Sound insulation for a city apartment ceiling?
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What sound insulation product (for a city apartment ceiling) is both most effective and least toxic?
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Replies
If this is wood frame construction, fill the floor cavity (between the joists) with cellulose to 4 lbs/ft^2 density. If the drywall ceiling is not yet installed, add resilient furring channels. Double layer drywall also helps.
Thanks. How does this compare for sound reduction effectiveness with hanging a dropped ceiling?
Is this an apartment or condo? If it is an apartment your options will be limited to what your lease agreement will allow. Most deny any permanent alterations to the apartment.
It's a co-op and some of my neighbors have already installed other forms of sound insulation in the ceiling, such as InjectASeal-R. I'm hoping for something greener.
We've done a couple recording studios and every audio engineer seems to have a different idea of what works best. That said, some solutions we've used are insulating the cavities with cotton batts, (I'm told the cavity doesn't need to be filled completely, an r-13 batt prevents sound from bouncing around) then we have always used a two layer system, sometimes homosote as a 1st layer, then resilient channel and finally 5/8 drywall, the other option is 1/2 drywall with a tape coat as a first layer, resilient channel, 5/8 drywall. The different thicknesses will absorb different frequencies. Depending what the budget is, there is also mass-loaded vinyl but I wouldn't consider it very green. There is also QuietRock, it's quite expensive, and again not sure of it's green credentials. The problem with doing a ceiling is that you can't reduce the source of the sound, i.e. soundproofing on the upstairs floor.
Thanks for all these replies. Where in NYC can I find a knowledgeable contractor with green installation experience? All suggestions welcome!
I think this is one of those cases where the greenest solution is going to be the one that actually performs best. I suspect that (other than in the very limited area of installed toxicity) doing the best possible job in reducing sound transmission, making the apartment substantially more livable in the long term, is going to far outweigh the minor differences of green cred in the materials used. In this case I'd give far more weight to finding a contractor with a proven track record in soundproofing, with 'green' credentials as a secondary issue.
As far as the specifics go, from my admittedly limited experience, if space and budget permit I'd be inclined to go with 'all of the above': dense pack cellulose in the floor cavity, resilient furring, two layers sheetrock with staggered joints. If you have plenty of room overhead suspend the sheetrock ceiling a few inches, the objective being to limit as far as possible the mechanical linkage between the floor system above and the ceiling below and to give the ceiling system enough mass for acoustic inertia. The manufacturers of Quietrock claim it provides better performance than the two-layer sheetrock approach but I'd take the advice of an experienced soundproofing professional on which to use.