A condo owner called me to tell this story. She has a problem with toilet flushing noise from the apartment above her, which wake her up at night.
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She has already soundproofed the ceiling in her washroom, but the plumbing noise is just as bad, as illustrated in this example video.
Botched flushing noise remediation
This is how she told me the flushing noise remediation was done:
Figure 1 - Wrong pipe insulation
Figure 2 - Green board (ineffective)
The condo owner paid a hefty sum to remediate the plumbing noise, which did not fix the noise problem. She was very distressed when I told her that to fix the noise properly, she would have to start over and pay for a new renovation.
Many people in a similar situation ask me, as she did, if I can add something to the ceiling to fix the problem. I refuse to do a patched-up job. The soundproofing must be done correctly from the start for a satisfactory noise remediation.
What is wrong with the soundproofing job?
Here is a partial list of the errors:
What to do to remediate the flushing noise?
Some of the steps that must be done are:
A correctly done job is not much more expensive than a botched job. If you want the soundproofing job done right the first time, don’t trust a contractor’s advice; hire a soundproofing consultant before renovating. His fee is a small fraction of the total job costs and ensures the job's success.
For examples of other soundproofing jobs botched by contractors, check this article for duplex soundproofing and this article for office soundproofing.
If you suffer a similar flushing noise, or any other noise or soundproofing problem, get a quote for consultation from the author.
