Is impact noise impacting you?
What is impact noise?
Impact noise is the transmission of sound via the connection of different Materials to each other i.e. Footsteps on a floor of a house. If there is lots of noise bring produced from above, you. This noise, mostly known as “Transmission Noise” is one of the hardest noise to stop.
Wood framing is very conductive of sound energy, so the transmission noise that comes from that person above you passes through Your ceiling drywall very easily and is rigidly attached to this vibrating framing, so once the vibration enters your ceiling, it goes directly to the drywall and then into your ears!
Impact noise that is caused by people running, jumping and dropping objects on the floor above your home or apartment, won’t just effect one room, but will probably spread to multiple rooms or even your whole house. Impact or “Transmission Noise” will be the strongest as it moves through the floor. When traveling, it will slowly reduce, this is the most difficult type of noise to stop due to the different ways it travels and comes through your ceiling.
How to reduce impact noise?
With impact noise, every treatment is different. We find different homes experience different impact noises due to the way the home was built. Due to many different techniques and materials used in the construction of the property. It is known that metal studs have less transmission noise than wooden studs. A home with wooden studs compared to metal studs have a higher chance of transmission noise getting to other rooms and going traveling farther than a home with metal studs.
The vibration of the impact noise causes the noise to travel throughout the ceiling and walls. Although installing ceiling soundproofing will absorb a high percentage of the noise at the source, we may also need to look at treating the walls and floors as well.
To reduce impact noise and vibration transmission you need to either stop the sound getting into the floor, out of the ceiling or a combination of both, by adding a Floating Floor or an Acoustic ceiling system.