Have you ever been disturbed by the noise of your upstairs neighbors? They might be enjoying a party or simply having fun with their family and friends. But it is too much to handle.
Many of you have faced such situations when you are trying to relax or concentrate on your work. But this doesn’t have to be a problem as you can have peace of mind by reducing the noise coming from above.
Well, you’re not alone according to Google Trends. The search for “reduce upstairs noise” has been increasing and most, if not all that is experiencing it is located in the US.
We guess that it is due to the old architectural structure of buildings in the developed countries
Noise pollution has become a major problem in the modern world.
More people are living in apartments and condominiums instead of townhouses and more people are moving to central areas of metropolitan cities, as compared to before, when people still stay in their towns and houses.
Many people live in apartments or condominiums located in the central areas of cities. These people are facing a huge problem with noise pollution.
There are many causes of noise pollution, but the major cause is due to neighbors.
The sound coming from neighbors upstairs is one of the main reasons for the increasing noise pollution.
To help you tackle this problem, we are suggesting some solutions that might help you if you are in this situation.
1. Communicate With Your Neighbors
Talking to your neighbors upstairs is the best way to settle the upstairs problem. Your upstairs neighbor might not know that they are disturbing your family’s life when they are living on top of you.
Go look for them, politely tell them some actions that have caused that irritable noise that affects you.
Noise like when they are moving furniture around when they are cleaning the floors, or if their baby toddlers are jumping in their apartments.
Read more to know if acoustic panels will help with noisy neighbours
If you are close to your neighbors above, you can even suggest that they buy some acoustic carpets that could dampen some noise from their day-to-day activities.
2. Involve The Landlord / Building Management
There are times when after talking to your neighbors upstairs, they continue with these noises. Or even worse, they make more noise to annoy you and piss you off if the discussion between you two soured.
Talk to your building management, and tell them about the situation. Record down the noise you are experiencing and show them proof when you talk to them.
Seek their help as a middleman to talk to your upstairs neighbor in peace and help with the noise.
Even if you think it will ultimately be useless, still tell them about it. Invite them to your apartments hear the noise and be your witness to the situation, especially if it’s after 11 pm.
3. Contact Local Authorities
If your neighbors upstairs are jumping or partying after sleeping hours, call the police and report your upstairs neighbor.
Most likely this will work as a deterrent once the police verify your situation and call on them to end the party or stop the activities that create that noise.
Even if you think it will be ultimately useless and things will go on as it is after the police attended to the noise once, still do it anyway, and get a police report filed if possible.
That would be the evidence you need if you want to pursue a lawsuit after the situation does not improve.
4. Install Acoustic Treatments
There are two types of sound – Airborne noises and impact noises. Airborne noises are noises like conversations, sounds from Television, and singing. A sound that transmits through the air.
Impact noises are noises that vibrate the internal structure of the building, and then transmit through you. These noises are like jumping, banging, knocking, and dragging furniture. You get the draft.
If it’s just airborne noises, try ceiling clouds that could reduce sounds that are created from second reflection points, or otherwise, that pesky noise that is amplified as echoes and reverberations.
Alternatively, attach acoustic wall tiles or acoustic panels onto your ceiling above as acoustic fixtures, dense up the ceiling to reduce the sound transmitting through there.
If the noise is happening in a particular area, say the center portion of your living room, you could choose to spot-treat them in that area.
If you are looking for a good soundproofing panel, we would recommend that you have a look at our soundproofing panel for the ceiling
However, do note that if it is impact noises like banging and knocking, this solution might not be a good solution as sounds vibrating through the internal structure cannot be reduced to a minimum level using this method.
Read more to understand if acoustic panels can be a solution for you:
5. Soundproof the Ceiling
If you are looking for how to drown out loud upstairs neighbors reduce walking noise from upstairs floors or dampen noise from upstairs then this solution is for you.
It deals with the impact noises that our above solution could not solve.
If the knocking, banging, and jumping noise is light enough, you can select a product like our soundproofing wall panels that could help you with an STC rating of 20dB and since decibel is a logarithm unit, reducing 10dB is equivalent to reducing 75% of the noise.
The additional rubber layer in it acts as a dampener and vibration reducer.
By soundproofing your ceiling you are essentially decoupling your ceiling structure to your apartment. Sort of like adding another ceiling to your ceiling.
To Fully soundproof your ceiling involves adding studs to your current ceiling, adding soundproofing foam in between them, and then adding resilient channels across the studs.
Doing this will allow the vibrations to be reduced while transmitting through the soundproofing foam, then spreading evenly across your resilient channels to dampen them.
Alternatively, if you cannot tear down or set up another ceiling for reasons like rental flats, hassle, etc., take a look at a solution that could be an alternative solution (See here)
The studs, soundproofing foam, and resilient channels are covered with gypsum walls that add Sound Transmission Cancelling to the stack.
With that structure in place, impact noise can be reduced to a minimum before the sound reaches you.
Learn more about different ways to soundproofing your ceiling without construction and how to authentically soundproof your ceiling
Also, check out the difference between soundproofing and acoustic treatment
6. Use Noise Eliminators
Ever think to yourself that it would be awesome if you could stomp back to your neighbors if you could have the chance?
You can do it now!
This is our secret weapon, the nuclear weapon that all countries are holding but only using as a deterrent, a last resort.
We understand that nobody is going to hear what you say if you don’t hold leverage, and a weapon in hand when you are in wartimes, thus we have 2 items that help you facilitate negotiations with your upstairs neighbor.
We call it the Noise Eliminator. You can call it the nuclear arsenal as well.
