Sound insulation in houses in Riverwood

merci beaucu

Hi,

I was hoping to see if someone else in Riverwood estate or beyond had similar experiece as ours and get some advice on how to deal with the problem. Any decent advice will be greatly appreciated. We leave in the semi-detached house in Riverwood. Last summer our neiboughrs extended their kitchen, which is a 3x3 m2 add on to their existing kitchen, resulting in big open plan square room at the back of the house. Like so many other houses in the estate have. Nothing major in terms of scale. However, this small extension that probably brings so much joy to the neiboughrs have made us feel miserable in our house since. For ten years we leaved side by side we almost never heard them through the the party wall except during bigger family gatherings. The wall seemed to be solid and good in stopping any noise. But as it happened they tiled the floor and bought heavy solid wood furniture and now we can hear every pull of their dinning chairs or high stools every time they sit down. The sound is so strong, it sounds like someone is constantly moving heavy furniture forth and back morning, day and evening. If you add up visiting relatives and guests on a regular base it actually becomes unbearable to be in our house. Unfortunately, by whaterver reason the sound is not limited to adjoining dinning room but penatrates into every room in our house, literally every room. You cannot just close the doors in the dinning room and ignore it. During the lockdown I almost had a nervous breakdown because we all were in and it felt like we had no privacy whatsoever. Just as lockdown finished I approached our neiboughrs and kindly asked/begged/offered them to use the furniture pads which they agreed to. But the noise came back again in the last couple of weeks, I guess the pads come off and they are not in a mood or hurry putting them back.

I would not be so upset if it turned out just putting more sound insulation on the walls in the rooms, I am afraid that given the fact we hear it everywhere in the house it won't be enough to insulate just the party wall. We'll probably have to go on the sides, rip all the plaster on the walls as well as insulate between the floor boards? Basically whole house should be ripped and redone. The sheer idea of the scale of work that we may be forced to do to get the peace in our home make me nauseous, and all just because some people are in love with heavy furniture or half deaf...

We need to look for a permanent solution how to insulate the party wall. Maybe somebody had sound insulation done in their houses aready and it worked? Please share your experience and recommendations.

daymobrew

That sounds horrible.

I have the same issue (neighbour open plan kitchen/dining room though no extension) but the noise is nowhere near as bad as yours. Strangely the noise is most noticeable in an upstairs room that is above the neighbour's dining room.

Our neighbours seem to only move a chair or two and only now and again.

I suggest repeating the request to use furniture pads, providing them if necessary.

merci beaucu

Agree, the noise is noticable upstairs, in all 3 bedrooms. I will be talking to neighbours again and again and again. Have no other choice and will pray for their understanding and cooperation. They do not realise how lucky they are we do not have an extension ourselves .

VeVeX

You could knock in and ask them to put some felt pads on the end of the chairs that the noise is quite loud in your house. Most normal people would have no problem acquiescing to a reasonable request from a friendly neighbour.

We had a similar issue with our neighbour and their chairs, my wife mentioned it to them and they sorted it out, I really don't think they were aware that the noise traveled because the houses are otherwise pretty well sound insulated.