Condos with Concrete Floors

A) Anything built after 1960
B) Don't be so sure concrete floors are going to save you from what you fear.

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David Goldsmith
DG Neary Realty

Sharise, why don't you soundproof the ceilings if you're concerned about upatairs noise?

All Ny'ers,be kind to your neighbors, keep your speakers off the floor.
No amount of concrete will keep the base away from your downstairs neighbor.
And there is nothing more annoying.

"Sharise, why don't you soundproof the ceilings if you're concerned about upatairs noise?"

Nearly impossible.

Alan, why can't you soundproof ceilings? Is it very different from soundproofing walls and floors?

Depends a lot on how high your ceilings are.

If they're over 10' how might one go about it?

you can insulate floors for sound -- which implies sound insulation for the ceiling on the floor below

I heard about someone (friend of friend) who bought in The Mill. a loft conversion . in Wmburg which apparently has irritating noise coming through the floors, which surprised me due to high ceilings and I would think it has concrete floors....

jim - old loft buildings have ceilings with wooden beams, and wood floors above- not really a whole lot of sound insulation, unless the developer put in soundproofing between the floors.

Height of ceilings doesn't really matter for sound transference

FYI - did a loft conversion, but from scratch, in Tribeca years ago

Old loft buildings very often did not have concrete floors.

bjw2103,

Overpriced recently appraised condo has concrete floors.

thanks ph41...interesting..i just sort of assumed loft = sturdy, thick, industrial, etc...but i really dont know , it was just a feeling, apparently mistaken

Concrete is not the only load bearing building material.

I believe the reference to high ceilings was relevant to adding a drop-ceiling below the actual ceiling which would lower it at least 6 inches. High ceilings alone have no effect obviously

concrete floors are great from keeping voices from traveling. if your upstairs neighbor walks in high heels in the middle of the night or like to run on their treadmill, only soundproofing will help.

Out of curiosity - is it super expensive to put in a drop ceiling with a sound barrier? (and i assume that is way more important sound insulation wise).

Granted I shouldn't have assumed old loft buildings had concrete floors...but if there was heavy machinery, as in many cases, wouldn't that at least have meant something much heavier than beams in an old residential building?. Is floor sound from above an issue in lofts often?

Sound travels (through the air or through solids) as vibrations. Supporting a building and stopping vibrations from traveling are two goals that are at cross-purposes.

The only way to stop vibrations is by providing a disconnect between solid surfaces. That means that every screw, nail, bolt, etc. needs to have soft mushy cellular materials isolating them from the wallboards, studs, beams, joists, floorboards, etc. Impossible by just padding the ceiling (they refer to that as noise abatement, and it only does so much); difficult enough when you have full access (mostly before construction) to the ceiling and the floor above it and everything in between.

I hate people.

sharise - there is only one way to deal with noisy upstairs neighbors, make sure they're pigeons.

Thanks alan. Interesting, intuitive. Anti-people.

I soundproofed a shared wall in my previous apartment (20 ft X 8 ft) and the total material costs were $250. The same materials could be used for the ceiling, it will just cost more to install. now they even have soundproof wallboard that could be added to the egg crate foam for even better insulation.

To do a "good job" soundproofing the ceiling of a 2,000 SF loft where you hired someone who was at least a little bit of an "expert" to do it would probably be a minimum of $30,000, and depending on the level of soundproofing (actually "soundproofing" is impossible, it's really "level of abatement") perhaps 5 times that.

Oh, and if you cut 1 hole in that dropped ceiling to, say, put in recessed lighting, you blow the whole thing.

____________________

David Goldsmith
DG Neary Realty