one sound path does not mean all sound will remain within the room. A complete assessment should consider every surface and opening connected to neighbouring spaces.

Soundproofing Is Different from Sound Absorption

Soundproofing helps reduce sound passing between spaces. Sound absorption helps reduce echo and reverberation within the same room.

Acoustic foam and absorption panels may make a home cinema, music room or office sound less reflective. They should not be relied upon to block voices, music or footsteps through a wall, floor or ceiling.

Some rooms may benefit from both treatments, but each serves a different purpose.

Installation Quality and Realistic Expectations

Soundproofing can reduce noise between neighbouring homes, but it cannot guarantee complete silence or resolve every disagreement.

The improvement will depend on:

• The source, volume and frequency of the noise
• Whether the sound is airborne, impact-based or structure-borne
• The existing construction
• The number of gaps and weak points
• Flanking transmission
• The system and products selected
• The quality of installation

Rigid fixings, unsealed edges and poorly fitted resilient layers can all reduce performance. While some systems may be suitable for competent DIY installation, complex walls, ceilings and floating floors may require an experienced installer.

Choose the Correct Soundproofing System

Before ordering soundproofing products, identify the main noise source and transmission route.

A targeted system combining appropriate mass, separation, cavity absorption and sealing is generally more useful than applying unrelated products to every surface.

Call Acoustic Supplies on 01204 548400 or contact the team online to discuss your soundproofing project.