DIY sound proofing

Brian you have said much about insulating wall, but little about ceilings. In my case, i want to insulate the ceiling to allow as little noise to be heard by my neighbours upstairs. I live on the ground floor.

The solution im looking at is summarised in the link below:
http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/soundproofing/ceiling_rbars1.html

In your opinion would this be the best solution available for me?
 
sunama said:
Brian you have said much about insulating wall, but little about ceilings. In my case, i want to insulate the ceiling to allow as little noise to be heard by my neighbours upstairs. I live on the ground floor.

The solution im looking at is summarised in the link below:
http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/soundproofing/ceiling_rbars1.html

In your opinion would this be the best solution available for me?

hey sunama,

basically ceilings can be considered really deep walls, but with the added trouble of footstep noise - noise from things hitting the floor.

the new audio alloy site has alot of articles that are more helpful than beofre. http://www.audioalloy.com/understandingImpactNoise.php that addresses impact noise specifically (footstep noise), and the rest of the basic principles are the same as for walls, except you have a much deeper air cavity, and that helps things like resilient clips or resilient channel perform better at low frequencies.

the best solution is always to build a room within a room, but often that is impractical. the ideal case would be speerate wall studs and ceiling joists with a big insulated air cavity & double drywall + damping all around. to improve on that all you can do is add more mass/damping.

the problem is that this isn't always so practical... the next best option for ceilings are resilient spring hangers or resilient clips. those perform better on ceilings than walls as they have a deeper cavity to work with. resilient channel also works better on a ceiling than a wall for the same reason.

something like GG is compatible/helpful in all of those situations, and can make a very good ceiling by itself as well.

i do beg your pardon for rambling a bit, but i guess its easy to answer the question of "what is best", but so often that ideal is simply impractical.

so the best place to start might be with thinking over what's practical in your case for loss of height, complexity, costs and all.

good luck,

Brian
 
Since my last post ive discovered that my ceiling is suspended (new home, move-in tomorrow). I have a 13cm air gap. Hence, ive decided to first try filling this air gap with acousitic mineral wool.
http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/soundproofing/amw.htm

I will be ordering 100mm thick slabs, of 10KG/sqm density.

I will be attaching this to the ceiling joists, under which there will be a nice suspended ceiling. This option is going to cost me about £500 in materials. It seems to be the cheapest option right now and im hoping that it will reduce the amount of noise that my neighbours will hear when i watch my home cinema system.

The earlier approach of using a batten, resilient bars, plasterboards and green glue would cost ALOT more than this solution. I will keep u guys posted of my progress.
 
How about adding another layer of plasterboard with Greenglue and filling the cavity gaps with insulation
 
This would involve ALOT of work. I would need to dis assemble the existing suspended ceiling. Then fix a layer of plaster board to the existing layer of plasterboard on the ceiling. Then i would need to refit the suspended ceiling. All this for just one layer of plasterboard.

What i could do is cut planks of wood (plasterboard, say) that are exactly the same size as the existing ceiling tiles. Then green glue these pieces of wood to the ceiling tiles, then put back the ceiling tiles. This would give me from top to bottom:

1 layer of plasterboard (already in place)
1 layer of acoustic mineral wool (not yet in place)
1 layer of plasterboard (not yet in place)
1 layer of ceiling tiles (already in place)

This is something i could do with little trouble. Any good?
 
thats not a bad idea, sunama.

here in the US, National Gypsum sells drywall ceiling tiles (save cutting), and a suspended ceiling with a little bit of mass / air tightness does have good potential for isolation relative to a normal suspended ceiling.

that noted, i haven't tested a system such as that, and as such can't give alot of solid comments on how it will perform.

it would have to be sealed somehow for best results, you might also be able to seal the floor through the existing ceiling openings?
 
Great information in here. I am looking at a way of preventing sound transmission through a red brick party wall from my home theatre system and drum kit.

I expect to have to create a stud wall on the brick wall, insulate and then use a double thickness of plasterboard, sealing any gaps where cuts are made for sockets using acoustic adhesive/sealant.

Is this a good plan? Should I specifically use to layers of acoustic plasterboard or can I just use the normal stuff? What insulation would be best? Would the insulation you put in the loft be acceptable? Would it be better (cost/benefit ratio) to build a solid brick wall instead of a stud wall and put insulation between the two brick walls?
 
Accoustilly a solid brick wall would be better, but it will also need to be supported as it would be very heavy. Better off to build your stud wall separate to the existing wall, then face it with layers of plasterboard, the heavier and thicker the better.
 

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