It will be the strongest as it moves through the floor.
How to reduce impact noise from floor.
You can manage the levels of impact noise by altering and padding the surface of the upstairs floor.
Impact noise is what you get to experience when your upstairs neighbors are moving furniture or dropping items on the floor.
Here are some tips.
Impact noise travels freely through a structure and through air pockets.
This is the most difficult type of noise to stop due to the different ways it travels and comes through your ceiling.
Footsteps on the floor of a house if there is lots of noise being produced from above you.
Even heavy footsteps can create a considerable deal of impact noise.
Impact or transmission noise is like the epicenter of an earthquake the epicenter being the point of the noise.
There s no need to fully carpet the floor as even a selection of scatter rugs will help.
For mass a standard technique when soundproofing a floor is to put down one or more layers of mdf or osb.
To keep floors from squeaking place interlocking flooring tiles over your existing floor to reduce the impact that causes it to squeak.
For impact noise this is worth the tradeoff because the decoupling element is so effective but it s unnecessary and undesirable in soundproofing a floor if airborne noise is the only concern.
The best way to protect reduce impact noise is to stop it at the source before it has a chance to travel.
Once you have located the type and source of the noise you should consider talking to your neighbors about it.
Let s start with the floor.
Impact noise on the other hand comes from feet stomping the floor loudly or an object falling on the floor.
Impact noise cause vibrations that are transmitted through the ceiling into your space.
If noise from downstairs neighbors is coming through your floors your first step should be to add carpeting to help dull the sounds.
The best product for handling impact noise is carpet and a thick pad underlayment.
Try placing thick rubber floor mats underneath any appliances in the room like televisions washing machines or stereo systems to reduce the noise they emit.
This noise commonly known as transmission noise is one of the hardest to stop.
The diagram below illustrates all the pathways that impact noise travels through when a ball hits a bare floor.
When traveling it will slowly reduce.
Impact noise like footsteps on the hard surface floor above you is one of the most common and most challenging forms of noise to deal with.