Condo Association Management Blog

Have you looked into how to build up the walls of the units? 
 

First check your bylaws and covenants on your ability/procedure for placing fines on owners/residents for violations. In FL there is a pretty strict procedure in the statutes for warnings, then a hearing by non board members, then a fine, for example. The police are only going to show up and talk to the people, no enforcement unless there is damage and other circumstances. 
 
 
 
I think you have the right to get floors covered but again check your governing documents and the laws/statutes in your state before you start making new rules.

In most states there is a Condominium Act. Download a copy for your state. Within that law there are proceduires that must be followed for amendment of by laws and for the establishment of rules. To establisj rules on noise iseasier than amending bylaws. The Rules establishemnt requires a majority vote of the unit of council owners while a bylaw change requires a 2/3 majority vote from the council of unit owners. 
 
Your noise abatmnent rule can be anything your council approves.

Require noise insulation installation in the floors before or after sales are permitted. Concrete and brick are very good transmitters of sound, something that the 3 little pigs didn't count on. Carpeting helps. As far as the walls are concerned, there is sound insulation, but getting installed after the fact will be tough. 
 

In NJ there is a sound law which takes into consideration high sound levels using a device that measures decibels and unless someone is jumping up and down on the floor and screaming at the top of their lungs having high TV levels there isn't much that can legally be done.  
 
Poor and old construction is prone to having hearing bad sound levels where even a door being shut or walking can be heard by their neighbor. Fining your neighbors for walking on their floor is a bad idea. Asking them to have rugs is a start but jumping to putting liens on someones property when their legally under the decibel limit is criminal on your part! 
 

Due to the age of and construction of the property, sound control was not a consideration. The two types of sound you are describing are STC Sound Transmission Class and IIC Impact Insulation Class. Sound transmission class is airborne sound created by appliances, speakers, and occupants of the space including animals. ie speech and barking. STC ratings are impacted dramatically by the placement of furniture, carpeting, curtains, and any other sound absorbing items. IIC sound deals with foot fall and the movement of items located on the floor. IIC ratings are the hardest to increase, control, and isolate in older construction. New construction codes require sound control as a complete system of the building envelope. Many HOA/Condo associations are adopting minimum requirements for sound control and are specifying what products can be used as a part of a renovation.

Not only can you "build up" walls with a new type of sheetrock that is made for soundproofing, but there are similar approaches one can do to a ceiling. You will only have to drop the ceiling about an inch or two - hardly noticable. You must however use the special materials designed for "acoustical treatment." There are companies that specialize in this and it is common for older buildings that have shared walls between tenants.

In answer to the original question, I believe Ron on July 5th gave you the best answer with the special material designed for acoustical treatment. I think the first and second level of the building should put the acoustical material on their ceilings. In today's world, asking someone to cover their wood floor with carpeting is really not a valid suggestion since carpeting today is out of style. 
In response to your mention of fining, get that out of your head or you will be living a horrible life in your condo. Fining is only done by honest intelligent people when it is needed after many attempts to collect a debt. Fining is done very easily by some very stupid board members who probably will not give the fine money to the association but share it with the other corrupt people that are on the board and with the management company. Our PM had our corrupt condo lawyer make up a lien against a deceased person and our PM took that lien to a closing and collected $3,750 from the lawyer at the closing. This amount was for burned out light bulbs that occurred after the school teacher passed away and before her condo was sold. I know who purchased that condo and the PM was definitely at the closing. . The deceased school teacher's sons live out of state & didn't go to the closing & probably don't know this horrible PM stole $3,750 from them. Who fines someone who died because they didn't replace their burned out light bulb...if in fact that is even the truth as this PM gives out fines for perfect working light bulbs because I got 2 of them. I'm sure our financial records never has shown an intake of the $3,750 or the $1500 that the PM collected for fines. If your well trained canine runs from your car in the driveway to the front door, you get fined here. Why would a decent human being want to fine a neighbor especially when there are only 6 people living in the condos. Don't you want to be friendly with your neighbors? Life only happens once so enjoy it and laugh a little and be tolerant. Some of the most dishonest people ran our condos and fined people $500 a day to get plans in for a patio that was already installed...the owner paid the association $1500. Can't believe it.....that isn't even the worse thing our horrible management company has done as his wife who is the PM changed items in our condo with ones worth 1/10th the price which is against our bylaws because a vote was never taken and because items can only be changed with equal or better items so the price of our condos isn't run down. This was done to condos worth $400,000 and the items put in were $200 economy items made for Home Depot and Lowe's. Of course, this could never happen unless our board okay it and I know that we have the worse president who was voted off the board and his friend who was the president at that time threw the new person off and put his corrupt friend back on the board so they can ruin some other condos by replacing items that do not need to be replaced for a conflict of interest only. I'm sorry for adding my additional statement but I just can't believe people do things like this to their neighbors and I am hoping someone can let me know if things are this bad where they live.