Soundproofing your condo/ apartment ceiling

The first thing you want to do is talk to your neighbors, here is an excellent article on the subject Noisy Nuisances: What are Your Rights? and another Nolo Law Noise FAQ. To sum this article up talk to your neighbor, write a letter to your neighbor, ask for mediation, call the police and finally sue your neighbor. You would probably like to avoid the last two solutions.

I found it helpful to keep a noise diary of all the noise my neighbor made. I also bought a sound meter of eBay so I could measure the amount of noise they were making, this may be a little extreme. However, I wanted to make sure I was not being overly sensitive.

If your past the love thy neighbor stage you can try a white noise generator or sound conditioner. In my bedroom, I use an air cleaner, it makes plenty of white noise. I learned this trick while attending college, where I bought myself a big window fan and it drowned out everything including the fire alarm (bad).

If you can, try to tackle the noise from above. Offer your neighbor to help pay for new flooring. Of course you will want to lay down some type engineered product(s)to absorb impact noise and block airborne noise. You could try Impact Acoustical Floor Treatments, Ekasonic, Subfloor Plus Foam, Impact Line, Kinetics Sound Rated Floor System, QuietWood, QuietFoam , or Green Glue. The above products are part of a system, so read the fine print, other materials may need to be used to achieve good results. But before you start laying down underlayment, be sure to read this information from SoundProofing America Soundproofing Wood and Tile Floors, flooring information from Super Soundproofing and Dealing With Impact Noise. Also, do not forget high quality thick carpet padding.


If you can, try to tackle the noise from above. Offer your neighbor to help pay for new flooring. Of course you will want to lay down some type engineered product(s)to absorb impact noise and block airborne noise. You could try Impact Acoustical Floor Treatments, Ekasonic, Subfloor Plus Foam, Impact Line, Kinetics Sound Rated Floor System, QuietWood, QuietFoam , or Green Glue. The above products are part of a system, so read the fine print, other materials may need to be used to achieve good results. But before you start laying down underlayment, be sure to read this information from SoundProofing America Soundproofing Wood and Tile Floors, flooring information from Super Soundproofing and Dealing With Impact Noise. Also, do not forget high quality thick carpet padding.

First, some information on structure noise from the Specifications Construction Institute, Noisy Neighbors, and the Institute for Research in Construction.

1. Use Resilient Channel and MLV (Mass Loaded Vinyl). This usually requires that you have open studs. So if you already have an existing ceiling in place this may not be your best choice. More information on this type of soundproofing can be found at the following websites: SuperSoundProofing Company, and Soundproofing America.

2. Your going use Sound Clips/Isolation Mounts and in most cases they will connect to flurring channels. There are several of these types of clips on the market: Aero-Support, Super Sound Clip, and Springers and Hangers. More information on this subject can be found here: SoundProofing America, and SoundClips Vs. Resilient Channels.

3. Soundproofing an existing ceiling with mass loaded vinyl. You will want to attach
flurring strips to the existing ceiling and attach the MLV to the strips as outlined here: Mass Loaded Vinyl Installation.

4. Soundproofing an existing ceiling with mass loaded vinyl backed with foam. More info on this procedure can be found here: Decoupled Mass Loaded Vinyl for walls and ceilings.

6. You can also increase the effectiveness of any above methods by replacing the sheetrock with an engineered pre-dampened sheetrock product. You could either use QuietRock or Supress.

7. The most interesting and promising method of soundproofing your ceiling is using The Green Glue Company's Green Glue. This product is a viscoelastic dampening material, basically it can convert noise and vibration to heat. See my other posts about Green Glue and download the Pratt School of Engineering's paper of QuietRock vs Mass Loaded Vinyl. QuietRock also incorporates an viscoleastic dampening material. You can use Green Glue for existing or new ceilings. This method also requires less labor and is less expensive. Check out these articles Upgrade Existing Floors and Dealing with Impact Noise.

For some additional thoughts and info on Green Glue go here: Green Glue SoundProofing, , The Green Glue Revolution, and check out the Green Glue thread at AVS Forum sign-up required.



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