I had a second floor carpeted but the noise between the 2 floors is ridiculous. Is there a way to sound proof it? Thicker padding? Would I need to re-carpet? TIA

Maybe you already have enough sound-proof padding where more/better might be minimal STC ******ation vs max. dollars outgoing.

Sound not defined so top rated speakers & acoustic treatments above above could improve hearing the sound enough to prompt one to lower the volume in many cases. Sound is best controlled the closer to the source of it.
More padding all round above, taking parallel surfaces to askew reduced reberverations, padded furniture, etc.

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In the end, what you bought may have severe limits on sound control fixes after the fact but lesson learned and next time your build should include somebody with noise solutions before that hammers go a swinging.

Yeah, it's an older home. I wasn't there when they put the new carpet in. They said there was no sub-floor. Just boards. Said it's pretty common for older homes. The floors creak like hell too No easy fix?

I would love a solution for the heard of elephants that apparently run around our upstairs… I'll be following this thread for one.

As for the creaking floors, check this out…. No personal experience but it seems ingenious.

bam02 said:

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I would love a solution for the heard of elephants that apparently run around our upstairs… I'll be following this thread for one.

As for the creaking floors, check this out…. No personal experience but it seems ingenious.

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Is that safe for an old house with no sub-floor??? I thought about that trick.

I don't know how well they work but there are glues designed to help block sound. They'd be applied while replacing your sub floor.

In an already built home you're options would be limited to padding, specialy glues/materials, etc. If you have the space to create a floating floor that would probably be your best bet. That would require creating a raised floor that sits a few inches above what you currently consider to be the floor. You'd still have to deal with sound traveling down the walls.

In professional level home music recording studios, they'll often build what is essentially a room within a room, particularly for the room housing drum kits. Instead of ~5" from one side of the wall to another you may have 12" or more because it is essentially two ~5" walls separated by a few inches of space, plus a floating floor, floating ceiling, etc.

Edit: I skipped a few lines reading the earlier threads. tgi brings up another tool (not the only one, just one of several steps) which is to place acoustic foam strategically on the walls upstairs. There are options that don't look like crap.

If the main issue is creaking floors, ignore all I said and refer to what dubi suggested. Pull the carpet and at least screw the existing floors down a lot. Or add a subfloor on top of the boards. Make sure you glue and screw (oversscrew) the subfloor to the boards.

Creaking floors also?
There's a how-to-fix-it on "The Money Pit" that does not require pulling up the carpet.
Radio call-in show or on the web with past shows posted.

Squeaking floors are generally fixed by glueing AND screwing subfloors. Most of those are nailed by the builder. Pull them up, apply adhesive, and screw them down. That should fix that issue. If its an older house, replace. Likely not 3/4" plywood and some of the creaking is the bending of the wood.

As far as sound, Garrelli is correct about actual soundproofing. You need an open dead space to have truly effective proofing. More padding might dampen things a little, but won't actually eliminate it. Sound gets between the two walls in the open space and essentially stays there. Otherwise, it still moves between whatever materials are there -- wood, foam, metal, sheetrock, etc. Ever put your ear to the train track? Metal conducts sound more effectively in some ways than air. It isn't something you'd record but it exists and could be annoying. That's why just putting "stuff" between you and the sound doesn't work.