new bar/rest.

[steve caravella]

new bar in a pre-existing space.  Wondering what the best insulation is to place between the floor of the upstairs bar and ceiling of restaraunt. Approx. 1000 sq. ft area with a 12" space between floors.  Any help would be appreciated.

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We suggest Flame Retardant Cotton Fibre between the joists in the ceiling area.

Then a layer of 1/8" thick Mass Loaded Vinyl over the joists and a final layer of 5/8" fire code dry wall.

No canned lights or recessed lighting in the ceiling.

This will offer you substantial sound reduction.

Take a look at:/http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/natural_fiber.htm.

[johnbergstromslc]

Cotton is at least $590 more per 1000 sq.ft. than fiberglass, cellulose, or any other kind of insulation.  You'll have to decide if the marginal (read: tiny) performance gains are worth the price.  

It would be better to first focus your resources on hanging the ceiling resiliently.  If you put 2 layers of 5/8" drywall on drywall furring channels, combined with the SSP clips (sold on  this site) and did some good sealing, the type of insulation you used would hardly mattter.  Mass, decoupling and sealing are MUCH more important than relying on tiny differences in performance among insulation options to quiet your space.

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The FR Cotton, Mass Loaded Vinyl and Dry Wall suggested solution has been received in the market place with excellent results.

That solution is less expensive than a solution of Sound Clips, Hat Channel, Mass Loaded Vinyl and Dry Wall.

It requires more labor $ to install the Sound Clip approach as well as cost of materials.

Both approaches give excellent results.