How to insulate a room from one above ?

J

jumpingflash

New member
Hi !

I am building my own "studio" (that is more like my play-room :D) and i don't really mind of sound spilling trhu the perimeter walls as they all (but one) are internal walls just build with plasterboard, and one faces a garden ( so no neighbours around), but over me there's a living room of some people who i would not like to wake up too much...

I am NOT gonna play drums or trumpet in the middle of the night, but i would like to block sound as much as possible...

What can i do to do this ?

And does it help to cover the walls i just build with some sound proofing foam to avoid them transferring the sound to the ceiling ?

Thanx for any answer you will give me!
 
First, there is NO SUCH THING as "sound proofing" foam. That is a myth perpetuated by people who want to sell you lots of foam at really high prices. Foam, while not the best or cheapest, WILL help the room sound better - it just won't do anything to keep the sound from getting OUT of the room.

The only thing that works for sound proofing is MASS (12 foot thick rock walls are good :=) and air space. Design is more important than brute force.

Do you know what the ceiling is already constructed from, and how?

What is your approximate budget?

How much change can you make - do you own the place, rent, live with friends/relatives...?

How high is the ceiling from the floor?

And lastly, what are your carpenter skills?

Once these questions are answered, we can get started... Steve
 
You will most likely have to soundproof the entire room. Along with mass the next trick to soundproofing is an airtight seal. You can put a lot of mass in the ceiling but then sound can leak through electrical outlets and go up the walls, through windows, etc.
 
OK i own the place but i just did the walls with plasterboard and i am not really willing to tear everything apart :D

So... Can i build a lower ceiling ( sorry i am italian and don't know the exact word for it) and at least avoid the sound hitting the ceiling directly ?

Again i will NOT play drums or sax in the middle of the night, i just want to keep sound from going upstairs as much as possible...
 
jumpingflash said:
So... Can i build a lower ceiling ( sorry i am italian and don't know the exact word for it) and at least avoid the sound hitting the ceiling directly ?
Click to expand...

Sure you can but that may not help. You need two things for sound isolation MASS and an AIRTIGHT seal. One without the other is most likely a waste of materials and time.

If you are only doing vocals and acoustic guitar at night then you might be better off worrying about closing any air gaps. Mass is mainly to isolate low frequencies and without the airtight seal the highs will still escape.
 
What do you mean closing air gaps ?

Sorry i am really new to sound proofing...


SO there's nothing i can do in my situation to dampen the sound that leaks up ?
 
Sometimes it helps to think of a room you're trying to soundproof as if it were a submarine, you are inside the submarine, it is underwater, and you don't want to get wet, much less actually DROWN.

What Tex is trying to tell you is that the room needs to be COMPLETELY SEALED and have heavy walls, or there will still be sound leakage. Even if you put a heavy second ceiling in, (you must be very short, 2.7 metres is already very low) you would still very likely get sound traveling through the material of the walls, and up to the second floor, where it will radiate outward from the walls. Not as loud as downstairs, but annoying just the same.

It would probably help your understanding of sound proofing a lot just to read several of the threads here on that subject. The more you read, the more you will grasp what is necessary for sound proofing... Steve
 
jumpingflash said:
SO there's nothing i can do in my situation to dampen the sound that leaks up ?
Click to expand...

Nope.

You can make a room completely soundproof or not. You can't soundproof in one direction. You might be able to slightly reduce the leakage going up but there a 1000 different things that would make the whole effort fruitless. Knighfly has some good advice, read up and you will see what different factors are involved.
 
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