The Construction Performance Guidelines I work under say this: "FLOOR SQUEAKS Acceptable Performance/Condition Floors shall be free from squeaks caused by movement in the floor system connections under normal loading conditions. Warranty One-Year Work and Materials . Squeaks resulting from normal shrinkage of materials caused by drying after construction are excluded from the statutory warranty. Action Loose connections causing floor squeaks shall be repaired." Of course, your warranty may be different. But you also may be covered by statutory or case law. Hopefully, it won't come down to that. As a builder, I often face the same kind of thing. The trade tells me he doesn't know how to do what I want done. I respond, "that's not my job. You 're the expert. I am sure you can use your years of experience to figure it out." That certainly would apply here.

most older homes do not have solid enough floors for tile without additional support.

You can certainly invite them back to take a look at the grout and to ask their professional opinion on why the grout crumbled. It would give them an opportunity for remediation. Three months is well within the window for a call back. Or you can simply demand they come back if that's your preferred method of communicating. Your choice. ...who fixes?" The tile guys should be able to trouble shoot why the grout crumbled. If they did all of the work (framing through tiling) then it certainly falls under their umbrella of responsibility. If someone else did the "wood work" and they simply did the "above wood work", then you'll have to wade through that. "Why would this just start now when the floor was installed over 3 months a ago?" Could simply be seasonal changes; humidity, wood swelling/shrinkage, etc. The squeak indicates movement of one material against another. The crumbling grout indicates movement. "Is this going to happen again because of the squeak? That's why you want to eliminate the movement. If you simply repaired the grout, then yes, it's likely it would fail again. The squeak is usually movement within the subfloor or within the floor framing. It can be a friction sound; wood-on-wood, or a fastener moving against the wood. Once in the crawl space the cause can usually be identified. It may take a few tubes of PL adhesive and a bit of reinforcement to stop the movement. It's very much an on site diagnosis and repair, and problems of this sort are not uncommon where new construction is married to old. All that is assuming the plywood, heating mat, ditra, and tile were all installed correctly. If, for example, they used a tile backer board like cement board within that floor sandwich, and they simply nailed the cement board over the plywood without using thinset to bed the cement board on the plywood, then it's possible that the movement is coming from within the floor sandwich. Perhaps a nail let loose and when you step on the floor, the nail is moving up and down within its hole in the plywood, and that friction is causing the squeak. That vertical movement within the floor sandwich, even if minor, can cause rigid grout to powder, crack, or crumble. That type of spot repair can be made, usually by removing tile and making repairs in that specific spot. The hope in that case is that your problems are isolated to that one area and they don't show up in other areas of the floor.

There must be special windows that help. I was in a very nice restaurant in the city right on the boulevard and you could hear nothing. Lots of windows. Double paned does not seem to do that much. Walls. Attic. (Materials and insulation.) Berms and trees to absorb. You need an acoustics specialist. There should be some near a big city. Don't rely on a regular contractor even if they say they install acoustic control materials. It is a highly technical field and you really have to understand what you are doing and follow specs very carefully or it is pointless People who design media rooms often get into this sort of thing. This post was edited by snookums2 on Tue, Feb 25, 14 at 9:28