Sound Proofing

[Snokio]

Hello,

Hoping someone can help me although I feel it will be a long shot

I have a noisy neighbour who likes to play loud music all the time (before work, lunchtime and after work till 11:30), he is currently playing the same song repetitively for the last 1hr 30mins :blink:. Although I will be mentioning this to him I was hoping there might be sound proofing solution to help eliminate or improve reducing the sound.

The main sound I'm hearing is the bass, it's not shaking the room much but the low frequency travels throughout the house and driving me mad! This is a new build property and not impressed with the level of sound insulation.

Anyone have any experience on what best works?

Thanks

[Gorion]

I doubt you can do anything on your side to be honest.  It has to be on his end to make the sound waves bounce back and die off.

[Penfold]

Where is he? Your options really vary on whether he's above, below or beside you.

Also, when you say new property can you elaborate? Is it a house, attached or block flats? Are they newer than 10-years old and if so were they built (sold) as NHBC approved?

[suicidal_monkey]

Generally you need very solid/dense stuff to absorb the sound waves. The louder and lower the sound, the more energy there is to absorb. Unfortunately heavy bass will manage to pass through most things.

Best solution is headphones as the listener still gets to deafen themselves while you escape the noise. Otherwise turning the bass down, and/or turning the volume down are the only realistic options. Proper sound proofing is unlikely to be affordable or reasonable to install. Outside of certain hours I believe it's actually a potential offence if it's loud enough.

[Penfold]

I'm not sure that's strictly true to be honest.

Without more details as to the type of property, age of property, specification and noise location it's hard to tell. A new build (post 2003) should certainly comply with Part E regulations but it does depend on the type of property.

[Snokio]

I'm in an end of Terrance that was built this year, sounds like he has his sound system (or sub) is close to the joint wall, I'm also guessing the has a wooden floor throughout which can amplify the sound, my house is generally fully carpeted (expected the obvious places). I'm pretty concious of not making too much noise so I have my surround sound system on 'night mode' which limits the bass and it's generally low volume, I generally play music with headphones to.

It makes me think if there is something generally wrong with this dude to being such a ****, very hard to keep my cool at the moment

[sulky_uk]

i don't mean to be rude but are either of you part of a housing association..if so maybe you can talk to them and voice concerns to get it sorted.  If he is then  he will be under contract and i think from a friend of mine being in the same situ that they have clauses against anti social/neighborly   behavior..worth a try.

 If you aint a member of said association then maybe you can give him the same in reverse, play pink floyd or you fav load music at  full blast every night for about a week ...leave it a couple of days then call round and say "hey chap sorry bout the loud music", if he says "it was load"...then say thats  the same level as I get from you"!

just suggestions

[Galatoni]

We had an incident a while ago where the neighbours would come in making lots of noise until 2or 3 in the morning. We complained to our local council and they stopped. Now it only tends to happen at weekends but it's a much better situation.
I noticed that since we had our little one a month ago, I've heard some complaints through the walls in the wee hours on work nights. If you're not part of a housing association,  wait for a good time and give him a dose of his own medicine. Just don't get yourself into trouble. :norty:

I know it makes me sound a bit of a douche but some people aren't reasonable.

[TeaLeaf]

An obvious solution to reduce bass is to site his speaker or subwoofer (1) away from your wall and (b) away from a corner.  Put a speaker too close to the wall or in a corner and the bass boom gets worse, so relocating the speakers might make a significant difference.

You could also get him to isolate his speakers better.   E.g. if it is a wooden floor then use weighted stands with spikes to make sure that the bottom of the speaker is off the floor and the spikes are aligned with supporting joists. - this helps reduce the way the floor bounces and becomes a 'sound-amplifying box'.  If it is a solid floor then spikes on their own and repositioning away from walls & corners should have some impact.

Other solutions: add additional mass and insulation to transmitting walls or floors.   Not an easy or cheap job but whilst you are in the walls and floors at least you can check that they were built to code (as per Pen's post) as the current code includes significant sound insulation requirements and should be much better than 'normal'.

Simplest solution: have a chat with him, explain the problem and get him to change his behaviour.  If that fails then put a call into your council's Environmental Health Department who can do the noise monitoring and any enforcement action needed assuming the resident does not react to the frendly approach.  If you have to go down this latter route then I would strongly recommend keeping a 'noise diary' nothing date, time, duration and if possible a noise meter reading.   Video of liquid vibrating in a glass is also evidence that I have seen used in council action.

[Penfold]

It would be useful to know whether you're in a privately-owned, tenanted or Council house as your rights vary with each.

As I see it, you have four options:

1. Address the source - i.e. talk to neighbour and see if he's vaguely reasonable into understanding your concerns and possibly moving the speaker to a different internal (non-party) wall. Get him to play his music then invite him in to see what's it's like from your side. That may be all it takes.

2. Look at the building envelope - The fact it's a new newbuild means you should have the relevant paperwork from the developer pertaining to NHBC certificates / building regulations etc. Make sure it all complies. NHBC can help you here.  

3. Apply a second-fix solution - There's plenty of second fix solutions to improve sound proofing but I'm sure you (a) don't want to spend the money and (b) want to lose interior space. I have three clients which supply specification and second-fix acoustics material and all of them would help mitigate the problem but none would be ideal. Second fix solutions would have the dual benefit of helping reduce sound reverberation while having high NRC (noise reduction coefficient) properties.

4. Go to the Council's Environmental Health Department and report it. They  have a load of powers to deal with the situation. Everything from mediation, noise abatement orders and even seizing equipment. Normally they'd come out and monitor the noise levels but that's sometimes difficult if it's ad hoc.

Whatever you do, keep a diary of events and occurrences as this evidence is vital in any action. If you can record it somehow along with the decibel level then so much the better.

[smilodon]

Simplest solution: have a chat with him, explain the problem and get him to change his behaviour.  If that fails then put a call into your council's Environmental Health Department who can do the noise monitoring and any enforcement action needed assuming the resident does not react to the friendly approach.  If you have to go down this latter route then I would strongly recommend keeping a 'noise diary' nothing date, time, duration and if possible a noise meter reading.   Video of liquid vibrating in a glass is also evidence that I have seen used in council action.

This sounds like the best option.

[Snokio]

Thanks for all the advise, we both privately own the premises. I will have a read through the articles thanks

[Penfold]

Ohh I see TL posted while I was writing mine so I didn't see it.

Yes, essentially, prevention is better than cure.