You’re not really sound proofing after the fact. Some people just aren’t meant to live underneath others.

LOL!! the floors above you are probably just about a billion nails short of your fix. Buy ear plugs. They work. My sister declares herself Sleep/ EPD......ear plug dependent.

What is the construction of your condo. In Los Angeles - above a certain number of floors, there is no wood framing in floors or ceilings. I am not a construction expert but I wasn't aware that cement was used for subfloors in a wood framed lower rise building. I am in a high rise so subfloors (and ceiling) are concrete and all construction is metal framed and concrete.

I was on the Board of my condo for many years and dealt with sound issues on a constant basis.

As others have posted, it would be difficult to diagnose the problem on the internet and all people have varying levels of annoyance from noise. Some people complained constantly - and literally when we knew the person above them was not in residence for an extended period of time. Some people above have different life styles - i.e. if you are a 9 to 5 person who goes to bed at a normal time you are probably going to be disturbed by someone who is a night partier or who even brings high heeled women home at night :-). Some people wear slippers or soft shoes or no shoes when they are at home.

I would address the problem at the source, the floors themselves. Also, Flents Quiet Please ear plugs are quite good.

7-ways-to-silence-your-squeaky-floor

Concrete topping over wood joists is quite normal in Canada in low-rise buildings. We see this quite frequently. The fix: everything vs. nothing.

As you have guessed, the issue is UNDERNEATH the concrete. And to get at THAT layer your upstairs neighbors have to remove everything, jack out the concrete and then "fix" whatever needs fixing (sigh....guess how many times that's going to happen? Zero). And because the problem is your problem (it bothers you, not them) you will have to spend all the time/money investigating this issue.

It is *possible you can rip down your ceiling (yep....throughout the ENTIRE condo) and investigate the problem from BELOW. I'm going to guess this isn't going to happen either (cost is going to be WELL over $15-$20/sf to remove, repair and replace ceiling).

The fix that you could attempt without having to investigate the actual source would be to have a drop down acoustic ceiling installed with proper isolation channels and acoustic drywall/ceiling tiles. It is possible to do this for about $10/sf.

If you have UNTEXTURED ceilings, it is *possible you can use GreenGlue+Acoustic drywall to create an acoustic barrier that will offer another 36 dB of insulation (5/8" acoustic drywall = 18 dB of insulation; GreenGlue sandwiched between the old ceiling and the acoustic drywall = 18 dB of insulation). This can be done for about $7/sf and will not lose ceiling height.

My personal favourite is a "white noise" machine for the bedroom. The simplest option = fan. $15 from Home Depot. And no I am not being facetious. I am offer a cheap, simple (and often effective) solution to a sleep problem. White noise machines will do a tremendous amount for your sleep. Once you get a few months of decent sleep (yes...it takes that long to pay off sleep debt), you will begin to feel better about where you are. And eventually, if everything goes well, you will stop hearing the noises from above.

All for $15. This would be my first stop. You can always add more materials to your ceiling and remove money from your bank account if the $15 fan doesn't work.

SJ wrote a pretty good synopsis of your options. If you don't mind a kind of industrial appearance, you could also try covering the ceiling with mass loaded vinyl. This is similar to the stuff that luxury car makers use to quiet down their vehicles. It's a pretty effective add-on noise blocker.

MLV is available in 4x8 ft sheets and on rolls of various widths and lengths. The 1/8" thick MLV cuts noise transmission by around 10dB at 100 Hz and 35dB at 4000 Hz. The 1/4" MLV gets you about another 10dB at each frequency. I've seen 1/8" MLV for well under $2 per square foot, but that doesn't include shipping or installation.

I agree that white noise is an easy, inexpensive workaround. However, I personally prefer the subtractive barrier approach when I have to sleep through noise. By that I mean earplugs. I buy the ones that provide 32dB of noise reduction and come in packages of 50 pair.

Ear plugs and a noise machine are your options I think. I grew up in apartments in NYC and have lived in apartments/communal housing a majority of my life. Rule #1--get the top floor. When that's not an option, ear plugs and noise machines come in handy. There are even "white noise" apps for your phone.

My mother always insisted on no shoes in the apartment and to make a conscientious effort to not stomp or make loud noises for those living below. Years after I had moved out, my mother still lives in that apartment and is gone at work during the day. Neighbors living below her would complain that there was loud noise coming from the apartment--while she wasn't there. Needless to say, the maintenance fellas came around and found nothing. I know YOU know when you hear the upstairs tenant walking around, but unfortunately, that's the nature of communal living. If you lived in a house with family, you'd hear them upstairs while you were in the basement. Just the way it is.

We started using a noise machine for my son when he was a baby to mask the sounds in the townhouse we lived in. He still uses it and it helps to mask the cats meowing for attention or sudden noises that would wake anyone. I use ear plugs :)

Good luck!