The human ear is a remarkable creation. It can hear pleasant things like music or the sound of nature as you take a walk down a peaceful path in the forest, but our ears can also cause us irritation and can actually keep us awake at night.



If you live in a lower condo or apartment unit, you know exactly what I am talking about. The constant sounds of the upstairs neighbors as they “elephant walk" across their newly installed hardwood floors. They have no idea that their careless walking is an absolute Hell for the people down below. To the person living below it is as though the rude upstairs neighbors are actually residing in their apartment or condo.

Privacy is something that is very scarce in this busy world we live in. We no longer live in a 4-bedroom ranch in the country, but rather have a 2 bedroom in New York, which is situated beneath a bar that stays open all night long.

What can you do to get some peace and quiet? Will soundproofing help? The very word soundproofing is very misleading, if implies that if you install some magic material on yours walls and ceiling that all the noise will simply disappear. I wish this were the case but it is not. When approaching a sound reducing situation you should have realistic expectations. I generally let my expectations match my wallet, if you catch my drift.

In setting realistic sound control goals, lets try to reduce the noise to a tolerable level.

The good thing about the human ear is that it is able to adapt to noise, all we need to do is convince the mind that the noise is not an issue.

If you have those loud elephant walking neighbors above, there are many things that can be done to your unit below. One is to float your ceiling using sound clips and furring channels. Actually if you can lose 3" of ceiling space and are willing to remove the existing ceiling drywall or plaster, floating your ceiling on the sound clips might be your answer. In a nutshell, the sound clips and furring channels isolate your ceiling joists and the sub floor above from the new drywall ceiling below. You can learn more about floating a ceiling on sound clips and furring channels by going to: http://www.soundproofingamerica.com/neighbors.asp there you can read about sound clips and furring channels.

Now if you are not in the mood to demolish you entire ceiling but still want a degree of silence from above, I have a simple solution for you. This system would require the installation of another layer of drywall that would be installed directly atop of your existing drywall, however, this second sheet of drywall will have a product called “Green Glue" applied to one side of it. I would recommend applying 3 tubes of the Green Glue to every 4’ X 8’ sheet of 5/8" drywall. Two tubes will be effective, but three tubes would be better and lets face it, you only want to do this one time, right? Once the Green Glue laden drywall is screwed in over top of the existing drywall, you will simply tape mud and paint the finished layer if drywall, it is that simple. To learn more about the Green Glue, go to: www.greengluecompany.com and read about this remarkable product. If you wish to purchase Green Glue, come to the people who know soundproofing the best go to: www.soundproofingamerica.com Thanks for reading and learning about soundproofing your condo or apartment from the neighbors above. This is Dr. Bob….Out!!!