Stopping neighbour noise in a flat: what works first

Step one: identify the noise

Stand in the room and listen properly for a few minutes.

• Voices, TV, music, bass → airborne, usually through the shared wall.
• Footsteps, chair legs, doors, thumps → impact, usually through the floor or ceiling structure.
• Both → very common, and it changes the plan.

Work out which before spending anything. Half of all disappointing soundproofing jobs treat the wrong surface.

Step two: the cheap wins

These will not solve a serious problem, but they are worth doing and cost very little:

• Seal service penetrations — socket boxes, media plates, extract ducts, pipe holes through the party wall
• Seal the perimeter gaps behind skirtings on the shared wall
• Fit soft-close on shared-stair doors if the freeholder allows
• Add mass to a hollow flat entrance door, or replace it

Step three: treat the surface properly

Shared wall. An independent frame that does not touch the existing wall, dense mineral wool in the void, two layers of acoustic plasterboard with staggered sealed joints. Costs you 75–100mm of room width and, done properly, drops neighbour speech and TV below the level you keep noticing.

Ceiling. Resilient bars or acoustic hangers, dense wool in the void, layered acoustic board. Losing 50–70mm of ceiling height. If you can get to the floor above instead, an acoustic mat under the finish is more efficient — but in a flat that usually is not yours to touch.

Step four: check the flanking

If a treated wall makes less difference than expected, the sound is going round it — through the floor, the ceiling void or the perimeter. In a flat this is common, and it means treating two surfaces rather than one. A survey establishes it before you commit, rather than after.

Leaseholders

Check your lease before starting: fixing anything to a party wall, and changing floor coverings, are often restricted. We are used to working within those constraints and to producing specifications freeholders will accept.