Soundproofing

[doomducky]

Hi forum,

I registered because this place seemed to have a lot of people who knew a lot about sound and soundproofing.

I'm at my wits end in my apartment right now. I live on the third floor of an apartment and the person underneath me refuses to be quiet and night.

I cannot move out because I have no where else to go, and ear plugs hurt my ear canals a considerable amount as well.

The sound seems to be coming out from a little alcove where the desk is also.

Is there anything I can do on top of the current carpet to reduce the noise? I've looked into mass loaded vinyl as well. Would laying that on top of the flooring be a good option?

Thanks,

A college student driven insane by an inconsiderate roommate

 

[Bryceo]

I believe car sound profing the stuff they stick to reduce rattles and noise out side the car will help but I'd that dosnt mite I suggest a thicker carpet perhaps or try both idear to geather the sound profing sheets seem to work I have them upstairs in my bedroom and no one else seems to hear my movies or music out side of the room

 

[FirstReflection]

Whoo boy.

Believe me that I would love to help you. Soundproofing is something I'm rather passionate about. I value silence VERY highly.

But a situation like yours is very difficult. The way sound travels, it doesn't "play nice". If it seems as though sounds are coming through a wall, sound is not JUST coming through the wall, it is also coming through the floor and ceiling and any other connected pathways. Wherever the air CAN move, it DOES move. And sound travels not only via the air, but also through the solid materials used to construct your home.

When you say that you can hear most of the sound coming from a certain location in your room, that suggests it is a type of "flanking noise", which is to say that it isn't so much being transmitted directly through your floor, but is instead travelling mostly via a duct, or pipes, or something like that.

Truthfully, the BEST advice I can offer to you is to point you to:

soundproofingcompany.com

and to suggest that you call them and talk with their experts.

The real issue though is that you might not be able to implement the fix. This being a dorm, you can't really do any full on construction or demolition. You might be able to do something like simply float a rubberized flooring mat (the soundproofingcompany calls theirs the "Serenity Mat"), but then you'd have to deal with the smell, and you'd have to lay it right on top of the existing carpet, which is fine, but you'd just have a black, rubber floor unless you put new carpet on top of the Serenity Mat.

I wish I had better news for you. But soundproofing is tough. It would actually be easier to treat the ceiling below you - it's always better to treat where the noise is coming from, rather than where it ends up. But if your neighbors are jerks, it's unlikely they'll be willing to let you do some minor construction in their room as opposed to yours.

Best I can do is to suggest that you call SoundProofing Company and speak with them about your situation. Hopefully, they will have some suggestions. But yours sounds like a very difficult situation to fix.

Best of luck

 

[doomducky]

Thanks for the great advice!

It is ridiculously helpful. I'll be sure to make a call after my classes today.

Quick question though, how would sound travel travel through walls, if the only thing I share with this roommate is a floor?

Again, thanks for all the help!

 

[agarwalro]

I'm at my wits end in my apartment right now. I live on the third floor of an apartment and the person underneath me refuses to be quiet and night.

If the complex has quiet hours (they all do), you can call the management company/landlord to have them enforced and if that doesn't help, call the cops.

I see no reason why you considering options that condone the misbehavior, let alone incur personal expenditure.

 

[doomducky]

I've actually talked to my landlord and such, and according to them they can't do much about it.

I've called in late at night complaining about his loud talking, and the front desk sends people over to check it out, but you can't hear the talking outside, only inside. If the advisers can't hear anything outside they won't do anything to enforce quiet hours since they're not allowed to enter our apartment without our permission and set things right.

The worst thing is that the talking is extremely sporadic. Sometimes it'll be completely quiet then from 1 AM to 7 AM, he'll be talking non stop or at random times, like responding to somethings or telling a story. This makes catching him and having quiet hours enforced really difficult since I have no idea when the talking will happen and how long it will go on for.

I've discussed possible solutions with said roommate but it has fallen on deaf ears.

Changing apartments is out of the question since all the occupancy is filled and breaking the lease requires me to get a lawyer and even then I have no where else near campus to go to.

