[bert n ernie]

Hi all, living in a third floor apartment with two apartments below and one above. The structure of the apartment block is a steel frame with prefabricated wood/chipboard type structure ceilings walls and floors slotted into it.Deffo no concrete in the structure.The units are identical and all the rooms in the same place in each.
We have had serious noise issues from the apartment above for years, and its a combination of in my opinion bad/no soundproofing and the owner above having wooden floors.
We have made complaints to the owner,managing agent etc etc and gotten nowhere.the builder is in liquidation for the last few years so we couldnt follow up and demand soundproofing checks etc. Thw owner above is not someone who can be reasoned with, and despite us trying to let her know how much noise she is making, she basically is denying that she makes any noise and thinks we're overreacting. of course she has no neighbours over her so couldnt care less. The Managing Agent have told us that if we want to go down the route of making her put down more suitable flooring"as stated in the house rules we would have to bring her to court.
I've looked up old threads here and some have mentioned soundproofing walls, i was wondering if anyone had soundproofed ceilings ?
We basically live with contstant noise, to add to this she appears to be ocd or something as spends hours (and i really mean over an hour, hoovering a 6mx3m room) hoovering every second day, dragging the furniture across the ceiling, i can only presume to clean behind it etc. She doents seem to sleep much walking around the house at all hours etc and i dont think ive slept a full night for the last three years.
So after my rant (most likely from lack of sleep , has anyone ever soundproofed this kind of ceiling successfully?

[athtrasna]

Do you own the apartment or are you tenants? The management agent is charged with the day to day running of the development including development rules. They are being negligent in not pursuing the unit in question for breach of contract by installing wooden floors. As a tenant your only recourse would be through your landlord, if you are an owner you are a member of the management company and can put pressure on your agent and the directors of the MC to address this.

[bert n ernie]

hi athtrasna, we own the property. my husband bought it 6years ago, i moved in 4 years ago. the management company is still in the names of the developer, who is in liquidation and not resident in the country. the only access we have to him is through the managing agent. also the estate is about €80k in the red due to unpaid fees, and the agent uses this as an excuse to do the day to day stuff but nothing more.

[athtrasna]

Sounds like you need an EGM to get rid of the developer as a director. Will give the owners much more power to fix things and start to deal with the problems.

[bert n ernie]

yep we had an agm recently and they are in the process of trying to get the management company signed over but it will be months before they will be able to do anything. thats really why im looking to do something myself.

[odds_on]

Have you read either of these:

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/MUDsEX...EXPMEMOACT.pdf
or
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/pdf/2....2011.0002.PDF

and A & L Goodbody have a summary here:
http://www.algoodbody.com/en_nl/lega...0-df31525c33dd

And I found this today as I was looking for radiant heating panels, but this company has Marmol panels (basically for heat insulation but if you can tact them they can tell you if they would be any good at sound-proofing:
http://www.flexel.ie/marmox/marmox_faq.html

[ongarboy]

Hi, my partner's mother suffered a similar situation. She lives in a ground floor apartment with a neighbour overhead. She owns her apartment and the one above is rented. It was only when a particular tenant moved in that she experienced significant noise. She would hear occasional noise from previous tenants that would sometimes by annoying but was content to tolerate in moderation. However a new tenant moved in who was unreal, loud footsteps, putting the washing machine on at all hours, constantly seeming to drag furniture etc. As you would expect, polite requests asking tenant to change their habits were rebuked.

She eventually got a builder to input ceiling insulation which meant the ceiling height dropped by a few inches. It cost 1000s but I'm sorry to say it made no real improvement (there was just a small element of muffling). Her last resort was to build an extension out the back (which was a planning permission nightmare also) and locate her bedroom into the new extension. It means peaceful nights after a stressful couple of years. This probably is not what you want to hear but her experience of ceiling insulation was not satisfactory and was very costly. I'd be wary about forking out unless you got a proven endorsement from a customer that it made a difference. (my inlaw's experience may be down to shoddy workmanship)

[bert n ernie]

thanks for all the replies guys. ongarboy, i did wonder if there was any point, as per your story! we're really in a bind as we wouldnt even get enough to cover the mortgage if we rented it out, and would end up paying high enough rent, id never live in apartment again, and would rather a tiny cottage in the middle of nowhere than the noise. it seems that i have much intensive research to do !! thanks again

[fonzy157]

Have the same issue with constant noise from upstairs apartment- it drives me mad!I dont think people realise how frustrating it can be living with the constant noise.I have tried talking to the neighbours but like you, it didn't make much difference.

Last year, i looked around to see if there was any building solutions I could use with helping reduce the noise and found very few builders willing to deal with soundproofing issues in apartments.

The option that seemed the best was using phonewell insulation. I got talking with a builder who installs it, who claims it works well, although you do lose ceiling height etc. I've no idea how good it is but am willing to try anything! Financial circumstances have stopped me getting it done just yet-although i am planing to try it in one room once i get the cash.

Please Let me know if you find any other solutions as I would love to think that there is something out there that can help.

Thanks

[Cuddlesworth]

Due to the type of noise that comes from flooring, I'm afraid that the only real way to soundproof against it is in the apartment creating the noise. You can try soundproof the ceiling, but the impacts will still be heard and still transmit through the walls.

[athtrasna]

Or you can force the MC to take legal action against the owner upstairs and not have to do any alteration to your property.

[Victor]

You could of course make your own noise complaint via the council or the district court.

[TwoShedsJackson]

Originally Posted by bert n ernie

thanks for all the replies guys. ongarboy, i did wonder if there was any point, as per your story! we're really in a bind as we wouldnt even get enough to cover the mortgage if we rented it out, and would end up paying high enough rent, id never live in apartment again, and would rather a tiny cottage in the middle of nowhere than the noise. it seems that i have much intensive research to do !! thanks again

Sound proofing won't work against impact noises like the ones you describe and the likes of doors slamming etc. as these are transmitted through the walls/floor by vibration, sound proofing will only have an effect (which can be very variable) on air borne noise like voices, televisions etc.

[P. Breathnach]

Originally Posted by Victor

You could of course make your own noise complaint via the council or the district court.

I think that in the majority of cases that would be a waste of time and money. The sort of problem that people generally come here to discuss is with modern apartment developments, and it's usually the result of the construction methods rather than the behaviour of neighbours.

Suppose I lived in an apartment above yours; suppose also that I am a fairly quiet and considerate person (I like to think I am); suppose also that the sounds of my ordinary activities like using the bathroom or listening to the radio were a problem for you. What would you expect of me?

[bert n ernie]

thanks for the replies all. P.Breathneach, I did acknowledge in my first posting that the noise was most likely a combination of the building structure etc as well as noise from the occupant. to be honest if you were my neighbour i would expect you to have put down proper higher spec underlay under your wooden floors noise from the bathroom pump washing machines etc and general walking around dont bother me, its the hoovering for hours, the constant stamping around in high heels at all hours of the night etc.

I should probably also mention that before i moved in to this apartment i had an identical apartment in the other end of the estate, and because the owner above me had put the proper insulation down i only heard the normal amount of noise, which i would expect to hear in a block of apartments. Of course the noise didnt become evident until she changed the floors and we had already sold mine by then.

It was just the thought that maybe I could do something from my end to fix it.