It really depends on what kind of building you live in, how it was constructed. I've never been aware of my downstairs neighbors in previous apartments, but my current building is hammered together like a barn, with no dampening. If you've ever heard the sound of someone clomping up a flight of wooden stairs, you know that impact noise can go up as well as down. You'd be surprised how many people have contacted me about downstairs neighbor noise!
Glad it was useful. We did this exact project in my building, and although it was excellent at blocking noise transmission between floors (like talking, snoring, etc.) there was this one glitch with the impact noise from downstairs. It wasn't because the project was done incorrectly. It simply couldn't address all noise paths with just one solution. However, the rebuilt ceiling --with extra mass inside the cavity against the subfloor, plus mass-loaded vinyl, insulation, metal channels for the new drywall, and soundproofed drywall instead of regular 5/8" gypsum -- was very very effective for everything but this one issue.
Very interesting video. Is it ok to skip on the resiliant chanel / decoupling method If my sole interest is to reduce only airborne noise and not impact noise? I have an integrated garage with a bedroom upstairs and would like to reduce noise leaving the garage to bedroom upstairs and outside the house. I'm not at all bothered by impact noises transgerring from upstairs joists to the garage/Workshop below. Would it be sufficient in this case skip on decoupling and instead fill between joists with Rockwool RW3, use 2 layers of acoustic plasterboard, leaving a 5mm edge around the walls to fill with acoustic sealant? Aside from that I know that the weakest link will be the garage door. Thanks in advance.
So, unless you're running a lot of loud mechanical equipment in your garage for a prolonged time that would be disruptive to the rooms upstairs, I assume that the garage door probably goes up and down infrequently every day, and usually not at night when someone is trying to sleep. And you're right, a decoupled ceiling in the garage probably won't do much about the vibration from the door, because that noise travels through the whole building frame, not just the ceiling. I would probably do what you're thinking of doing. I assume your garage is simply a garage for storage and car, and not an ADU. No one is going to live in there or sleep at the garage level. Right? Rockwool insulation, two layers of drywall (and I recommend making one of them QuietRock), and acoustical sealant is probably sufficient in this case.
@@soundproofist I mainly use the garage for storing the car in the winter months and the odd DIY woodworking with some powertools. My main focus is to prevent the noise from disturbing neighbours as opposed to my family around the house who won't mind the DIY if its going to benefit us haha. I am looking at replacing the up and over door garage door with an insulated sectional one to address that issue. I was hoping that I didn't need to go as far as decoupling the cieling for my occasional DIY. P.S the house is detached but I'm just keen on keeping the neighbours and my noise at a happy level. Many Thanks
I live on the ground floor of a new build apartment block. I have no neighbours other than the apartment above me. My apartment has solid concrete flooring built on a ‘block and beam’ structure. My concrete flooring is topped with wooden flooring. My walls are plasterboard. My ceilings are solid concrete. I’m a music lover, but have respect for my neighbour. I never play my music much above 85db and never play it late at night. My substantial floor standing speakers are decoupled from the floor, using isolation podiums. As a matter of interest and experiment, I once turned my music up to around 100db. Stood in the corridor of the apartment immediately above me and couldn’t hear a thing. Do I ever hear any noise from my neighbour above me? Being ground floor, I don’t have a balcony. Being 1st floor, the neighbour above me, does. I do hear when he opens or closes the heavy sliding doors to his balcony. I do hear it when he drags furniture across his hard floor, if it is furniture he’s dragging across the floor. The apartment block is gas free, so all electric. Economy 7! I do hear his washing machine when it reaches 1800 spin speed in the early hours of the morning. I occasionally hear his music, on a summer’s evening, when he comes home from the pub, turns it up loud and sits out on his balcony with the doors wide open. Now noise is weird. 200 yards away, we have a huge church. On a Sunday morning we can clearly hear the church bells. Yet, they can’t hear my music. The church looks out onto a dual carriageway, busy with heavy traffic. When I’m out walking the dog past that church, often the noise from the traffic will drown out those church bells. Yet, whilst I will easily hear those church bells from my apartment, I never hear that traffic. Explanations welcome.
Concrete is pretty good at blocking airborne noise and conversation noise, possibly music (if the speakers are decoupled as you mentioned, and windows are closed). It's not so good with blocking impact noise (or vibration) without decoupling or serious absorption/softening between the wood flooring and the concrete below. So that's why you hear chairs scraping, washing machine rotations, doors sliding, etc. from upstairs. It's interesting that you don't hear the traffic (since you're on the ground floor) but you do hear the church bells (which are probably very loud, although further away). Have you ever run any decibel measurements on the traffic noise and the church bells? Preferably dBC measurements with a frequency reading, as well. In addition to frequency and decibels, it could also be related to the street from your apartment, anything nearby that might diffuse the traffic noise, and how good your windows might be.
