Sound proof

The sound conduction between the 2 apartments is horrible.  It needs to have something done so the plan has a few facets.

We will install clips and rails that separate the drywall from the ceiling joists with little rubber blocks. This is supposed to diminish vibration travelling between floors and cut down on sound. I hope it works as they're very expensive. We'll do 2 layers of drywall too

Another aspect is to install glass fibre insulation between the joists to cut down on different frequencies. This is a horrible job as the fibre gets out and into clothes, skin and lungs. Not nice. I spent an itchy 4 hours installing this stuff last night. Breathing mask and glasses help with the other symptoms

It has helped slightly. Conversation is less audible downstairs, but the dog thumping on the ground when he scratches is still loud. Let's hope the drywall and clips do their job.

Living room

Light can, insulation and clips

Water Pipe

It's a little dissatisfying to spend all that money on something you think you don't really need. In this case it was just a few more PSI in the water main, but it had to be done. The problem was that if you ran 2 taps, or water-using appliances together, the water flow seemed to halve.

That's one thing when it's just 2 people, but with it being a duplex we foresaw trouble if 2 apartments were trying to use water at once, so the main had to be replaced.

The problem was that the pipe was probably the original so about 90 years old and made of corroding steel. Consequently, the inside was tiny and looked like this:

The old corroded pipe

Time for a new one which meant digging a new trench in the front yard.

When they dug out the old pipe they found an inexplicable hole in the ground. It started about 12 inches under the surface, and ran down to nearly 5 feet. The plumbers were baffled and there was no sign of flowing water. I filled it in with dirt and gravel.

 The hole, and the old water pipe

The new pipe installed

Now we have normal water pressure. Good