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My bedroom in this apartment is above the living room of my neighbor. I just moved my bed to the opposite wall today because of his TV noise. Now i hear the muffle of him talking because i believe my bed is above where his sofa is. I never really heard muffled voice before.
I have a thick heavy as hell area rug under my bed but it doesn't cover the whole bedroom obviously. Just about 2 feet on all sides of the bed. I even let it run up the wall some on the side of my bed and behind the headboard.
I'm thinking of possibly buying plywood OSB and putting it under the area rug would that help? And even buying some drywall to put against the wall with maybe 2 screws to double it up. I'm not concerned with leaving a few screw holes this landlord doesn't care i will fill them when i leave.
There is nothing that is going to be that effective other than potentially white noise for yourself to hear, rather than the 'downstairs neighbor', and possibly using some inexpensive flooring of foam like those children's playroom large multi colored pieces of foam made into a flooring mat which could provide minimal sound relief and serve as good protection for whatever furniture you have when you get fed up enough with the noise and move.
PS KnwldgBuilder is sarcastically referring to having your downstairs neighbor cease being.... thus no noise at all!
One other possibility that may help is to determine if some of the noise is due to sharing a hvac / chase type system (vertically). For example, if you have what looks like a cold air vent return (don't know whether you are in high-mid rise apartment or garden style) - what you could try is creating your own sound barrier with simply cardboard cut to size of vent(s) and encasing it in duct tape and then tape it over the vents where noise is coming from with masking tape.
Last edited by ciceropolo; 03-15-2017 at 10:09 PM..
Reason: additional
I'm now thinking about laying cement tile backer board like hardibacker down on top of the carpet and taping the seams then putting my large area rug over that. Shouldn't damage the carpet it will fluff back up with running the vacuum.
Had a small apartment building with nicely refinished Hardwood Floors and Mini-Blinds... the noise transmission was bad.
Changed it to floor to ceiling heavy drapes, heavy carpet with commercial padding the the difference was night and day... just like Movie Theater with the fabric covered walls.
I used to hang pretty comforters or thick drapes on the walls to help muffle sound.
Styrofoam insulation might be a better thing to put on the walls than another layer of drywall. You can get it pretty cheap, about $13 for a 4x8 panel. It doesn't block out all sound but it definitely reduces it. It's not heavy either.
That extra-drywall sounds like a really smart idea. Maybe try earplugs....Hearos are soft and once you get used to wearing them, they do a pretty good job.
I have Douche-Bros a couple of doors down....and of course they have the obligatory apartment-stereo that blasts the rap-music....maybe I will give the drywall a try.
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