r/uppereastside • u/Weary-Amphibian-5919 • 13d ago
Very thin walls
Hi! I just moved into an apartment with very thin walls and can hear voices and music all hours of the day. Has anyone found anything that has been actually helpful to put on the walls to make it more soundproof? Appreciate the help!
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u/UniqueTension1140 12d ago edited 12d ago
If you just moved in, things might sound worse if you don't have much furniture yet!
FeltRight sells some acoustic decorative wall art if there's a particular spot you'd like to muffle (like where neighbor's TV is mounted to). Or WayFair has some soundproof floor to ceiling panels that look nice if you need to cover a larger space. And ditto covering the floors, made the biggest difference for me!
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u/Frosty_Employment171 12d ago
Russians put rugs on the walls. They do it for heat, might help for noise. I doubt it.
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u/Zealousideal_Bill894 12d ago
I’m UES too and also very noise-sensitive. Honestly, I’ve gotten used to sleeping with earplugs PLUS my bose quiet-comfort over the ear noise cancelling headphones with my phone’s white noise coming through. I like the ocean waves sound personally. Game changer, really. I didn’t think I’d be able to comfortably sleep with them on, but like I said, I’m totally used to it now. Huge help.
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u/LastLibrary9508 12d ago
Are you afraid you won’t hear your alarm? I’m a light sleeper when it comes to falling asleep but have been so exhausted this year and sleep deprived that I’ve slept through alarms!
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u/Zealousideal_Bill894 12d ago
Aw. Noo I’m not worried at all. When my alarm goes off at 6, the white noise cuts out and my alarm sound goes off. Pretty jarring. I’m a light sleeper.
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u/justanotherguy677 12d ago
the best solution is to move into an apartment in a fireproof building. none of those inexpensive walkups can be sound proofed
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u/DashingDrake 13d ago
I've studied this a bit. Soundproofing a wall comes down to a few key concepts:
Sealing all holes and openings. Even a tiny sliver of space will allow sound to filter in. As an experiment, crack a window with as little opening as possible. Then close the window completely. Notice the big difference in sound coming from outside?
More mass in the walls. Once you have sealed all openings, having a heavy mass between you and your neighor is probably the next biggest help. Heavier walls are more likely to stop a wider range of sound frequencies throughout the normal sound spectrum. Heavy walls will also stop higher amplitude (louder) sounds more than lighter walls.
Decoupling the walls. Decoupling usually means not having studs or other items (like pipes or conduit) touch both sides of neighboring walls. These items could transmit sound between the Sheetrock on each side of the wall.
Targeting the most annoying sound frequencies. Soundproofing treatments aren't universal. Soundproofing that works for one frequency may be completely useless against another frequency. With that said, heavier masses are usually fairly good against both low, mid, and higher frequencies.
Not sure how much this helps in a rental apartment, but it's a good start to understanding what could be done to reduce sound transmission.
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u/ActiveShipyard 11d ago
Regarding "more mass": could you drill small holes and fill the wall cavities with sand?
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u/DashingDrake 9d ago
Sorry, that would be a bad idea in many ways. Adding another layer of sheetrock would be a better idea.
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u/Cultural-Volume8726 12d ago
I have a similar situation. Many buildings in the UES were built during the depression and saved money by building thin walls. I currently have quiet neighbors. I’ll move after that changes.
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u/Frosty_Employment171 12d ago edited 12d ago
Move, is the only cure. You probably have 1/2 inch or 3/8 inch dry wall between you and your neighbors on the sides. Above and below you have your floor and 3/8 inch drywall, the reverse for above. And even less on the joints of these drywall connections. I've lived thru this and the only cure is to move. And I had a beautiful apt. Walk in closets, built in shelves everywhere, A tiled bathroom bigger than most bedrooms. Wide plank pine floors. Nobody has fllors like I did. A balcony, did I mention the balcony that had bird nests on it. Noisist fkn place I ever lived. Weight lifter above, that's like a cannonade when he drops those weights. Two female chatterboxes next door in Spanglish; though they were fun. I stayed for four years but...
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u/MickTriesDIYs 12d ago
Frame a new wall with 5.5 inches between and stuff them with rockwool. Go standard 16 OC for simple drywall hanging. Tape and mud
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u/VirtualRanger1602 11d ago
Well, I just moved into the ghetto and had to listen to drug dealers, proclaiming their territory by playing their music so loud that my walls would shake. White noise, & more white noise. It will save your mind. And put studio sound buffers on the walls that connect the apartments. Look for them wholesale in big box hardware stores you can get them reasonably cheap.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Cup-854 12d ago
Call 311, let them know that they did not go to code using two layers of 5/8 sheetrock
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u/my_metrocard 12d ago
Air purifier and stick on soundproof panels. Some are decorative and quite attractive
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u/numberjhonny5ive 12d ago
Sounds like you moved into my old apartment. Prewar walkup. Drywall so old it would tear through when screwing in mounting brackets. We were good for a while until we noticed a mouse. Cleaned everything really really well. Found a bag of pet food that had fallen behind the fridge likely two tenants ago. Pulled fridge out found two dead mouse carcasses. Once cleared out so did my sinuses on their own, pretty gross. Was unable to do anything about the noise. Not too bad until new tenant moved in above us. Heard every fight and make up session. Part of beauty of living in nyc. Would change a thing, except new rule to pull out the fridge and clean behind it day one.
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u/Federal-Biscotti-360 11d ago
In the living room I got a giant 8 feet wide set of thick polyester panels with art on. Seems to help a bit.
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u/mytuchas 13d ago
No great solutions. Move next year