Bedroom soundproofing

Unfortunately I think it depends more on what carpets your neighbour has than what you have.

I didn't used to hear any noise from next door, until a young man bought the property and completely gutted it, removed all the carpets, curtains and soft furnishings and put hardwood floors in and he has very little in the way of furniture. I hear everything from there now, every footstep, every word he says, every cough, every laugh, even when he goes to the toilet I can hear it. He can't hear me at all apparently, but I have carpets and lots of furniture to absorb and reflect sounds.

He also has a flimsy metal bed frame so that every time he moves in bed it creates knocking and banging sounds, which "serenade" me all night. It's incredibly annoying and keeps me awake. I hate it so much but there's nothing I can do about it. I can't exactly tell him to undo all the modernisation he spent tens of thousands doing, or force him to buy a different bed.

In bed I could hear/feel my refrigerator and gas combi boiler from the room below in my terrace house. Drove me mad.

I found it helpful putting the fridge on a sound absorbing matt (made from recycled tyres from the look of it). I also put squares of the matt under my bed legs and made sure the bed wasn't touching the walls.

For the boiler I just set the thermostat timer to 5C overnight.

My ~1900 terrace has the pumped in insulation between the houses - I generally only hear the loudest of baby screams and the odd saxaphone practice.

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

I've thought about this as well. Maybe eventually building something like a greenhouse inside a bedroom with a top or various windows which open for airflow. 

I've seen that sort of thing done in bedrooms... 

eh a rooms a room, the "bedroom" that is set when brought the house doesnt need to be your actual bedroom, can switch it to another room that isnt beside someone elses wall. although granted if its a terraced house your always against someone elses wall crammed in tightly.

Acousticians and Music Studios would have answers. Air Studios used to be at Oxford Circus and they managed to make it air-tight in there https://www.airstudios.com/history/ I think there was a layer of rubber under the floor - everything was pulled away from the wall.

I've thought about this as well. Maybe eventually building something like a greenhouse inside a bedroom with a top or various windows which open for airflow. 

your last link times out I am not sure why. Please update / edit it I am interested in this product

Are you anything to do with this company?

also consider pre world war a lot of the cheeper building materials didn't exist. Your options were largely brick, wood and stone. Having grown up in a house with stone outer walls, brick inner walls and wood floors I'd say brick and stone do ok. Wood not so much. Far easier to hear people in the room bellow / above that the one to the side. Maybe look at older builds. Like victorian era. Doesn't have to be expensive if its a small house (like a back to back) in a northern town.

Soundproofing as a whole is to create a box within a box. Having one side of that box will help but you will not be completely isolated. There is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5574bfvX0&feature=emb_title which shows the before / after of a soundproof product. Now you can still hear the ringing once covered but the noise has been massively reduced. For instances for walls there are solutions out there which are easy to install by simply screwing a hammer screw through the product into the battens (or plasterboard).

https://www.acuphon.co.uk/ is the same company who did the video linked above, covering a range or products for different instances.

Ah I wondered if you meant heat insulation like between the walls.  I think years ago it may have been British Gas were saying there was a grant available and they could put stuff between walls to improve efficiency.  So maybe there a similar scheme or grants available now.  

You don't need to fit carpets. Rugs will do the trick. Think of it like a drum where the sound is transmitted across the surface...

Heat insulation means what it means. Many properties fall below the threshold for loft insulation or wall cavity insulation, so are eligible for grants. When a home survey is done on a property, heat efficiency is one of the things which is listed now (at least here in Scotland). It has the added benefit of reducing sound transmission.

I would aim to replace carpets throughout and for my bedroom and the living room I’d save up first so I could get a nice thick underlay.  What exactly do you mean about heat insulation? 

I think these houses were build around 2000.  I don’t know anyone that lives in that area to ask what the build quality is like.  It is frustrating that build quality is so poor in many areas.  My friend lives in an older house and can even hear her neighbours light switches being turned on or off.  

Try putting in thicker carpeting. It helps. Also look into heat insulation. There are grants for that and it muffles sound.

Everything in a house is built to the minimum quality / maximum profit model.   You have to remember that houses built before about 1980 didn't have to contain loud stereos and cinema systems - just people and transistor radios.

Sound is all about energy transmission - your wall acts like the diaphragm in a speaker and lets the sound energy through.    Layers of foam have no mass so cannot contain energy and the next layer of plasterboard is heavy so it needs lots of energy to transmit through - the result is the energy is lost - no sound transmitted through.

Wardrobes full of stuff do the same thing - lots of mass and different materials so it absorbs the sound..

Try to avoid air-gaps where sound can bounce around and escape into the room.

Thanks for your reply.  I don’t understand why walls between properties aren’t thicker.  Why would anyone want to hear their neighbours.  It’s so annoying.  The bedroom in the house I’m looking at is shaped so that the bed would be against the wall not adjoining the neighbours, and I could fit floor to ceiling wardrobes along the wall that does join the neighbour.  Maybe I could put a layer of foam or something behind the wardrobe as well?

Depending on the construction method of the building, it's often incredibly difficult to soundproof a room.     You're better off finding a sound you can sleep with to have on at low level to break up any sound from next door.       I use something boring on a tv at very low level so it's unintelligible mumbling in the background.    Its continual sound means any random noises from outside are lost in the mix.

If you want to try soundproofing, alternating layers of dense and lighter materials stop the energy propagating - foam panels and double plasterboard layers can work well.