If you build a drop ceiling and sacrifice room height, probably your upstairs neighbours aren't cooperating so screw them and let your kids do flanking impact noise.
Are you a renter or an owner? If you're a renter, possibly your only option is to try to get your neighbors to put down carpets with carpet pads or talk to your landlord. If you're an owner, you might be able to "soundproof" your ceiling, but it's expensive to do.
@@aggelosalexandrou7475 The solutions are likely to be expensive and (temporarily) disruptive. One of the least-expensive things to do is to blow cellulose insulation into the ceiling cavity without actually having to remove the ceiling (you just cut small holes into it and then put them back again). HOWEVER, this will only dampen some types of airborne noise. It won't eliminate bass, deep voices, or impact noise like feet. It will mute peoples' conversation that echoes through the ceiling. The more-expensive solution is to decouple the ceiling (using resilient channels) so that the drywall does not touch the ceiling joists. And inside the ceiling, after you remove the old drywall, put soundproofing materials inside the empty cavity before you close it up again. This requires demolition, and it will cost more money, but it will reduce a lot of the impact noise and the bass noise. The bad news is that if you hire a professional to do this, it might cost about $20,000. This is why some people try to learn how to do this from materials available online and by watching some UA-cam videos that demonstrate each step.
@@aggelosalexandrou7475 "Decoupling" means that the material your ceiling is made from (plaster board, or whatever) doesn't directly touch the structure behind it. Because, as Paul Simon once sang, "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." The same ceiling joists that you see when you remove your ceiling are the same joists that touch your upstair's neighbor's floor. So vibration and noise is transferred from these joists and by the building frame. You don't see these structural parts behind the walls and ceilings of your apartment unless you open them up and remove the plasterboard. So when you "decouple" your ceiling, it means that you don't attach the new ceiling materials directly to the ceiling joists. Instead, you hang the new ceiling from some metal rails (called "resilient channel") perpendicular to the structure. There are many videos on how to do this. Here's one that I think is pretty clear: ua-cam.com/video/IYyZ9zonfdg/v-deo.html
Having all aircraft banned & all pilots executed would solve much of noise pollution. I don't believe people should live in adjoined homes though many are forced to due to the economy & overpopulation.
I doubt the people upstairs are complaining about impact noise as much as the people below.
It really depends on what kind of building you live in, how it was constructed. I've never been aware of my downstairs neighbors in previous apartments, but my current building is hammered together like a barn, with no dampening. If you've ever heard the sound of someone clomping up a flight of wooden stairs, you know that impact noise can go up as well as down. You'd be surprised how many people have contacted me about downstairs neighbor noise!
Thanks for this, going to be doing some ceiling work soon. Good info to consider
Glad it was useful. We did this exact project in my building, and although it was excellent at blocking noise transmission between floors (like talking, snoring, etc.) there was this one glitch with the impact noise from downstairs. It wasn't because the project was done incorrectly. It simply couldn't address all noise paths with just one solution. However, the rebuilt ceiling --with extra mass inside the cavity against the subfloor, plus mass-loaded vinyl, insulation, metal channels for the new drywall, and soundproofed drywall instead of regular 5/8" gypsum -- was very very effective for everything but this one issue.
Very interesting video. Is it ok to skip on the resiliant chanel / decoupling method If my sole interest is to reduce only airborne noise and not impact noise? I have an integrated garage with a bedroom upstairs and would like to reduce noise leaving the garage to bedroom upstairs and outside the house. I'm not at all bothered by impact noises transgerring from upstairs joists to the garage/Workshop below. Would it be sufficient in this case skip on decoupling and instead fill between joists with Rockwool RW3, use 2 layers of acoustic plasterboard, leaving a 5mm edge around the walls to fill with acoustic sealant? Aside from that I know that the weakest link will be the garage door. Thanks in advance.
So, unless you're running a lot of loud mechanical equipment in your garage for a prolonged time that would be disruptive to the rooms upstairs, I assume that the garage door probably goes up and down infrequently every day, and usually not at night when someone is trying to sleep. And you're right, a decoupled ceiling in the garage probably won't do much about the vibration from the door, because that noise travels through the whole building frame, not just the ceiling. I would probably do what you're thinking of doing. I assume your garage is simply a garage for storage and car, and not an ADU. No one is going to live in there or sleep at the garage level. Right? Rockwool insulation, two layers of drywall (and I recommend making one of them QuietRock), and acoustical sealant is probably sufficient in this case.
@@soundproofist I mainly use the garage for storing the car in the winter months and the odd DIY woodworking with some powertools. My main focus is to prevent the noise from disturbing neighbours as opposed to my family around the house who won't mind the DIY if its going to benefit us haha. I am looking at replacing the up and over door garage door with an insulated sectional one to address that issue. I was hoping that I didn't need to go as far as decoupling the cieling for my occasional DIY. P.S the house is detached but I'm just keen on keeping the neighbours and my noise at a happy level. Many Thanks
@@Dr.Stacker You sound like a great neighbor! Thank you!