If you are looking to make noise to annoy upstairs neighbors or annoy your upstairs neighbor, here is something you can use to deal with your bad upstairs neighbor.
There are two items here, one is a super loudspeaker that could penetrate your upstairs neighbor, an airborne noise of sorts to give them a warning when they are noisy. A ceiling vibrator that vibrates the very floor of them.
The other item here is to hit the ceiling – A device that can allow you to control the speed of hitting the ceiling, from slow to fast. Believe me, this is ultra-useful as a weapon to facilitate your negotiations.
Just ask us, we trial test this in my apartment where I have an upstairs neighbor that does jump rope at 1 am every night. We don’t hear him anymore.
Conclusion
In closing, dealing with noisy upstairs neighbors can be an incredibly disruptive and aggravating issue.
However, there are ways to take back control over your living environment through reasonable, lawful actions.
Always start by communicating politely and giving your neighbors a chance to cooperate. If that fails, persistently pursue all proper channels for mediation, whether it’s management, authorities, or acoustic solutions.
Remain calm, document everything, and don’t retaliate in anger. With consistent efforts and noise reduction methods, you can successfully minimize the impact on your daily life. And you may just educate your neighbors on how to show more courtesy through a little mutual understanding. Focus on viable solutions rather than conflict.
Your right to enjoy peace and quiet in your own home is valid and worth standing up for. But do so with integrity and avoid hostile interactions that will only make matters worse.
In most cases, a satisfactory remedy can be found through open communication, smart soundproofing, and a dose of patience. You and your upstairs neighbors can find ways to co-exist in greater harmony.
Frequently Asked Questions
What the f*** are the people upstairs even doing?
Bad neighbors do crazy stuff. Activities include quarreling with the spouse, throw whatever the hands can reach. Drag the furniture all around the house for exercise.
Jump rope at 1am to piss us off. Stomping their feet at home to release stress. Since they are in an apartment where no one else can see, they do whatever things they don’t do outside. Those b**tards.
I was also a victim of a bad upstairs neighbor, until I created a nuclear arsenal for ourselves. I now share that with you. May the force be with you.
How to reduce noise from upstairs floors
If it’s airborne noises, treat your ceiling with acoustic fixtures such as acoustic panels or acoustic tiles.
They will help dense up the spots you treat and reduce noise transmitting through, though they mainly help with those second reflection points commonly called reverberations and echoes.
If it’s structure-borne noises, you will need to soundproof your ceiling. If it’s light impact noises you are experiencing, you can add soundproofing panels to your ceiling.
Covering the entire ceiling with them will help you reduce about 20dB of noise.
Full soundproofing of ceiling will consist of adding studs to your ceiling to create compartments, filling those compartments with soundproofing foam, adding resilient channels across the studs and covering the stack up with a gypsum wall.
How to deal with noisy upstairs neighbors
We want to be good citizens, polite as we are a human rather than an animal. We first start with negotiations with them.
If those are to no avail, we call on the building management and police to help us mediate the situation and be our witness should the need arise.
If those are of no use eventually, we protect ourselves by adding fixtures that can reduce the noise reaching us.
If everything we can do is done and those situations are still dire. We call on nuclear weapons to help us in our negotiation, deterrence is the key.
Can upstairs neighbors hear downstairs?
Usually, the upstairs neighbor cannot hear downstairs and that’s why it’s so hard to defend against them. We scream and shout and they can’t hear us.
Because sound travels in all directions. The screaming that you do is just a release of your stress, they are not affected by it.
If nothing else works, try striking back.
How to dampen noise from upstairs
We soundproof the ceiling. We can improve the mass of the ceiling by adding soundproofing wall panels, we can insulate the ceiling by installing the full ceiling soundproofing stack.
Depending on the level of impact noises you are experiencing, you can select the level of soundproofing solution you want to use.
Check out the difference between soundproofing and acoustic treatment
How to get back at upstairs neighbors
Don’t be childish, don’t use petroleum jelly to fill their keyhole. Strike back with ceiling vibrations and hit the ceiling with this.
I can hear every step my upstairs neighbor takes, what should I do?
You should be living in a very old townhouse where they split levels out to sell or rent to you. The only way you can do this is to soundproof your ceiling to defend yourself from the noise, or if it does not work, strike back.
How to ask your upstairs neighbors to stop stomping?
Ask politely with a negotiation. Defend yourself against their stomping by soundproofing your ceiling. Strike back if nothing works.
I can hear everything upstairs in my house, what can I do?
That is bad. Those b**tards want everyone to know their lifestyle. Defend yourself, and soundproof your ceiling. Strike back if needed.
Is it normal to hear footsteps upstairs in a house?
No, it’s not. The general standard that the building authority uses is the Sound Transmission Class (STC) of 55.
So the flooring should reduce sound passing through but unfortunately, that’s not a gauge.
Impact noises like stomping, jumping, and dragging of furniture needs another gauge, called the IIC (Impact insulation class).
So if you live in an older apartment, you are going to hear the footsteps. The best way is to soundproof your ceiling to defend yourself from the noise.
How to exercise in an upstairs apartment?
Thank you for being a considerate neighbor. To reduce noise going downstairs, you are going to need a soundproofing mat that is super dense.
What they do is that they absorb the shock from your jumping, and throwing of dumbbells on the floor.
How to prevent sound from traveling upstairs?
They usually should travel upwards as sound travels in all directions, only a portion of it moves upwards. If you are experiencing this issue, you can soundproof your ceiling.
Best device to record noise from upstairs neighbors
Just use your phones. They are pretty powerful now, even more, powerful than the first rocket built I heard. Such an amazing device, a godsend.