noise insulate ceiling

[svouts]

Hi,
I want to noise insulate my ceiling from the flat above. The major problem is in the bedroom; I can hear the neighbours’ conversations from upstairs and cannot sleep well. It is a Victorian conversion and the bedroom on the back is a later extension. The bedroom does not have high ceilings so I am thinking to insulate the space above my ceiling and under the floor of my neighbours upstairs.

I am thinking to remove some parts of the ceiling board, between the beams, and stuff the space between my ceiling and the floor upstairs with insulating wool.

Will it work? Any recommendations on other techniques or materials?

PS: there are no spot lights (downlights) in the ceiling…

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Are there any power cables though for socket outlets, showers, ovens etc..?
As this will be effected by insulation.

 

[catlad]

If you can do it build a false ceiling.

 

[svouts]

I am not sure what lies over the ceiling. For sure there is a cable for the light lamb.

I would prefer not to add a false ceiling since this will lower the height of the already low ceiling.

I was thinking to cut small halls 30 x 30 cm in the ceiling between each pair of beams. Then push with a custom made broom stick some loose-fill insulation. The beams height should be 6-8 inches, so I can stuff quite substantial volume of insulating material.

 

[joe-90]

You need to insulate the floor in the flat above. Once the sound vibrations are in the structure you can't get them out again. No-one has ever come back into this forum and told us they've sorted it. Will you be the first?

 

[mointainwalker]

Then push with a custom made broom stick some loose-fill insulation. The

Playing at insulating as you are suggesting will make no difference at all. You might as well put a paper bag over your head to stop the noise.

Even if you took the ceiling down and stuffed it completely with fibre-wool, the difference would be small in my experience.

If you are serious, this will entail quite a lot of work and several hundred pounds of costs ( if you do everything yourself )

Do a search on here and read lots of the threads. thre have been one or two who said their efforts made a significant difference so look what they did.

Is their bedroom carpeted as this makes a big difference. Someone bought a carpet for their neighbours as the most cost -effective solution.

Joe. There was someone within the last year ( I think )who said they had considerable success with comprehensive fit : resilient bars, new separated ceiling joists etc etc

 

[joe-90]

I didn't see it.

 

[svouts]

I must say that I aim to reduce the noise from conversations and TV. Impact noise from walking or closing the doors with force I know it is harder to insulate.

 

[Lymnol]

Do you own your place or rent it? And do the people above own or rent?

The most cost effective solution is to add some kind of sound proofing to the floor above. If that's not possible, then the only way to really go is to pull down your ceiling and go from there. It's actually a lot of fun pulling ceilings down - very dusty though.

It really depends on how much the noise bothers you compared to how much you're prepared to spend to stop it bothering you.

 

[svouts]

The flat above is rented and I am not sure if the owner would like to put some floor sound insulation.

 

[svouts]

I mostly aim to reduce airborne noise. I am going to remove the ceiling first and put insulation between the floor beams. I will not remove all ceiling but part of the ceiling so I will need something flexible to fit between the beams.

I have found two products, with similar price per m2:
100mm URSA Acoustic Insulation Roll, glass mineral wool, Density: 22 kg/m3
100mm Earthwool Acoustic Roll Knauf, glass mineral wool, Density: 10kg/m3

Will the first one, with the highest density be the more efficient?
Anyone that has used either of the two?
Any other product recommendation?

PS: That will be the first step. If the sound insulation is not sufficient, I will move to the next step adding second ceiling with sound insulated plasterboard suspended by resilient bars.

 

[Lymnol]

You need to go for insulation with the highest density, but the higher density the higher the price. And you need to make sure the stuff you get will stay up their, rolls of loft insulation won't. You need to get the slab material, which can be cut to size.

Rockwool RW45 would be the minimum you would need to use, though, if you could afford it, RW5 would be better, with options in between.

There really doesn't seem any point in partially removing your ceiling and stuff bits of insulation in, as it won't be effective, you really need to take it all down, and deal with what issues you find, there may be wide gaps in the floorboards above, which you can seal with acoustic sealant or bits of wood if their really big.

I'm currently doing mine, and have got as far infilling the joints with rockwool, and am currently counter battening it with 50mm battens because the joists were uneven. I'll then attach resilient bars and, all going well, put up a layer of acoustic plasterboard 12.5mm, and possibly and second layer with green glue in between the boards.