I live on the ground floor of a new build apartment block. I have no neighbours other than the apartment above me. My apartment has solid concrete flooring built on a ‘block and beam’ structure. My concrete flooring is topped with wooden flooring. My walls are plasterboard. My ceilings are solid concrete. I’m a music lover, but have respect for my neighbour. I never play my music much above 85db and never play it late at night. My substantial floor standing speakers are decoupled from the floor, using isolation podiums. As a matter of interest and experiment, I once turned my music up to around 100db. Stood in the corridor of the apartment immediately above me and couldn’t hear a thing.
Do I ever hear any noise from my neighbour above me? Being ground floor, I don’t have a balcony. Being 1st floor, the neighbour above me, does. I do hear when he opens or closes the heavy sliding doors to his balcony. I do hear it when he drags furniture across his hard floor, if it is furniture he’s dragging across the floor. The apartment block is gas free, so all electric. Economy 7! I do hear his washing machine when it reaches 1800 spin speed in the early hours of the morning. I occasionally hear his music, on a summer’s evening, when he comes home from the pub, turns it up loud and sits out on his balcony with the doors wide open.
Now noise is weird. 200 yards away, we have a huge church. On a Sunday morning we can clearly hear the church bells. Yet, they can’t hear my music. The church looks out onto a dual carriageway, busy with heavy traffic. When I’m out walking the dog past that church, often the noise from the traffic will drown out those church bells. Yet, whilst I will easily hear those church bells from my apartment, I never hear that traffic. Explanations welcome.
Concrete is pretty good at blocking airborne noise and conversation noise, possibly music (if the speakers are decoupled as you mentioned, and windows are closed). It's not so good with blocking impact noise (or vibration) without decoupling or serious absorption/softening between the wood flooring and the concrete below. So that's why you hear chairs scraping, washing machine rotations, doors sliding, etc. from upstairs. It's interesting that you don't hear the traffic (since you're on the ground floor) but you do hear the church bells (which are probably very loud, although further away). Have you ever run any decibel measurements on the traffic noise and the church bells? Preferably dBC measurements with a frequency reading, as well. In addition to frequency and decibels, it could also be related to the street from your apartment, anything nearby that might diffuse the traffic noise, and how good your windows might be.
@@soundproofist 👍
If you build a drop ceiling and sacrifice room height, probably your upstairs neighbours aren't cooperating so screw them and let your kids do flanking impact noise.
Hello how i can soundproof e ceiling?i can hear everything upstairs neigbours do when they walk or do something else
Are you a renter or an owner? If you're a renter, possibly your only option is to try to get your neighbors to put down carpets with carpet pads or talk to your landlord. If you're an owner, you might be able to "soundproof" your ceiling, but it's expensive to do.
Owner and how?
@@aggelosalexandrou7475 The solutions are likely to be expensive and (temporarily) disruptive. One of the least-expensive things to do is to blow cellulose insulation into the ceiling cavity without actually having to remove the ceiling (you just cut small holes into it and then put them back again). HOWEVER, this will only dampen some types of airborne noise. It won't eliminate bass, deep voices, or impact noise like feet. It will mute peoples' conversation that echoes through the ceiling. The more-expensive solution is to decouple the ceiling (using resilient channels) so that the drywall does not touch the ceiling joists. And inside the ceiling, after you remove the old drywall, put soundproofing materials inside the empty cavity before you close it up again. This requires demolition, and it will cost more money, but it will reduce a lot of the impact noise and the bass noise. The bad news is that if you hire a professional to do this, it might cost about $20,000. This is why some people try to learn how to do this from materials available online and by watching some UA-cam videos that demonstrate each step.
Hey can you explain me please what d you mean decouple ceiling?
@@aggelosalexandrou7475 "Decoupling" means that the material your ceiling is made from (plaster board, or whatever) doesn't directly touch the structure behind it. Because, as Paul Simon once sang, "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." The same ceiling joists that you see when you remove your ceiling are the same joists that touch your upstair's neighbor's floor. So vibration and noise is transferred from these joists and by the building frame. You don't see these structural parts behind the walls and ceilings of your apartment unless you open them up and remove the plasterboard. So when you "decouple" your ceiling, it means that you don't attach the new ceiling materials directly to the ceiling joists. Instead, you hang the new ceiling from some metal rails (called "resilient channel") perpendicular to the structure. There are many videos on how to do this. Here's one that I think is pretty clear: ua-cam.com/video/IYyZ9zonfdg/v-deo.html
Having all aircraft banned & all pilots executed would solve much of noise pollution. I don't believe people should live in adjoined homes though many are forced to due to the economy & overpopulation.
What's your solution to global warming? Just destroy the entire biosphere of earth -- warming solved xD
@@chrisw7347 global warming is a big lie, don't be so gullible