My husband and I bought and moved into a condo building recently. It is 1980s construction, but fully rehabbed right before we moved in, and my understanding is that everything but the exterior walls and concrete floors is new. The floors are hollow concrete, 1/4" cork underlayment and oak planks on top. Despite the cork underlayment, we get alot of noise from our up and downstairs neighbors. We hear our downstairs neighbors speaking (I think a couple of them have naturally loud voices, but they're not shouting) and can make out some of the words. The upstairs neighbors haven't been here long so it's unclear how bad the problem is with them, but I hear their footfalls (not just muffled, but clip clops) and other sounds, such as their baby crying, the tv.

We are used to apartment living, but the level of noise here really surprises us. I've lived in two other 1980s buildings in the same city and NEVER heard up/downstairs neighbors except when exceptionally loud (e.g., blasting music). The apartment we're living in should be an improvement as it's a rehab, which should make things better, not worse, right?? I believe in pretty much every other way, the rehab is quite good. The contractors came by and also were surprised by the noise level, saying the 1/4" cork was specifically recommended by a sound expert for sound proofing.

Is the noise we're experiencing normal given the materials used (i.e., hollow cement, 1/4" cork & oak floors)? If not, could it be an installation issue and if so, what? If yes, this is normal, what would be a better underlayment to the cork that will significantly curtail the noise? I believe the developer/contractors can be convinced to rip up and replace the underlayment/flooring (they've been doing this in many other apartments because of cupping), but only if they believe it will solve our problem. We are quite desperate as we are regularly woken up, sometimes very early, by a baby crying (upstairs), children screaming (downstairs) and alarm clocks. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

Your CC&R's might have some regulations and specs in there about sound proofing. Cork works great but then theres limits to its efficiency.

Hello Stephen, thank you for your reply! I had to look up CC&Rs, it looks like you mean the condo rules & regulations? Our condo requires that we put down floor coverings on 80% of the floors not including kitchen, bathrooms & hallways. Since our neighbors and I are all recently moved in, many of us (ourselves included) don't have rugs down yet. I do believe this will help, but only so much as the non covered spaces add up to a lot (in particular, a very long hallway our neighbors and we have) and the sound will travel through these areas. I am sure about this as when we are in the living room, which is at one end of the hallway, we can hear noise being made by the downstairs folk at the other end of the hallway. This is why we are exploring alternatives, such as better insulation. Cost is not the issue, if the developer/contractors want us to eat some of the cost of replacing the insulation/floors, we will. It's worth it to us as we expect to live here for ten years at least.



Also, what do you mean by this, i.e., limits to efficiency?

Thank you.

Meaning there are better products out there now and more complicated and expensive methods.

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/prepar ... ontrol.htm

http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/articles/a ... 2&zoneid=2

http://www.duracoustic.com/

I use this soundsolutions a lot but their website seems to be getting an upgrade right now. My local Prosource stocks it.

http://www.chicagohardwoodflooring.com/ ... derlayment