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Theoretically, is there a way to soundproof an existing apartment floor so that footfalls aren't heard two floors up?
He could remove her feet.
Thanks for that idea, Mr. Dahmer.
This. You can get by without feet, just like an appendix.
Looks like meat’s back on the menu boys!
Then you find out she cant afford good prosthetics, so she gets peg legs, which are noisier
Even concrete isn't perfect. I lived on the second floor of a steel and concrete building and my living room was above the entrance. You could not only hear this one woman stomping through the foyer every morning and night, but you could feel it upstairs!
I thought maybe it was some 800 lbs gorilla, but nope, just an average sized woman who found the perfect stride to make the most noise possible.
It's one thing to complain about someone walking around, but if OP is dealing with someone who walked like this woman did, I feel for him because it was LOUD!
I'm 6'3" and over 200 lbs and I cannot even manage to make half that noise when I try to! It is some kind of torturous art-form to be that small and able to make that much noise that way.
Nothing will stop it OP -- not enough concrete or rugs to mute that stomp.
This is your best option, unfortunately. My sound sensitivity sounds like yours, and I’ve moved to get out of stressful apartments a lot.
Moving was the only solution to my sound problems. I researched the hell out of it and figured I could spend $15,000 to put in a bunch of mass vinyl, additional drywall, insulation, green glue, whatever, and they were only going to give me something like 10% max sound reduction for impact noise.
Theoretically you could have the landlord move her out, rip out her ceiling, put in mineral wool insulate, mass loaded vinyl, resilient tracks, and 2 layers of 5/8”+ drywall with green glue.
Sound is really difficult to manage in a retrofit scenario for a reasonable cost.
Your best bet is rugs or carpeting
Or not renting.
tone. deaf.
When one's a homeowner there are no other tenants to be bothered by. This OP is bothered by the downstairs tenant's walking.
Yes, congrats on connecting the obvious for us even after being downvoted into the negative void.
The number of factors that goes into WHY someone doesn't currently own a home or is able to move from their current situation is so far beyond your realm of comprehension in this moment.
In the US for example, more than 60% of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, with nothing in savings and a marginal outlook for salary expansion.
That is just one reason of many, on simply a fiscal front.
One
You know people can own a home and it be a condo?
You know that people can rent a single-family home?
You know some people do not want to own a home?
Yet...
You really are so tone deaf you came back to clarify why you aren't tone deaf.
The OP is bothered by footsteps under their unit. It's just part of renting. That's all I'm saying. Aggravating, maybe, but fixable? Not always.
No need for inflamed response.
likes her apartment exactly the way she wants it
As is her right. The problem is with the building quality not your neighbor. You can try rugs with thicker than usual padding.
Not quite... there is the right for peaceful life built into most leases (even share of the freehold) that means that directors/freeholder can demand she puts rugs down as its interfering with someone else's right to peaceful existence.
(This is a thing in the UK, so apologies if not UK)
I’ve seen a good number of apartment leases that require a certain % of the apartment is covered by rugs as well. When you enter communal living situations like this some trade offs need to happen
I'm in the US. Don't know where this guy is but in the US, as long as she's following her lease, he can't make her buy rugs.
Understood, that goes with all places in the world, but to combat noisy neighbours, most leases usually have right to peaceful existence clauses. Op would need to have landlord read through it.
Theoretically, if the floors were provided with a decoupling layer (air gap) then the sound transmission would be lessened. Doing this after the fact, of construction, is quite a lofty endeavor. Unfortunately, you’re probably at an end roads when it comes to omitting the sounds coming from below, unless the building owners are sympathetic to your cause and want to spend thousands of dollars to mitigate the issue…
Soundproofing is actual, not theoretical.
It would require a complete structural retrofit to the entire building, perhaps you meant to say “economically” (and the answer then would be “no”).
They could certainly add insulation between the floors. I don't see a way to do this without tearing out a lot of the ceiling or floor.
Buy yourself an Alexa, put on some radio station you like at a volume just low enough it drowns out her noise/footsteps.
If you want to add more rugs to your apartment make sure you add multiple layers of foam underlay to get better sound reduction.
