Installing a soundproof ceiling (video)

Installing a soundproof ceiling

This video from Rockwool North America demonstrates some principles of soundproofing a room from upstairs noise. They're using Rockwool (Roxul) Safe 'N Sound batts -- a dense, fire-retardant product that insulates for sound much better than fiberglass, and is flame-resistant.

I'll add two more suggestions here.

1) Before you add the batts, affix a layer of drywall with Green Glue (and a few screws) to the backside of the upstairs subfloor. This should add some mass and dampening to the footfalls from above. This means cutting a length of drywall to fit against the flooring, between each ceiling joist.

2) Use a dual-layer soundproof drywall, not just any drywall, for the ceiling itself. A single layer of drywall -- even though it's hung on the resilience channels -- will still not be as effective without further mass or dampening. Look into QuietRock or Supress drywall.

You can buy Rockwool (Roxul) insulation from Amazon, Lowe's, and Home Depot.

Here's the video!

Comments

Blow-in cellulose and your hollow walls

It's not too late to insulate. A few years ago, most American homes had no insulation in them. When a homeowner did insulate, it was usually with fiberglass batts. Then along came some better products. One of them is blow-in cellulose insulation. Does it work? I can attest to this: YES. I've used it in walls and ceilings, and it works quite well for airborne noise. If you live in an uninsulated home and you hear your neighbors voices coming through your walls or ceilings, cellulose will dampen that noise or mute it entirely. It doesn't work for all types of noise. But it doesn't eradicate impact noise. You might still hear the sounds of someone walking across a bare hardwood floor with their shoes on, for example, or hear wall-mounted cabinets opening and closing. There are other solutions for that, and by combining different solutions you can control most structural noise and create more privacy. Low cost Blow-in insulation is inexpensive. You can hire a

Combining QuietRock and Green Glue together

Two great products work great together. As I've mentioned before, I'm experimenting around with ways to reduce some of the noise problems in my apartment on a tight budget. I think I've found the best combination to date: adding a layer of QuietRock 510 over an existing layer of gypsum drywall with a layer of Green Glue inbetween. This was sort of the best of both worlds: taking a pre-made, sound-dampened drywall and then adding it over a powerful, viscous layer of glue....onto drywall that was already on the wall studs. No demo needed. In this project, I basically added two sound-dampening layers to the original 1950s drywall (one layer in the QuietRock and the other layer created by the Green Glue) to address " flanking noise ": feet, furniture, and shoes pounding on the bare floor of my downstairs neighbors' apartment. The amount of banging, bashing, and foot-stomping sounds coming from their very "wooden" apartment has been severe, and I&

Example from Roxul: insulating a home theatre room

I liked this video from Roxul because the presenter clearly explains the difference between the two types of noise: airborne and low-frequency noise, which I will add to here. The lower frequencies travel through the wood studs. A low frequency travels from your wall surfaces, floors, and ceilings if they sit directly on those studs. Lower frequencies include bass from your stereo, impact sounds from walking or pounding, trucks driving outside, and maybe the spin cycle on a washer. Roxul insulation mitigates the other kind of noise -- airborne noise -- which can include talking and TV (without bass). This insulation product is dense and does a really great job of blocking airborne noise. However, used alone, it doesn't stop low-frequency noise. The presenter shows how to insert Roxul batts between the studs, which you've seen before. Then he installs a resilient channel to keep the drywall from touching the wood studs. The resilient channel's job is to reduce the lo

soundproofing for urban people

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