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We use our lower level home for airbnb.
Our dining area is guest’s bedroom with no window, full concrete, hence the sound is amplifiying.
Mostly in guest’s bedroom where the thumping noise is a bothersome.
Have 2 guests complaining and gave 3 and 4 stars because of it.
Since we just started, our rating is 4.7. It is so hard to get up there
This is what we did to improve the situation with no avail
Double the insulations specifically for noise reductions
Putting carpet all over the dining and living area where we are
Provided disposible ear plugs
We are tip toeing while walking
Please anyone can give a subtle wording around this problem?
Cause we cannot change the flooring when the season is starting.
I have a similar set up my dining/living area is above the guest bedroom and I have wooden floorboards without insulation since it was originally one home. I put down carpet as the cats have an annoying habit of running around at 3am when they are locked in. I also wear headphones at night so they can’t hear my tv and I can’t hear there’s. But some guests still complained about a thumping sound like “someone was bouncing a ball or something”. Many years ago when I was in hospital for 7 months I noticed a regular thumping sound like a ball bouncing on the floor above me but it was single story building. And then in a later apartment where it occurred in the morning and afternoon except on Sundays when it was later in the morning. It took me a couple of years and a clever physicist friend visiting from America to work out it was, in both cases, cars driving over the metal grate in the car park hence kthump-kthump. In the case of my downstairs guests I eventually worked out when I heard it myself that it was the cats trying to get out of the locked cat flap and they kept hitting it with their paws wondering why it wouldn’t open.
So all I am saying is that the thumping may be something other than you moving around upstairs. Maybe next time ask them what time it occurred and how frequently. And tell the cats to knock it off, or else.
We had the same issue and actually had contractors drop the ceiling to put in more insulation in the bedroom (and also carpets upstairs). They also removed the lights in the ceiling and put in wall sconces only to further limit sound. Helps greatly.
If the whole house is concrete, it’s probably the carpet that did the job. The ceiling won’t do a lot, since the “contact” sound travels from the concrete slab (floor-ceiling) to the concrete walls (or columns), who in turn will act as a loudspeaker.
@ana2
The best way to sound insulate, is to prevent the concrete slab (floor-ceiling) from vibrating: For this you should first put a softish insulation on top of your current floor, and put a new “floating” floor on top of this. The new floor can be laminate, wood, etc. … The new floor may not touch the old floor at any point, and should not make direct contact with the walls either. A tick carpet can serve as insulation and floor.
The other, more difficult way, is to put a box-in-box in the guest room. This means doubling the floors, ceiling and walls with sound insulation behind each element. This is an expensive and difficult undertaking, so option 1 is your best bet.
Not too many concrete houses in Boston. Land of forests and wooden houses with beams that carry sound from floor to floor.
We insulated between the third and second floor to reduce the amount of thumping we heard from our then teenaged daughter. Glad we did since those rooms are now the AirBNB rooms.
Sounds like Europe perhaps. They build the homes like that to withstand bombs, due to the past wars. I lived in a home in Belgium that had double cinder blocks for interior walls! This house didn’t creak or thump at all!
Thanks for the info, unfortunately can’t do it now since the busy season just starting. It will be our project in slow season.
In the mean time, any “nice” wording to tell / warning guests?
One or both of you must walk with a heavy heel because if you were truly tip toeing around, there would be no “thumping.” The tip toeing is not being done correctly.
I cannot come up with “nice” wording to inform and warn guests about the thumping noise they will hear from above but it should at least be mentioned in your listing rather than waiting until guests arrive. If a couple of guests have mentioned the noise in their review, the chances are it will become a common complaint ~ which is bound to affect your rating.
If you cannot address the structural modifications for the acoustics in the near future, then you need to focus on other methods of adjusting your actions and movements to reduce sound more effectively when guests are in residence.
“As this is our home, you may occasionally hear footsteps, furniture scraping on the floor, and other sounds of daily living from above. We observe quiet hours from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in order to minimize any disturbance to our guests. We have also provided a white noise machine for your use. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.”
Yes, that is perfect. Also practice walking more quietly. I have had to do it myself. Spend one night below so you can tell which things are making the noise. For example, I figured it was always my TV that bothered the most, and kept it at a volume under 13 when guests were in. But after staying below one night, I realized the loudest thing was my dog eating her dinner and dragging the plate around the kitchen floor! Then the bang of the plate for a biscuit! I could not even hear the TV even on loud.
If you disclose in advance, maybe in the other things to note section, you should be covered.
I feel obligated to point out that in many jurisdictions, it is against fire code to have a bedroom without a window. The window needs to be a certain size in order to be used for evacuation if necessary.
Your realtor might have given you bad information. In many North American jurisdictions, every bedroom needs to have a window of a certain size so that people can evacuate in case of fire or other emergency.
There is no nice wording to address the problem. The problem is that you may not be able to use that room as a bedroom, because depending on your jurisdiction, you may be in violation of the fire code.
When I first got into property managing, I did a lot of remodeling. The upstairs/downstairs units would be a nightmare to rent out and keep rented, with high turnovers. My father and I would attempt to limit the noise, by adding a 2" floor we designed together, but would basically be a floating floor, not connected to the subfloor below it. It worked somewhat. But the layers involved a rubber sheet which was specifically designed to dampen noise, and sold all over the internet. Then we would lay down something called Luan? (I may be wrong on the name…) but it is a very sturdy 1/4" thick type of plywood. On top of that, would go an underlayment for laminate floor, then the laminate floor.
Like I said it seemed to help, but not completely. Any sort of building material connected to the subfloor will transmit noise. For this reason we do not list units which have an upstairs/downstairs configuration.
We do townhomes though, and the sound can be a challenge there as well. I find that an extra layer of 5/8" sheetrock, and some electrical outlet extenders offer a moderately priced solution to this problem!
Thank you for so quickly made that judgement about my agent.
Here in Ontario, it requires 1 egress window as I said before.
I value human life over money. And your comments is not helping