How bad is the echo in your apartment? Perhaps work on that as well.
Your landlord can try can someone check for loose floorboards or sagging joists
Call me crazy but I think the eye rolling should probably be from her to you, kind of entitled to expect someone to buy rugs so you don’t have to be bothered by their living sounds 30 minutes before they go to work and 30 minutes after they get home. It could be so much worse.
Most apartments require 80% of floor covering with rugs if it’s hardwood. Noise is not a right for densely populated habitats
Oh yeah. This was written into every apartment lease I’ve had. All of the buildings were prewar with gorgeous original hardwood floors.
Lived in several apartments and never once heard of this requirement
Same
It’s common in the northeast in pre war buildings
I have lived all over the northeast in prewar buildings, and have never ever seen this in a lease.
I've lived in a prewar building in the NE. Floors were not even 50% covered
It’s quite possible you were running afoul of the language in your lease.
Unlikely
This is very common especially when a building has an HOA and cc&R's like if you buy an apartment or a condo.
From Mass and never heard of this
To be fair, you also haven’t heard of the letter R
What
Edit: ok I get it.
And at that point I feel like they should just maybe not be hard woods...?
Usually only if there are downstairs neighbors. I have never heard of a case like this, and I'm very sensitive to noise...
That's typically for upper floors. If she's on the bottom level that may not be required.
The fact that this person can hear somebody's floor below them that's a problem with the building not with the tenant. Or the original poster just wants to somehow live in an apartment that's perfectly silent all the time which doesn't exist
If OP is on the 2nd floor that makes sense. If OP is on the 3rd…
Trust me, I don't. We have loud mowers and I can hear tvs and guitars and all of that. That's all fine. But if I wanted to hear footfalls I would have just saved myself hundreds of dollars to move into the downstairs apartment she now occupies when it became vacant...
You don’t happen to be from near NYC, do you? That’s the only area I’ve ever heard of that being a common rule
Yes. But it was also a rule when I lived in New England. Older buildings with higher ceilings and construction of pre war buildings may be the reason
People telling you they’ve never seen it in a lease probably didn’t read the lease because this is standard in a ton of places and not just the northeast and for the very reason OP is raising a complaint. It’s everyone’s obligation to block unnecessary noise (and also to protect the floors).
That’s…not a thing I’ve heard ever?
That's not the only time I hear it, that's only when I'm guaranteed to hear it. It's also pretty unfortunate that I didn't hear anything from the last two people who I lived above, and that she seems to not care at all that I also like my apartment the way it is and was before she moved in.
Unfortunate that so many people prioritize the way an apartment looks over the way an apartment sounds, when they should both be given equal clemency.
Theoretically? Create a complete void between the surfaces—no sound in space!
No. You should adjust.
Buy yourself sound proofing headphones and let her live her life.
she "likes her apartment exactly the way she wants it" (insert eyeroll here)
i mean...you are the asshole in this scenario, based on the eyeroll holy moly dude
sounds like you live in a place that can't handle people walking, as you've not indicated she's jumping on a trampoline
pressuring someone to spend $$$ and change the decor of their apartment bc their normal apartment-dwelling behavior bothers you? dickish
Seriously. Buy some freaking earplugs, my dude.
I offered to buy them for her, for starters. Please don't make assumptions based on the things I didn't specify in the post. It's unfortunate that so many people prioritize the way an apartment looks over the way an apartment sounds, when they should both be given equal clemency. Not even asking for all silence, just this one trigger.
It may not just be “for looks”. If she has allergies, rugs can be a horrible source of dust allergies even if she vacuums daily. I have removed all carpet and throw rugs and allergies are substantially better. It’s only spouse & me so we are used to each other’s clomping and the cats sound like mini elephants running around but it’s better than me sneezing & hacking 24 hours/day. As far as the noise, in YOUR apartment, try to have the landlord put down thicker cork as a base, then good quality carpet pad, then carpet over that. Cork does a great job of dampening but it’s fragile so needs to be the base layer.
