Would a drop ceiling reduce percussive walking noise from neibor above?

fredonian

Greetings- I've come to believe based on what I've read that I likely will not be able to eliminate the noisy footsteps of my upstairs neighbor, but I'm perhaps wondering if I can reduce the noise level perhaps. It's the usuall circumstances of living in an old building with old hardwood floors. In my case however, I have the benefit of having high ceilings(16') which gives me some space to work with for creating barriers. I'm considering a drop ceiling for starters with added insulation in between. Does anyone know how beneficial this might be for percussive impact noise comming from above? My second option for thought was creating a second ceiling (with a space of roughly two feet from the original) using sheetrock and green glue. Both options seem reasonably affordable for my budget, but I was wondering if anyone would know whether or not either would make any significant difference in the noise to justify the cost. Again, I'm not so much trying to completely eliminate the noise as reduce it by a fair degree. Your thoughts? Thank you.Charles

II Weeks

drop down the new ceiling sounds best to me. I would consider adding in 1/2" sound board to the ceiling, build the new ceiling and then use sound board sheet rock on that.

Just wondering, do you need all that height? Thats a lot of space to heat and cool.

Bob Mariani

Use resilient channel mounted perpendicular 16" OC to the joists and install QuietRock over this. The channel helps separate the sound vibrations and the QuietRock offers 16 times the sound deadening of regular drywall.

bjbatlanta

If you're thinking a regular "grid" ceiling when you say "drop ceiling", it won't help. you have to fasten hanger wires to the joists to "suspend" the ceiling and hang wires to hold it up. The sound travels through the fasteners, the wires, and the grid. (It will not be AS pronounced.) Bob's on the right track, if you can afford the Quiet Rock....

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Tracymc

BJ is right a "standard grid ceiling will only cut the noise about 30%, due to the direct connection of wire to grid. But a combination of High STC rated Tile, SAFB sound attenuating insulation and Sound attenuating wire connections will get you noise reduction to 60 to 70%. It is fairly cost effective, and much less work than a QuietRock ceiling.
Trace

fredonian

Thank you all for your answers and taking the time to read my post. I have more to work with in regards of knowledge and options thanks to you guys! Best-Charles

moaltar

Hey Fredonian,

I'm in the same boat as you with the condo I just purchased. Have you made any progress yet? If so, I would like to know how you did it.

Thanks!

Chaz

walkman

Research green glue while you're at it.

moaltar

Will do! I really want to see if I can silence my upstairs neighbors too!