Sound / decibels -I'm a bit thick

InvisibleWoman

We are having issues with our new upstairs neighbours and the impact noise traveling into our apartment. Their living area (kitchen/diner, downstairs WC, and living room) is situated directly above our bedrooms. Laminate flooring has been installed in February in the living room and landing, and tiles were installed in the kitchen area at the same time.

We are suffering from impact noise (not airbourne noise) - chairs being dragged and thumped down on the floor, doors being slammed (their front door is directly above our bed), and thumping footsteps across the ceiling. This continues until 1am/2am and starts again early in the morning, including our day of rest when they toddle off to church. We can cope with the low level of TV noise (and that comes from the other side of the party wall on our level as well), its the thumping and crashing above our heads driving us crazy.

I'm now trying to understand floor coverings and the increase/decrease in sound travelling into our bedrooms, which is where I need the science forum's help.

According to the research I've done so far at college laminate flooring with underlay has a protection level of 25dB on average versus carpet flooring with underlay offering a protection level of 53dB - a difference of 28dB. Tiles have a protection level of 23dB versus vinyl with underlay which has a protection level of 40dB - a difference of 17dB.

I have used a smart phone app as others Boardsies in Accommodation suggested, and I think I understand this bit - the 'resting rate' in our bedrooms at 11pm-ish is between 40/43 which is equal to what I have found online. The stomping noise in their living room shoots up to mid 70s; the chair dragging is worse, high 70s. So if they add carpet, which is an extra 28dB of protection, I should be back around a quiet bedroom mark?^

75 -28 = 48
Stomping less carpet protection equals new sound rating.

Not perfect, but a big improvement?

For the other two bedrooms below the kitchen, it's not as good

78 - 17 = 61
Chair dragging less lino protection equals new sound rating

Can anyone tell me if I understand sound / decibels or am I confused? Ive ordered a sound meter off Amazon to do some better measurements*, but I'm not sure I'm applying this right.

^ Bearing in mind this is a smart phone app so accuracy is probably very poor!

* I know I'll need an official engineers report, but right now, we are broke. At least a sound meter from Amazon might suggest if further investigation is warranted.

Capt'n Midnight

if you cant talk to them passive aggressive would be to drop some felt feet for their furniture in their letter box, and a lot cheaper than carpets

the problem is that noise can travel via different routes,eg air vents , so reducing one won't affect the sound through the others

there are ways to deaden sound in your rooms too

not sure if white noise might help , so that the relative noise level doesn't change as much


https://xkcd.com/316/

InvisibleWoman

thanks for the advice but we have had surveys done which state that felt pads won't solve the problem as it is impact noise. The noise is coming from the living areas sited directly above our bedrooms. The head lease attached to the development and building regulations state floor coverings must be sufficient to provide impact noise protection to other apartments, which laminate and tiles do not.

We have tried white noise, OH tried ear plugs, and we have already insulated our walls and ceiling. The companies that visited us to discuss dropped ceilings etc said it would be a waste of money as the cause of the noise is impact noise from the apartment above, and it is for that reason that there are clauses in the Head Lease and building regulations.

That said, we did offer to purchase slippers and felt pads for the tenants living in the apartment while we waited for the issue to be solved, but they refused them.

I didn't want to repeat the whole long story here as I was just looking for information on decibels, but there's a thread across in Accommodation which details the whole long sorry saga http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057401723

Capt'n Midnight

There should be a music recording thread somewhere , where people are soundproofing for recording studio's but I haven't found it.