Is it possible to have the landlord over to hear the noise himself. If it is truly bad then it may encourage him to talk to the neighbor. I will admit that a tenant complaining that they can hear their neighbor walk is a little suspect at best.
Sounds like you shouldn't live in an apartment, my guy
It's her space, why would you think it's ok for you to decide how she lives in it
Some building have rules, like you must have 80% of your floor covered with carpeting. Mine does. It depends on your by-laws /lease.
OP has not mentioned this, but has mentioned multiple times pressuring the tenant to do it as opposed to talking to the landlord about a tenant being in breach of their rental agreement, so it stands to reason that rule is non-existent here.
If that were a rule, OP's move should be talk to the landlord, not whinge on Reddit, eyerolls included.
Agreed. OP should double check the fine print in their lease.
Does anywhere other than NYC? I think it’s a smart rule, but I’m curious what other cities have put that much common sense into the law
I don't know if that's a law. But every apartment building I've lived in here has had something similar. I think it's a best practice adopted by many management companies based on experience.
Ya not really
Why is it okay for her to not care how her noise effects others?
Again it's her space, this is a you problem. YTA
Full wall to wall carpeting. Cheapest way to go without creating too much of a problem. It gets done in a few hours and that’s it. Oh and the best padding under that.
You call joey bag o donuts and badda boom. No more boom. Catfish?
See if the neighbor is willing to wear thick rubber sandals indoor. Like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B092QWYYQ9
We wear these around the house because we're Asians and wear indoor shoes but these ones are extra comfortable and would help massively with sound. Weight matters less than you think for foot noise, it's putting all your weight on the ball that causes noise, even a 5 year old normal size kid can be extremely noisy if they walk around like that.
But really, you need to spend the money for her, it's not her responsibility to spend her money for your sake.
Closed cell foam insulation could be injected through a series of properly placed access points cut into the ceiling material; this assumes there are no recessed electrical lights or other fixtures occupying that space; if there are, they can be temporarily removed while the insulation is being installed.
If the problem is mainly sleeping try pink noise. Your brain learns to tune out other sounds and you can fall asleep.
Earplugs.
Noise cancelling headphones or new wall to wall carpet with a thick pad.
Record it, play it back for her to show her.
Start being Clompy yourself.
Couldn't your landlord put insulation/sound proofing in her ceiling?
you can put insulation between the concrete subfloor and a wooden floor. Well your neighbor could. You can't do it in her apartment and doing it in your own is not going to help
Many apartments have lease requirements that tenants must have rugs - for this very reason. Look at your lease; if it requires rugs other tenant’s lease should also but you can verify with landlord. If it’s a lease requirement the lease enforcement shifts to landlord.
yes. its called buying a house
She could just take off her shoes, and that would fix it, but she's not motivated to do so. Since you know at what times she enters and leaves, you could time your free style bowling practice around that. If she starts complaining, offer a deal.
Bare feet can be even worse than shoes. Heel striking is the real issue.
2 floors up though?
Why should someone have to take off their shoes if they don't want to? This person lives below the original poster. If the original poster is hearing sound from them walking around in their apartment then it's a problem with the building or an overly sensitive original poster trying to find something to complain about
Not taking your shoes off inside is disgusting
Move, or ask your roommate to stop walking?
But seriously.
Does she wear shoes in the house? Maybe taking them off at the door would be a reasonable accommodation. It wouldn't hurt to ask.
I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted. OP asked the neighbor to put down rugs, which is most definitely a bigger ask, especially considering the outlay of cash for the rugs. As OP and the neighbor came to an impasse, this could be a reasonable concession.
u/KyleG this is partially in response to the comment you deleted. If you deleted it because you changed your mind, I thank you for considering a different perspective.
Edited about 900x because I'm an idiot and couldn't remember how to tag someone.
No.
You have to move from Mrs elephant. Sorry
Try to rent a condo if you can, they're built better than regular apartments
Move. The only thing that blocks sound is mass, such as concrete blocks, but in this case, adding mass wouldn't help, as the frame of the building is acting as a transfer conduit. So your options are to move, or stay put and suffer. Rugs probably won't help either, sorry to say.