Was soundproof underlayment installed correctly?

One of the most adored and famous American poets, Robert Frost, in one of his poems said: “Good fences make good neighbors.” Well, you don’t have to build The Great Wall of China around your property, but by respecting your neighbor’s privacy and boundaries you can maintain a good relationship with them. On the other hand, If you’ve ever lived in an apartment, you’re probably familiar with how annoying it can be to hear everything your neighbors do. Thanks to poor soundproofing, instead of heaving friendly relations with your neighbors you may end up hating each other.

Fortunately, today we have various sound abatement systems made especially to solve this distressing problem. In California and many other states, soundproofing has come a long way, from being a handy feature to an absolute necessity. A sound abatement system that’s been set up correctly can mean a world for tenants. It can provide them quality sleep instead of listening to their neighbor’s trashy playlist for the whole night.

So, let’s imagine this scenario. You’ve just purchased an apartment in a brand new building and you’re amongst the first tenants. It’s a state-of-the-art place with an incredible view of the city and has gorgeous hardwood floors, about which you had some doubts at first. Yeah, hardwood flooring looks magnificent but what about the noise? If all apartments are like mine does that mean that I’ll be hearing every step that my neighbour makes? You told that to the real estate agent, but she tells you not to worry since a sound control underlayment was installed underneath the wooden flooring. And it seems she was right as everything went very well the first couple of months.

As time goes by, more tenants are moving in, and the problems are slowly beginning to show. Your new neighbour from the apartment above has two dogs and it seems that he really lacs a habit of trimming their nails. It feels like The US Army is constantly marching above your head! And as if that’s enough, the person in the apartment below has a terrible taste in music but likes to listen to it 24/7, so you start to wonder if the selling agent was telling the truth about the floors being sound-proofed. One of the most important selling points was exactly the fact that the sound control underlayment was installed underneath the flooring. So what is happening? What can you do about it?
The contractor didn’t hire a qualified installer.
So if this unpleasant scenario happens to you, you should go straight to your landlord and check if the mentioned sound abatement system was really installed. He will probably know and tell you the answer, but in case he’s not familiar with whether or not it has been installed he should check with the apartment developer. Note that the faulty installation of sound control underlayment can gravely reduce the acoustic insulation value of the flooring. In other words, if you’re constantly hearing a noise coming from an area that was supposed to be sound-proofed, it’s most likely because the installer didn’t do the work correctly. Here’s a list of several common errors that lead to bigger issues:

The contractor didn’t hire a qualified installer.
Nailing down the sound underlayment to the subfloor (puncturing makes the underlayment ineffective)
Joints between panels are not taped. Forgetting to do this will result in sound traveling through the underlayment, negating its effectiveness.
Failing to make the subfloor flat will result in that annoying squeaky noise in the flooring.
Who can I turn to for help?
If you think that underlayment was improperly installed and you just can’t stand that excessive noise coming from the surrounding apartments, don’t worry, you can do something about it. Feel free to contact Flooring Detective and we’ll make an assessment of your issue. Nothing is obligatory – we’re here to help you and make sure you finally get that good night’s sleep!