Soundproofing my ceiling

Hello all: I just finshed building my new studio in Rhode Island recently. I am on the 1st floor of and old mill building, but my location is off the back of the main building, so I do not have anyone directly above me. I have a 14 foot high, pitched ceiling, that is just below the roof of my space, and my particular part of the building. I do however have neighbors up and over from me, probably about 15 feet over from my drum room, and 2 floors up. They came down the other day and said they could hear me through their outer windows, that drums were bleeding out the roof of my space and into the air above me, hence bleeding into their space. The ceiling/rafters are just open, there is no crawl space to speak of, you look up and it is just ceiling/rafters, then above that, roof. My question is, what do you guys have for suggestions for the best way for me to knock down some sound going through the roof? my original thinking was either doing some insulation and then either a layer of 5/8's or homasote over that... or lining the ceiling with mass loaded vinyl, which would be easier, but a little more pricey. Any other suggestions? I want to do this as cheap and easy as possible, but obviously the most effective way...and I need to do it quickly as well. Thanks for the help! MP

As gets mentioned frequently around these here parts: "It's all about mass." It sounds like you probably need to get a structural engineer in to make sure that the roof will support the extra weight, but I am guessing that you need to add a few layers of 5/8" sheetrock in between the ceiling joists, sealing each layer as you go. Then below that, add a thick layer of insulation, and then below that, add a couple of more layers of 5/8" sheetrock. This is of course assuming that the sound is *only* leaking out through the roof, and not the side walls, or via flanking sound through the building structure itself. Once again, you have to make sure that the structure can support the added weight, so check before you start, and DO NOT GUESS on this part! It is important!

Welcome to the forum... I wish it was under better circumstances. You have a serious problem indeed. There are no simple solutions here. You need to provide 1,000% more information. Read (or reread) the sticky threads. Buy Rod's book. Determine your municipal noise regulations. To be honest, you got to this predicament by making a lot of assumptions, and unfortunately you're still making them. Homasote is a waste. Mass-loaded vinyl is a waste. Be prepared to spend some time and money -- I'm guessing a minimum of a couple of weeks to get up to speed and a solid plan together, a few weeks to do the work, and four figures' worth of dollars. If you don't do this right, you could be hit quickly with four figure fines -- my city doubled its chronic noise ordinance penalty from $500 to $1,000 per incident during the construction of my project. We look forward to seeing lots of drawings, photographs, and gobs of technical construction details that will allow us to be more constructive (no pun intended). --Keith :mrgreen:

keith and all: thanks for responding to my post on "soundproofing my ceiling." i guess i should start by going down keith's list...i read all of the stickies, and i bought/read rod's book before posting (as well as before building). i built the studio based on everything that i got from both sources, so no assumptions were made in the initial build. the studio came out great, with all the desired results. the unforeseen issue with my ceiling is another story. let me first mention, the reason why i did not do anything to my ceiling/roof is because i do not own the building. it was here, and now i am here leasing a space. the ceiling in the room is made of soft old wood, which sounded amazing with drums in here...so if i didn't have to alter it, i wasn't going to mess with it. my mistake in my original post is maybe that i should've titled it, "reducing sound transmission through my roof." i just want to cut it down, it doesn't have to be dead silent. i am in the middle of nowhere in providence, in a mill district. the neighbor that complained isn't hasseling me, he isn't going to call the police on me, he is actually going to book studio time. so i am not worried about fines or being shut down. the building manager is also on our side and wants to help resolve the issue. ultimately, i just want to knock my decibel level down by approximately 20-30 db. i came to the forum to get some help, and felt some clarification was in order based on your responses. just to re-itterate, i am not looking to completely soundproof, i am just wondering if there is some sort of way anyone can recommend to reduce my transmission level through my roof. any suggestions are welcome...the only restriction is that a full build out or enclosure of the rafter area would not be permitted. i have a pretty elaborate fire sprinkler setup out there in the live room, with strict codes (it is RI afterall). i will take some pics of the ceiling tomorrow and post them here to give you a better idea of the structure. thanks again. mp

Ah yes, "The Station." You guys still have my condolences, and I'm sure also those of many others here. What a terrible trajedy, and a criminally negligent one at that, not to mention the miscarriage of justice in the aftermath. Thanks for the additional background info. Unfortunately, while your problem appears to be less severe than I initially thought, I really don't see a way out that is dramatically different than it would be otherwise. You're still going to need to follow the mass-air-mass principle. You may not need quite as much mass now that we understand things better, but you still need mass-air-mass. Honestly, I withdraw very little, if anything, from my original response. Looking forward to the photos and drawings. --Keith :mrgreen:

poorman wrote:

ultimately, i just want to knock my decibel level down by approximately 20-30 db.

MP, you said you've read the book (and thanks for the purchase) you know that for each doubling of mass you reduce sound transmissions by roughly 6dB.......... and that is a total doubling of mass - on both faces - not simply on one side. So when you begin talking about wanting a reduction of 20 to 30 dB you should realize that there isn't any easy way out of this. You want to reduce your transmissions by somewhere around 300 to 500 percent.......... That's a lot of mass......... and right now - although they hear it coming through the windows - you might find that you have as much of it coming through flanking as you do airborn......... My best reccomendation to you would be to first invest a couple of hundred duckies to hire an acoustician to determine what your problems and real needs are - and then if that turns into adding mass to the existing roof system - verify with a structural engineer that it's capable of the load.......... Sincerely, Rod