Soundproofing Bedroom Ceiling in Condo

[Josh L]

My bedroom in my condo is directly below my upstairs neighbors living room, and that neighbor has hardwood floors. Needless to say, there is an excessive amount of noise, both dogs barking and footsteps. I've decided to have the existing ceiling removed to have soundproofing installed. My problem is, I do not believe there is enough room in my bedroom to lower the ceiling sufficiently to allow for whisper clips and a hat channel (the existing ceiling is almost touching the window frames); so, it seems like the drywall is going to need to be applied directly to the ceiling joists.

In this scenario, what is the best thing I can possibly do to reduce impact noises from the upstairs neighbor as much as possible? Thanks for your help!

[Randy S]

How much room do you have to work with? we do have a technique to improve the reduction of footfall but you need to have at least 1 1/8" from the bottom of the joist.. without decoupling in some form you might not be satisfied with the end resits..

let me know.

Randy S.

[Jeremy F]

depending on how the ceiling joists are run, the depth(2x10 or 2x12), and the span it is possible to achieve what you are looking for.  do you know the joist depth and the longest span in the room?





Jeremy Feigen
Accurate Construction LLC
847-876-0201
www.accurateconstructionchicago.com

 

[Randy S]

what would the joist depth or span have anything to do with decoupling from the structure?

Unless your trying to interleave new joist beams and if so they would have to be mounted to new wall framing that is not tied into the existing ceiling structure.

[connerrules]

I recently bought a 1st floor unit of 2-family condo, knowing 15-yr-old twins live above me, so as part of the renovation,  I ripped the ceiling, place insulations and sound board + sheet rocks. Now the renovation is done, I moved in, and I am suffering from their constant stomping noise from the unit above. I don't hear talking or TV noise (thanks to the sound boards) but unfortunately it doesn't dampen the impact noise (particularly footsteps).  They are heavy footed and I believe they have hardwood floor with no carpet.  They wake me up 5:30 every morning.
By reading other posting, it seems like I should have installed resilient ceiling but I didn't know at that time.  Is there any way to dampen the impact noise without taking down the brand new ceiling?  The building is 90 years old and there is a lot of squeaking noise too.
Any advise is appreciated.

[Randy S]

Sorry to be the one to tell you, but the only way to reduce impact is to decouple from the structure using clips and channel or resilient channel. So you would have to take the ceiling back down. Or address it at the source side which does not sound like an option for you.
Just adding materials to the existing ceiling will not reduce the impact because you are screwing the new sheets back into the structure creating the path that impact sound takes.
Feel free to give me a call if you have questions.

Randy S.
760-752-3030 ext 104

[connerrules]

Thank you for your commend, Randy even though it's a bad new.  It's a shame to take down the new ceiling I just installed and going through the construction again..   I simply cannot redo all the ceiling, but I probably can do the bed room only.  Given the fact that the sound travels 5 ways, how effective is it?  Does it make sense to fix the bedroom ceiling and not the adjacent rooms?

[Randy S]

We have a lot of clients that address 1 room to have peace and quiet...doing the bedroom ceiling would give you a descent value of reduction. You would have some flanking noise but at a much lower value.

[connerrules]

Thank you Randy.  That's what I will do then. My contractor doesn't have any experience with installation of the resilient ceiling.  Is this something he can do?  Where can he buy the materials?  Or should I hire a specially trained technician?  If so can you recommend one?  I live in MA.  Thanks!!

[Randy S]

Give me a call and lets discuss.
Randy S.
760-752-3030 ext 104