Ceiling and floor noise - the bane of apartment living

Ceiling and floor noise is a major complaint from apartment dwellers

What’s the number-one noise complaint from apartment dwellers? Usually it’s about the noise of pounding feet and furniture from the apartment upstairs.

The noise in your ceiling is impact noise. It’s a by-product of the construction methods in most wood-framed structures. And, as many people can attest, a noise that doesn’t sound very loud in your own home can get louder (with more bass) as it travels through the building structure. So that chair scraping on the hardwood floor in your apartment? It might sound like thunder to your downstairs neighbor.

Floor impact noise — often studied, but seldom resolved

Hard-surface impacts are noisy. They’ve been studied for years by acoustical experts. I’ve attended some INCE (Institute of Noise Control) conferences and they routinely include presentations on structure-borne noise, such as this study by Bum-Sik Lee and Young Soo Chun from South Korea. They hypothesized that structure-borne noise gets worsened by the vibration of air that surrounds the impact, and that the impact is worst in the center. So they created an empty space in the center of a floor slab and added sound-absorbing material. The end results showed that “lightweight” floor impact noise was reduced by 27 dB, and “heavyweight” floor impact noise was reduced by 4 dB, simply by creating a void in the center. Of course, most of us can’t create a similar void in our apartments. I don’t recommend it.

It’s the building structure

Buildings are structured in many different ways. And over time, many structures get modified by their inhabitants. Furthermore, the majority of our homes were built before acoustical standards and requirements were identified and enforced, so most of our buildings don’t even meet the minimum noise-control requirements. In other words, it’s not totally your neighbors’ fault that their everyday sounds get amplified through your ceiling. And not all impact noise goes from upstairs to downstairs. Sometimes, an upstairs neighbor can suffer from impact noise from their downstairs neighbor, too. Impact noise can go in all directions!

Looking for solutions

Is there something you can do? Yes, and the first step is to talk to your neighbors with a no-blame approach. Many neighbors might not be receptive to rebuilding their floors. In some cases, they’re renters and they’re not going to invest in the apartment structure. So the first step is getting them to understand the noise issue that’s caused by the building, and how it amplifies their movements.

Ideally, they’ll agree to put carpeting with a thick rug pad in their main walking paths and under noisy furniture (like a dresser). This might not be easy — many people want a minimalist style in their apartments, which includes exposed hardwood floors.

Wear slippers!

example of house slippers — These Morihata house slippers are just one example of how footfalls can be softened by making it harder to walk heels-first on the floor.

Another suggestion: wear slippers with soft soles (or ask your neighbors to wear them). If you want to minimize floor-impact noise caused simply by walking, sometimes house slippers can help to soften footsteps.

Although shoes usually make the most noise on bare floors, many people walk barefoot in their homes. And sometimes they walk with their heel bones first. Pounding heels can sound like a marching band when you hear it from your apartment. But if you wear slippers with an open back on them, it’s nearly impossible to walk with your heel bones first.

A good example of a quiet slipper is the German-style boiled wool slipper such as the Haflinger, or these inexpensive knock-offs from Amazon. Just make sure you choose slippers that don’t have hard, rubberized soles. A good pair of slippers might seem expensive, but they might save you (or postpone) construction costs. Another option is to order German slippers directly Germany. German-Slippers.com offers a wide selection of boiled-felt house slippers from multiple companies that you might not be able to find in your own country, and they offer free shipping to the US and Australia on orders over $50.

In this video, I outline a few possible floor solutions to consider, but your mileage will vary. It depends on how your building was designed and the materials used in the floor, walls, and ceiling. And, of course, how much impact noise your neighbor produces.

Additional video from 2023: Finnish researchers test ceiling assemblies

Avoid doing these things to solve impact noise:

To save you some time, here are some approaches that might not work.

For example:

Don’t just add extra mass to your existing ceiling without decoupling it first from the joists. The impact noise needs to be stopped at the source (the neighbor’s floor). That’s where adding mass and dampening will reap the most benefit. In other words: don’t add an extra layer of drywall onto your existing ceiling with Green Glue and think it will block all the impact noise from upstairs.
Don’t expect that insulation alone will help with impact noise. Insulation helps to muffle airborne noise, but it doesn’t block impact noise. You should insulate AND decouple.
Don’t hire a contractor if they have no prior experience with noise abatement and acoustical projects.

Soundproofist example of installing a resilient channel — Here you see an open ceiling with a resilient channels. The joists and ceiling cavity were wrapped in mass-loaded vinyl. The insulation batts still need to be inserted over the vinyl.

Many apartment dwellers endure floor-to-ceiling noise in their homes — it’s a common problem. And there’s no easy solution nor a one-size-fits-all YouTube DIY project that will solve it for everyone. We live in homes that were built with no consideration for acoustical impact. Try to mitigate the issue as much as possible without completely tearing apart your building and wasting money on something that might not be very effective.

Go one step at a time. And remember: to solve a noise problem, start with the source, then deal with the path, and finally, find ways to cope on the receiving end until you find a more permanent solution.

Soundproofist

Ceiling and floor noise – the bane of apartment living