Soundproofing a Ceiling
Soundproofing a Ceiling
Hello, everyone. For the past few months, I have been renovating my father's basement, building an apartment for myself. The water, electrical, subfloors, and walls are in. All that really remains are the Kitchen Sink, the kitchen floor, and the doors. (And the bathroom, but thats another can of worms. And the ceiling.
I have been going back and forth on the ceiling for a while. I have been resisting drywall, and my dad is dead set against it; there is a lot of infrastructure down there that would both make it difficult to install, and needs to remain accessible. Furthermore, its only 8feet to the joists, so losing half an inch is kind of a problem. I had considered leaving it alone. I really liked the exposed look, and was even looking into Joist Shelving.
The last few weeks have proven to me though, that I really need to soundproof the ceiling. There is an entire cottage industry on youtube based around recommending soundproofing products. I had one handyman recommend streamer foam, which is different from accoustic foam (apparently!?), Ive seen people recommend Green Glue, and then someone else say, you get the same results with carpet glue. I see some people say Mass Loaded Vinyl could be useful, and then some one else say its expensive and supplemental (but might still be handy for pipes and HVAC). I was looking at sound proof blankets, and the big blocks of Styrofoam insulation they sell at home depot. I was considering hiring someone to install a drop ceiling.
Does anyone have any insight that might help me? I have nothing up in the ceiling currently. I have no real issue mixing and matching solutions, although I am somewhat still resistant to drywall ceilings.
Avoid using something not intended as a soundproofing foam as a soundproofing foam. Many things that should work "good enough" have extremely bad behavior in a fire, and can make a bad situation so much worse.
I'm no expert, but I've had a small amount of training in audio engineering.
What you're after depends on what kind of sound mitigation you desire.
Sound PROOFING is generally one where you want to prevent sounds from passing through one room to another, creating as much silence as possible. Usually intended for a space that will be producing large amounts of sound for extended periods of time, like music. This is expensive, and they offer booths of various sizes to accomplish a portable solution, which is also expensive.
Sound absorption is the typical method of sound mitigation, whereby the installation of various materials / construction reduces the reverberance of the room's flat surfaces, making it now hospitable to daily life
This link is good for further explanation: https://www.acoustiblok.co.uk/soundproofing-materials/
If you desire the latter, typical household "installations" can easily mitigate standing waves in a room: carpet / rugs, curtains, furniture, paintings, wall rugs / scrolls, plants, etc.. These all mitigate higher frequency sounds, reducing the reverberance of the room.
Again, not an expert. Though it seems you might want the former, and hopefully the above link will be useful.
what about packing something like mineral wool between the joists? – provides insulation, a modicum of sound dampening, leaves pipes accessible, and is fire resistant
there’s also rigid forms like wood fiber insulation* that are much more aesthetic with fewer health risks but I don’t know where they rank on fire resistance …
* wood fiber insulation shown at 10m10s mark – Youtube / Piped
No real experience with it, but what kind of noise it the main problem? Is it like a wooden floor and the steps on it? Your parents could just wear some soft slippers in the house 😆
Maybe some foam hidden by some hanging tapestry? If you put some chain of small LED lights behind, it might look quite cool in the evening.
The main issue that there is noise passes basically unimpeded. My living space is directly under my sisters room. She can hear my phone conversations. I leave videos on softly to fall asleep to, and the straw that broke the camels back was one woke her up in the middle of the night, and she had a big test in the morning. I certainly dont need her to hear me when Im jerking off.
I guess I should mention, due to the placement, there is a hot air register that passes between our rooms.
I have used Homasote 440 for walls, and it works great. It can be used on floors as well, but I don't have any experience with it in that situation.
What kind of sound do you want to soundproof? Is it the walking sounds or voices/music/TV?
Sounds like walking will travel through beams, walls etc and are best to be taken care of on the floors in the room above.