Sound isolation for a ceiling... will it work?

[John_Dikeman]

Hello everyone,

Sorry this is a bit off topic but I was hoping with all your collective acoustical knowledge you might be able to help me out. Or, perhaps you know a better forum to ask about this.

Short question:
Can you help limit airborne and impact sound from neighbors above by adding treatment to your ceiling?

The details:
Our ceiling is cement. I think the whole construction is solid. The neighbors floor is laminate directly onto the cement and our ceiling is plaster directly on that cement from below. The only thing going through it is wires for a lightbulb. Our walls are solid brick. No vents or anything going through them up to the next floor.

From my research it seems one option is mounting furring strips on the ceiling, then mass loaded vinyl and a layer or two of thick drywall. Of course everything 100% sealed.

Another option is this product I found online: Decibel C-Mute system. This seems to be some kind of acoustic dampening panels with special screws that decouple them from the ceiling. Then you'd still need to put thick drywall over that.

Ceiling Sound Insulation C-MUTE SYSTEM™ 63

C - MUTE SYSTEM™ 63 is a thin point connected sound insulation for system for ceilings, developed and refined over the years by the R&D department of DECIBEL. C - MUTE SYSTEM™ is designed to reduce the impact and airborne noise in residential and public premises. Decibel uses an acoustic...

www.decibelinternational.co.uk

Here's a video showing how it is installed.

I'm just wondering if this would actually be effective and worth the time and money.
Also, has anyone heard of this Decibel C-Mute system? I couldn't find any feedback online at all except the one comment on that video by someone saying it didn't work....

Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

 

[sarumbear]

It’s difficult to block noise from a solid ceiling. The problem is the noise is generated in the floor above you then it’s carried to through the concrete to you and bits of it to do walls. You need to create a barrier in the ceiling that can block the impact noise. It means you need a false ceiling that has the acoustic parameters that block the impact noise. Such a ceiling will be at least 20cm deep. Not cheap! Still it won’t reduce the sound leaking from the walls.

If I were in your position and if it’s feasible, I will move.

PS. The C-Mute system’s specs are not even wishful thinking, they are made up numbers.

 

[John_Dikeman]

It’s difficult to block noise from a solid ceiling. The problem is the noise is generated in the floor above you then it’s carried to through the concrete to you and bits of it to do walls. You need to create a barrier in the ceiling that can block the impact noise. It means you need a false ceiling that has the acoustic parameters that block the impact noise. Such a ceiling will be at least 20cm deep. Not cheap! Still it won’t reduce the sound leaking from the walls.

If I were in your position and if it’s feasible, I will move.

PS. The C-Mute system’s specs are not even wishful thinking, they are made up numbers.

Ok thanks for the advise.
By the way, why do you say the C-Mute specs are made up? I'm not disagreeing, I just can't find any info on them...

 

[sarumbear]

By the way, why do you say the C-Mute specs are made up? I'm not disagreeing, I just can't find any info on them...

Their specs say that with just 6cm panel they will get the following. 71dB is a stupendous amount of reduction.

Airborne sound reduction

up to 71 dB

A quite bedroom at night measures around 30dBSPL. That means their product will stop noise at 100dBSPL. In other words you will not hear anything in the room even if there is a disco upstairs — by just sticking 6cm panels to your ceiling!

 

[John_Dikeman]

Ha yes, that's a good point. I guess I can forget about that product then....

 

[Sancus]

Laminate directly on cement??? That's against code here. I don't think there is any cost effective way to fix that after the fact which is why underlayment with an impact rating is required in multifamily dwellings here when installing hard flooring.

 

[John_Dikeman]

Laminate directly on cement??? That's against code here. I don't think there is any cost effective way to fix that after the fact which is why underlayment with an impact rating is required in multifamily dwellings here when installing hard flooring.

Yeah it's kind of the wild west around here. I'm located in Belgium by the way.
Problem is my girlfriend bought this place. And I recently managed to build myself a soundproof shed in the garden where I can practice without bothering anyone, so trying to sell and move isn't my favorite idea...
She also recently took the co-owner to court about the noise, along with neighbors on both sides, and it turned out pretty useless. In fact, by law not that many people can live in that apartment to begin with and they should have moved in January... Eventually I'm sure they will move, but the sound isolation as it is, I think anyone living above us will be a problem.
So, knowing a tiny bit about acoustics I didn't even consider it until now, somewhat out of desperation.

 

[alex-z]

Without extensive renovation, nothing you can do. The mass of concrete makes it decent at blocking low frequencies, but the stiffness also makes it transmit mid and high frequencies extremely well. Same with brick.

What you need is decoupling + porous absorption, which takes up 5 inches minimum. Adding some furring strips + 2 layers of 5/8" drywall might gain you 6-9dB of noise reduction, noticeable, but not enough to take the edge off loud music. And the weight would be significant, about 4.5lbs per square foot.

 

[holbob]

I suspect loads of things work to some degree. The problem is any change is going to cause great disruption and cost, just to get a less-than-ideal outcome. The best thing is to seal the ceiling and pump carbon monoxide up through a hole in it Or move if you can, lest you throw good money after bad...

In the UK, homes are small and very shoddily constructed and most people are neighbours from hell, often with out-of-control offspring, so almost everyone is desperate to live in a detached house as soon as they can afford to!

What the hell???? I think that's a bit over the top! You been watching Channel 5???

 

[Soniclife]

Is it worth trying to measure the spectrum of what is getting through the ceiling, to try and target the absorption?

The simple solution is to move, well simple for other people to say, but it's probably the only real long term solution.

 

[Inner Space]

The rule of thumb for situations like these is that it's a hundred times easier to stop noise getting out of a space than to stop it getting into a space. By far the best solution would be persuade your upstairs neighbors to let you pay for re-flooring their rooms with a shock-absorbing layer under their laminate. Whether that's acceptable to you or them, or small-p politically possible, I don't know.

 

[Mimi1]

Hi all @John_Dikeman did you ever found out a solution after all? I'm really interested as I have impact noise coming from my neighbour upstairs as well. Thank you!

 

[Timcognito]

Offer to buy them a rug or carpet for most offending room.

 

[dasdoing]

it's almost impossible to solve this on the recieving end, unless you build a so called "room in a room".
as others have said: the best way is convince the neighbor to put damping on the floor