Noise in edwardian flats?

[robertinlondon]

I am considering buying a ground floor edwardian flat but am slightly concerned by the lack of sound proofing between floors - does anyone here have any experience of living in such a flat and if so, how much can you hear from the upstairs flat?

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[sidd]

I think you have grounds for complaint if they strip back to bare floorboards and bang around, but otherwise it is up to you to persuade them to insulate or soundproof.

At the end of the day, unless you are an OCD type, you will get used to it if you want to. You might get sound from below too. My sister used to hear the comings and goings of the downstairs neighbour in London, whose wife was in the country.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh gosh, you hear everything! And it's fascinating...

We were surrounded by 4 flats that shared walls with ours, a partially sunk flat in a Victorian terrace. As with the property you are looking at there was no sound-proofing. We were lucky that most of the neighbours were incredibly aware that their lives were lived in such a public way and consequently voices were hushed and washing machines only went on in the hours of daylight. It was a civilised, but ultimately uncomfortable experience of constant self-censorship.

The upstairs flat was particularly irritating because we could hear footsteps but no words, just the low murmur of conversation or the TV.

I agree you get used to it though, and when neighbours are nice it can be a very close-knit community experience.

 

[sidd]

There was the ground floor neighbour who was a crimnal barrister and a psychological terrorist; he forced the lovely girl on the first floor to have special sound insulation put in under her carpet... at her expense.

 

[Cloudscape]

I lived in a purpose-built Edwardian flat. It wasn't a conversion, but built as three flats. The floorboards and joists were just regular floorboards and joists, as in any house. You hear above and below what you'd hear in any house. Some people are naturally fairly quiet - others can't do anything quietly. I remember things like multiple footsteps above sounding like a fight taking place. A girl downstairs used to run to answer her front door. She was so heavy-footed, we called her the rhinocerous. :? Other things can drive you nuts, like bathroom fans, bathroom sounds :shock: and people's... erm... nocturnal activities.

We tried to put a couple off renting a flat below us in another building. We stomped about, had the vacuum cleaner and music blaring, and shouted to each other. It turned out that the guy had no hearing at all and the girl thought the noise was nice, and that it was good to feel the the building was occupied. So some people actually find the noise from neighbours comforting.

Some Victorian and Edwardian houses are flimsy. Others are really quite substantial. The build quality can make a big difference to what you hear sideways, through party walls. I made it a firm rule, with the two flats I owned, always to have the top floor. Thick carpets shut out a lot of noise from below, but you can't carpet ceilings to achieve the same effect upwards.

 

[MattW]

Until very recently I lived for 10 years in a ground floor and basement flat in a converted 1890s terraced house. The conversion was done in 1997. The floor above had a laminated wood floor laid on top of the floor boards. Contrary to what others have experienced, we rarely heard any airborne noise from the flat above (i.e. voices and TV) but impact noises (especially women in heels or people dragging dining chairs) was readily heard. Perhaps something to do with the construction with laminate floor sealing the airgaps between the floorboards?

The thing that I would warn you about though is the communal hall and front door, which presumably is next to your flat? The moment that people leave their own flat they seem to run down the stairs, shout on their mobiles and then slam the front door. However we only had 4 flats in the building and a gentle word to everyone soon reduced it (they had no idea, not unreasonably, about how loud it sounded in my flat).