Soundproofing between floors

[chris_w]

Am about to completely redecorate our lounge so have an opportunity to do something about the amount of sound that carries through into our bedroom directly above it.

Appreciate that complete isolation of the noise will be unachievable but anything that helps (and doesn't cost the earth) would be helpful.

We don't have high ceilings (1950's traditional brick build) so can't use anything too bulky but if need be, we can take off the existing ceiling in the lounge (which requires refinishing anyway) which I guess would also open up the possibility of putting material up between the joists.

Will also be redecorating the bedroom upstairs shortly after so is there a material (underlay?) we can use under the new carpet to further reduce the sound levels upstairs?

Anyone got any experience or recommendations please?

[Uonlyhave2seats]

Just completed our house with a similar setup.. Bedroom is above TV room. We used two layers of 15mm soundproof plasterboard on the downstairs ceiling, 100 mm soundproof insulation between the joists, 11 mm carpet underlay that had the highest soundproofing. The result is reasonable and about what I expected. The TV can be on reasonably loudly and its only faint in the bedroom. Interestingly talking loudly seems to travel far more and is heard much more between the two rooms. I am happy with the result as I was not prepared to spend the money for the full on solution.

My friend did go the whole hog with isolation bars, sealing all joints and thicker soundproofing. The result is only marginally better but not worth the extra spend.

[chris_w]

Uonlyhave2seats said:

Just completed our house with a similar setup.. Bedroom is above TV room. We used two layers of 15mm soundproof plasterboard on the downstairs ceiling, 100 mm soundproof insulation between the joists, 11 mm carpet underlay that had the highest soundproofing. The result is reasonable and about what I expected. The TV can be on reasonably loudly and its only faint in the bedroom. Interestingly talking loudly seems to travel far more and is heard much more between the two rooms. I am happy with the result as I was not prepared to spend the money for the full on solution.

Excellent thanks, that pretty much sounds like what I had in mind - can I ask what you put between the two plasterboard layers?

[Fort Jefferson]

Don't leave the TV on when you go to bed, simples!!

[Uonlyhave2seats]

We needed two layers of plasterboard on the ceiling for fire regs. Originally I was going to stuff as much insulation between the joists as I could but I was told to leave an air gap, which we did. The floorboards on the first floor were nothing special.

[eps]

There are a number of steps you can take..

Moving from upstairs to downstairs...

1) Floorfoam easy edge strip at wall edges.

2) Possibly denser flooring, 22mm, if poss. T&G (12.4kg/m2)

3) 100mm Crown Acoustic Joist Roll

4) Knauf Drywall resilient bar

5) 19mm Knauf Drywall Plank

6) 12.5mm Knauf Drywall Standard Wallboard.

You could probably avoid number 2, especially if the other flooring upstairs you have is not 22mm thick.


Maybe Google Resilient Sound solutions or something similar..

[chris_w]

Thanks all for the responses, all food for thought.

[hairyben]

If you're looking at ripping the ceiling down anyway I'd decouple the floor/ceiling, ie leave the existing joist holding the floor above and run new joist - staggered between the existing - an inch or two lower to carry the new ceiling.