2nd floor noise and smell woes

[Jorabi]

I own a 2-family house ... I live upstairs and rent out the downstairs. I removed all the carpeting on my floor due to allergies. My entire flat has hardwood floors that need refinishing badly.

The problem is that noise travels too easily between floors. Besides my footsteps and my/their entertainment/talking/sex noises, my floor also squeaks and clicks a lot.

The second problem is that smells travel from the 1st floor up to mine. They smoke and cook a lot.

I can't think of any options for quieting the noises ... I can't get to the floor joists and I can't put screws through the hardwood from above because I don't plan on covering it again with carpet.

I also can't think of anything for the smells ... will sanding and refinishing my floors stop them?

[Mikepier]

I used to own a 2 family house, only I lived downstairs and my tenant lived upstairs which was carpeted. I still heard movement up there, despite my tenant was a single woman. You are greatly going to amplify your sound if you leave hardwood floors. And I don't think finishing the floors will stop the smell problem either.

[Joe]

Think about taking up the hardwood floors and upgrading your subfloor. With the joists now in view you can deal with the noise problem with suitable insulation. Reinstall/repair/refinish flooring as needed.

It's your house, right? Put in an outside-vented range hood and some type of air purifier on the heating /AC system. Explain to your tenants (pleasantly) why this is necessary.

Remediation as above may not be cheap, but it won't be a financial disaster either. You'll need to carefully choose your tradesmen for the work, multiple estimates, etc. Keep in mind that that the lower apartment upgrades mean that the rental should refect the inprovements in a modest way. In the end, you'll find that it was money well spent on a win-win situation. HTH

Joe

[Edwin Pawlowski]

First is the smoking. Next time make it a strict non-smoking apartment. Probably too late now to change existing tenants.

Squeaks can be stopped. Since the floors will be re-finished, drill a countersink hole, screw the flooring, put a plug on top. Once sanded and finished, it will not be visible.

As for insulation for the noise, it may be possible to put a laminate with some barrier between that will help, but I don't know for sure. Maybe talk to a flooring expert.

As for the odors, there are many paths for them to get into your space. Seal around piping, ducts, etc between the two floors. It may not be perfect, but should get a lot of the odors. Get the a range vent also. They may appreciate that, especially knowing it keeps the landlord happy.

[HeyBub]

Reinstall the carpeting.

Go to the doctor and get shots for your allergies.

[Teo2006]

[Jorabi]

No, I'm sure it seeps up to me directly through the floor. I could not smell any cigarette smoke until after I removed the carpet, and before I did that, I could always smell smoke inside my washer/dryer closet (which never had carpet). Then why did I do it, you ask? I forgot about this before I removed the carpet because I used to smell smoke in that closet two tenants ago (they smoked), then one tenant ago was when I removed the carpet (they didn't smoke), and now the new tenants smoke.

Lesson learned on renting to tenants that smoke. I didn't know they smoked until after they moved in. Next time it will be in my ad.

I think I am going to go with something like another poster said ... I will forget about refinishing these floors since they are in bad shape anyway. I will drive screws throughout the entire floor from above, then I will install a noise-deadening, non-porous mat that will also seal out odors, then install a new hardwood floor over the top of that.

Thanks to all for your input!