 

[jostenmeat]

For the time being, to help mitigate the issue for however long you must suffer this, you can consider locating a professional who makes custom made (therefore not painful to your ear canals, but definitely ask about this) "musician's earplugs". They won't be cheap, my guess is $80 + or -, probably +. However, higher cost doesn't mean they will necessarily be better, it is about the person's skill/experience in creating the mold and plugs. The ones a previous musician I worked with had hired more than one person for making these, and it was actually the lesser costing pair that were better made for him; he found her at the NAMM show. What were also very cool about them, besides being anatomically fitting, were that the SPL levels of protection were totally interchangeable; there are these tiny, tiny little modules you pop in and out of the earplug itself. 15 db protection, pop em in, or say you want to go to a crazy loud concert standing right next to the speakers, pop in the highest level, etc.

Also, they are called "musician's earplugs" because they have a flatter freq response, so those rock concerts can be more enjoyable while also still protecting your hearing.

I like the Serenity Mat idea from above, if your room is very small, a couple of the largest rugs from IKEA are not terribly expensive at all. I mean, if say you were okay with the ugly compromise of the Mat at only the extremes of the room. I'm sure compromises are easy to make when it's good sleep we are talking about. I also wonder how acoustic cotton compares to the Mat, in both dialogue suppression, as well as value (definitely cheaper in bulk). I would definitely ask acoustic professionals, and not me.

 

[Adam]

Have you tried a fan or other white noise generator? That's what I've used in the past to help me sleep through noisy neighbors. I'd crank a fan on high. I have a lot of trouble sleeping when neighbors are making noise, like talking, but white noise does work for me.

Btw, I'm impressed that no one has suggested spending the money on hiring some dudes to rough up the night talker. Oops...I guess someone just did. J/K, btw! That's not a good approach...

 

[doomducky]

Wow, thanks for all the great responses!

I've looked into the materials needed to sound proof a room and it is a lot more expensive than I thought... so I guess that's out of the question since I'm only living here until June.

The rugs and the musician earplugs sound like a great idea, as does the white noise covering up ambient noise. I think I'll start out with the rugs and white noise, then move on to the musician earplugs if need be.

Thanks for the ridiculously great help everyone! I didn't think I would get so many awesome responses... If there is anyone else that has any other solutions, feel free to chime in!

P.S.
My physics TA who I talked with about sounds and waves also mentioned roughing him up. Great minds think alike!

 

[Kyuuketsuki]

You can probably ruff him up in others ways, just get a 15" playing a low(inaudible) frequency and put it on the ground it'll shake his ceiling with a amp set past 1kw.

White noise works for me too thought, except it is rather specific white noise for me, a fan doesn't work. It has to be something I'm used to hearing all the time like my computer fans which are already almost silent but the very light humming makes it a lot easier for me to sleep.

There's also apps that are supposed to create peaceful ambient sounds that help some people sleep.
Ear plugs with a white noise generator works as well.
Some people use music to fall asleep, just make sure its something you can fall asleep to.

 

[agarwalro]

I've actually talked to my landlord and such, and according to them they can't do much about it... I've discussed possible solutions with said roommate but it has fallen on deaf ears... Changing apartments is out of the question since all the occupancy is filled and breaking the lease requires me to get a lawyer and even then I have no where else near campus to go to.

That is just a shitty situation to be in.

What about safety earmuffs?

 

[jostenmeat]

Wow, thanks for all the great responses!

I've looked into the materials needed to sound proof a room and it is a lot more expensive than I thought... so I guess that's out of the question since I'm only living here until June.

The rugs and the musician earplugs sound like a great idea, as does the white noise covering up ambient noise. I think I'll start out with the rugs and white noise, then move on to the musician earplugs if need be.

Thanks for the ridiculously great help everyone! I didn't think I would get so many awesome responses... If there is anyone else that has any other solutions, feel free to chime in!

P.S.
My physics TA who I talked with about sounds and waves also mentioned roughing him up. Great minds think alike!

I personally would not buy the rugs, unless they were used to cover up some acoustic material. I'm not sure they would do anything significant for you by themselves. You say there is great expense, but I did think acoustic cotton was affordable when I was checking it out years ago. Again, I'm not sure if that's really what you want, try hitting up the link that FR gave you. Ted White gives very expert advice on some very high end HTs. You know the really big custom high end ones built from scratch.

What I'm now wondering about is if the sound is carrying through in some vent or particular cavity. Have you tried closing your vents for an experiment?

If you can resist the urge to beat him up for a day, maybe he could possibly oblige you, and start talking all over the room, and maybe if it's only when he is sitting in certain places it is particularly bad? (Which leads me to think vents or something.)

The inaudible low bass is a very bad idea, because you'll piss off EVERYBODY that is connected to you. It will go right through all of your walls omnidirectionally.