I need some help Insulating my Ceiling (1 Viewer)

[Jason L.]

I live in a 1-story condominium.

The unit above my bedroom makes 3 types of noise that bothers me:

1. General walking noises

2. There is a toilet/shower above me.

3. There is a washing machine above me.

I already tore down my bedroom ceiling once before and had someone insulate it. At the time I really didn't know much about insulation. I kept telling the guy that I needed to soundproof it as much as possible, and that the only reason I was having this done was for sound purposes.

He kept saying that this would work out great. He put some Kraft-faced R19 insulation between the ceiling and the floor joists. The ceiling drywall that was selected was 5/8" thick, and was called Firerock, which was supposed to be thicker and more dense than regular drywall.

I was very dissappointed to find that this helped a little bit, but not as much as I expected.

I am planning to tear it down and re-insulate it again, because nothing is more annoying than to be woken up by noise.

My question is the following:

1. Is there a problem with having too much insulation? Do you need to have air ventilation?

The R19 insulation only filled about half the depth of the space between the floor and ceiling.

I was thinking about putting in two layers of Owens Corning QuiteZone Acoustic Batts [3 1/2" thick each] and also put in a layer of standard R30 [9"(?)]insulation. This means that there would be no air flow at all.

I'm not sure if that would cause moisture to build up and lead to mold problems, or cause the wood to detiorate over time.

As far as I know there wouldn't be any heat related problems with the insulation because the only pipes that would touch the insulation would be water drainage pipes from the shower/toilet and washing machine.

I know that the special Owens Corning QuiteZone Acoustic Batts are fiberglass, and do not absore moisture.

I realize that this will not fully solve the walking around problems as they go through the wood, but it should help out with the other two.

 

[DaveHo]

More insulation should help. Fill the cavity, but make sure it is not compressed. However, the most effective thing you can do is put up soundproofing channel between the joists and sheetrock. This is a metal strip which gets attached perpendicular to the joists, the sheetrock is then attached to the channel instead of the joists. This minimizes the contact area between the joists and sheetrock which is the real cause of the sound transmission.

-Dave

 

[RicP]

I read this topic header as "I need some help Insulting my ceiling".
"You're not much of a ceiling are you? Just sitting there all stuccoed! You don't even have any head room! You call yourself a ceiling! Well the Sistine Chapel has nothing to worry about that's for sure!"

 

[Philip_G]

argh I wish I could unsulate my cealing.

I live in an apartment and the decking above me squeeks like crazy, and the bastard walks around at 7:30am and wakes me up

 

[Rob_J]

RicP, you beat me to it! I read it the same way as you

 

[David Werner]

http://www.soundproofing.org/

 

[Jason L.]

The soundproofing.org site is pretty informative.

Does anyone know what the soundproofing channel adds to the cost of the job? How would I find someone who knows how to do this? I remember when I started asking around about soundproofing options 2 years ago, and no one had a clue.

When I did this 2 years ago I paid the insulation guy either $300 or $400, and I paid the drywall guy $900 to tear down and replace my bedroom ceiling.

Also, would the soundproofing channel cause problems with also tyring to install a ceiling fan?

 

[John Besse]

Ric, too funny. I haven't laughed that hard in a while reading someone else's joke! Way to go!
Jason, I've never insulated a ceiling before. But, if you want to fly me to Texas... I'll help you go up there and do it!

 

[Jason L.]

I was looking through a Home Repair book, and it looks like you can also install the Resilient Channels over a finished Ceiling.

All you have to do is nail the metal resilient channels perpendicular to the through the finished ceiling into the floor joists about 24" apart. Then you need to install another ceiling, which is attached to the metal resilient channels.

This seems the best way to do it, as you will have a double ceiling which will soundproof the room even further. However, I still want to tear down my existing ceiling in order to put some soundproof mats in there.

As far as not compressing the insulation, whenever I read about this they always talk about not compressing the insulation in the attic for fears of condensation. However, I'm not sure this is the case elsewhere [between the ceiling and floor above], as the insulation inside of most walls provide no air flow at all.