Neighbour says floorboards are vibrating

last year

Hi all. We live in a converted terrace and my downstairs neighbour says my floorboards are vibrating and even causing one of their doorframes to vibrate sometimes. In my flat I don't hear anything so I've no idea what the noise sounds like, or how they can know for sure it's my floorboards.

Does anyone know what type of tradesman we'd call to have a look at this (we're in the UK) and in any case wouldn't they have to go into the neighbour's flat, not mine, to hear the noise for themselves and try to find out the cause?

Comments (6)

Daisy England
last year
How strange. I would be wanting to monitor that myself. Do you have a friend who could walk around your flat while you listen in the neighbours flat?
Sonia
last year
I live in a 1930s terrace, and when my husband goes upstairs I can hear him moving about. Some of the floorboards creak a bit but I wouldn’t say they vibrated. You will have to enter your neighbours house and get someone to walk around in your flat and see if you can hear anything.
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Thank you so much for all of your comments. OnePlan, you said what I fear (and what my mother would tell me!!) - the aesthetics of floorboards may be nice but the practicalities, not so much. I definitely think people are more likely to complain about being unable to sleep due to kitchen noise than the way a carpet looks!! I didn't know you could get a sound-reducing underlay so thank you for the suggestion, and to CreatePerfect for the link - that product looks great! Yes, I had thought that hard flooring would be easier to maintain as well as looking attractive (but perhaps that's more a case of new hardwood floors rather than existing floorboards??) Stephen, it's a good question. What concerns me is that in the sitting room (on the ground floor) I've discovered that the floorboards are the original Victorian ones and it looks like they stretch right across the house, under the internal walls, and I guess it'll be the same on the first floor. If so, presumably taking them up would involve sawing them at the walls, rather than just prising up, which would be very destructive... I could be wrong though, I've never done anything like this before and am learning as I go!!
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Lewis Carr
last year
Sounds like they're just moaning about classic 'walking around' noise. Unless it's related to your washing machine :/.

As said, get into their property and get someone to walk about and turn the washing machine on also. Don't verbally commit to do anything.

Noggins can be put between joists to make the structure stiffer and obviously when the boards are up for that you could put noise insulation under the boards. Not massively expensive but quite disruptive for you as you'd have to move everything around to get the boards up.

IF anything needs done, chippy/joiner/carpenter for noggins (and chuck insulation down whilst boards are up) and carpet fitter to refit carpet properly.
Jonathan
last year
I had this in a previous home…… I thought my dryer was pretty quiet but the reverberations were amplified somehow….. and in the neighbours flat it sounded like a jet engine!

You need to go into the neighbours property to better appreciate their claim and to help investigate what it could be.

Btw I put my dryer on a mat and it solved the problem instantly
MA
Original Author
last year
Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Definitely don't think it's the washing machine - we ourselves have an upstairs neighbor and it's very obvious when their machine's on. Our whole ceiling practically vibrates, as I'm sure does the downstairs neighbour's when ours is on.

The downstairs neighbour insists the noise happens when we're walking around,

I did offer to go down to their flat but they didn't take me up on it. Even if they did and I heard the noise, I'd haven't the first clue whatsoever about what it could be nor whom to call to fix it.

Before this flat we only ever lived in new-build blocks so I'm totally clueless in terms of what's normal for an old terrace like this.

Surely the most prudent thing to do would be to call a professional, have him go into their flat, diagnose the noise, and put together an action plan. If it means a fix through my floor, so be it.

Does anyone know what kind of tradesperson would be able to identify the problem?
K OB
last year
I think you need to narrow down the potential sources of noise first in order to identify an appropriate tradespeople as it could come down to so many different things. The fact that your neighbour hasn't taken you up on your offer to go down concerns me (as they may then not let a tradespeople in to assess the situation), but equally could mean it's not as bad as they initially thought.

Neighbour says floorboards are vibrating

Comments (6)

Daisy England

Sonia

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Neighbour says floorboards are vibrating

Comments (6)

Daisy England

Sonia

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Lewis Carr

Jonathan

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K OB

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MA
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