Noisy neighbors are annoying no matter where you live. There are plenty of suburban neighborhoods that host at least one particularly noisy household. Luckily, there’s a separation of some distance between you and the next house over, so these noises can often be avoided or ignored. What happens if you and a noisy neighbor share a wall? High rise apartment buildings house a lot of people – when living in such close proximity, is it even possible to not hear your neighbors? Are high rise apartments soundproof, or does one hear every little noise? Here’s my experience.
Are High Rise Apartments Soundproof? It Depends…
When we describe an apartment as “soundproof”, we usually imagine an apartment where zero sounds from the outside make it in.
With this definition of ‘soundproof’ in mind, the answer is most often “no” – the vast majority of high rise apartments are not completely soundproof.
This doesn’t mean that high rise apartments aren’t sufficiently soundproof to the point where outside noise is tolerable or even negligible. This comes down to the construction of a particular building, which often correlates with the age of the building.
There are many construction materials and assembly details that significantly reduce noise levels from outside the apartment:
- Insulation: If walls and/or ceilings are insulated, this will reduce the noise transfer from one apartment to another.
- Sound Barrier: There are sound barrier materials built into interior walls specifically for sound reduction.
- Exterior Caulking, Foams & Fillers: These materials are used when assembling exterior walls, windows, curtainwall, etc. to prevent noise, air and water from getting inside.
These are a few examples of construction materials that reduce noise in a high rise apartment, but they’re either installed during initial construction or through renovation.
How Can I Reduce Noise In My Apartment?
Assuming your high rise building is not constructed in the ways mentioned above, you’ll probably hear some noises – at least on occasion. So what can be done?
Below are a few ways we can soundproof our high rise apartment, based on where the noise is coming from.
Noises From Outside The Building
Exterior walls must be insulated by code – without insulation in these walls, there’s no way to regulate the temperature inside.
The majority of noise coming in from outside will come through windows, window assemblies or ventilator louvers.
Modern high rises feature insulated glass, which greatly reduces noise transfer. Not all buildings feature this, though.
There’s basically nothing we can do to modify exterior walls in our apartments, especially if we’re renting it. The same can be said for windows.
In turn, we’re left with a few options.
Soundproof curtains are an easy-to-install and affordable solution. Simply put up these curtains in front of your noisy windows and voila – the situation improves. They’re also great for blocking out light!
If you have an in-wall air conditioner or a sleeve for one, lots of noise can get through any gaps, along with heat, cold, etc. You can install an insulating foam around the unit to reduce this.
Neighbors Above & Below You
High rise apartment buildings are typically constructed using steel and concrete. Floor slabs are made with either concrete or a combination of the two.
As strong as these materials are, they don’t offer as much soundproofing as it may seem. Many floors (and therefore ceilings, too) are just a concrete slab – the apartment’s ceiling is literally painted concrete, while floors feature a carpet, wood or tile placed directly over the concrete.
Sure, modern (and probably expensive) high rise apartments may feature a drop-ceiling or some type of insulation. If so, great! What if they don’t, though? What if it’s just concrete?
I personally never hear noises from my neighbors below me – in fact, I’m sure they hear us when we drop something or when our cat scrambles across our wood-floored living room. I know this, because I hear similar noises from above us in rooms without carpeting.
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that there’s not much we can do to soundproof our apartment’s ceiling, except to install acoustic wall panels (mentioned more below).
The good news is that noise from above is unlikely to be all that disruptive. We hear sounds generated from impacts, but not voices or music. If you do hear excess noise from above, you can always try to speak with your neighbor or talk to your building’s management.
Next Door Neighbors
In the previous section, we mentioned that floors/ceilings in high rise buildings are built out of concrete and steel. Walls are a other story.
The walls that separate us from our neighbors are known as interior partition walls. They’re not so different from interior walls in a typical wood-framed house. Interior walls in high rises are most often built using aluminum studs, sheet rock and insulation (maybe).
As you can imagine, these thinner materials allow more noise to pass through them.
One of the apartments we rented had the cable jack and TV outlets along a shared wall. Despite our best efforts, our neighbor could hear our TV through the wall. We both had small apartments, so there weren’t a lot of options for configuring things any other way.
We moved out shortly after, so we never needed to take any action. I can definitely understand our neighbor’s annoyance though!
If the noise from neighbors gets too annoying, there’s a solution: acoustic wall panels.
Not only do acoustic wall panels help with soundproofing high rise apartments, but they’re affordable and come in many different modern styles. Here are some popular decorative panels to check out:
The best part about acoustic wall panels like the ones shown above, is that you can put them just where you need them. For example, if you’ve got a noisy neighbor near your bedroom. you really just need enough panels to cover that shared wall – you shouldn’t need to cover every wall.
Noise From The Hallway
When making high rise apartments soundproof, there’s one culprit that often produces more noise than anywhere else (in my experience) – the front door.
The reasons for this are simple:
- The door itself is not insulated in any way.
- There are gaps between the door and its’ surrounding frame (particularly at the bottom).
- People make noise in the hall – talking, jingling of keys, shutting doors, all that good stuff.
So what can be done? Well, the easiest thing to do is to buy a door draft stopper. Below is the exact one we have now. Just drop it on the floor so it blocks the bottom of the door! This will provide some noise dampening and stop drafts too.
In Summary
While your high rise apartment may not be completely soundproof, there are plenty of things you can do to prevent unwanted noise from disturbing your peace. Hopefully this article has answered any questions you may have!
