3rd floor studio has problem with noise from 2nd floor.

We have a studio that is located on the 3rd floor of a 100 year old factory building. There are wood shops surrounding us, which haven't been a problem for the most part due to the wall construction dividing us, which is 2 foot thick brick and mortar. The problem is the 2nd floor below us. The floor that separates us is as such, top (our floor) to bottom (the 2nd floors ceiling)... 1.5 thick oak hardwood floor 12"-14" tall joists Slats Plaster There is NO insulation between the joists, and where the floor meets the walls there are gaps, which will need to be filled. (You can feel the air come up from the 2nd floor). We do lease, but our landlord is perfectly fine with us doing whatever it takes to help alleviate noise from the wood shop below, and he has even offered to help finance it. I am hoping that filling the current floors (between joists) with blown in insulation will help, and of course filling the wall gaps, but I feel that we will also need to add in this order, top to bottom, to the 2nd floor ceiling.... rubber 1/2" drywall green glue 1/2" drywall So the final cross section of the floor/ceiling will look like this... 1.5 thick oak hardwood floor 12"-14" tall joists (filled with blown in insulation) Slats Plaster rubber 1/2" drywall green glue 1/2" drywall Question is, will this help enough? I don't mind a little bit of noise, since this is rock-n-roll. I am just hoping not to have to remove the slat/plaster ceiling. I really don't think we will have the funds to do that and put in a floating ceiling. Any response would be greatly appreciated. PS. Yes, I have thought of moving, but the current room I have sounds AMAZING. Quote from Shelly Yakus, whom I work with here... "We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at A&M to get this type of room sound". Thanks a bunch, Ted Richardson Cedar Street Studios

What nopise is being created on the second floor? If you have low frequency noise, then you need mass. Otherwise all the isloation will be for naught as the the sound will excite the fundamental frequencies of the floor structure itself. If not, the plann you have is good start except for the rubber. It does nothing usefull. Mount the bottom (new) layer on some form of resilient clip or hanger. How large is the floor in square feet and lenght and width? Andre

The noise is a combination of wood shop noise, i.e. table saw, air compressor, vacuum, router, planers, etc. There is some low end noise, which I am thinking of asking the shop below to place the machines each on their own floating floor to isolate and decouple. And fine with me to not use rubber. Any ideas as to which type of clip/hanger I should use? The room is about 2000 s/f, roughly 30x70 ft.

The best is like the Mason Industries 30NCC detailed along with otheres in Architetectural Ceiling Hangers brochure. A step down in performance are whisperclips and RSICs. Andre

What about this product? http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/wave/index.aspx

Cedar Street Studios wrote:

What about this product? http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/wave/index.aspx

It is broadly equivalent to the RSIC and Whisperclips. If that class of isolation is what is needed, it becomes a question of price. Looking at the design, it should be considerably cheaper than the two others. Andre

I was also wondering, since mass is what helps the most, what type of blow in insulation would be best? The span is about 15-18 feet.

Cedar Street Studios wrote:

I was also wondering, since mass is what helps the most, what type of blow in insulation would be best? The span is about 15-18 feet.

Blow in insulation is usually too dense for sound isolation. It starts to actually bridge the space it is in, reducing isolation. Blowing it, Andre

Unfortunately we are not able to remove the current ceiling, which means we can only blow it in. :cry: