How to install sound insulation between floors where the ceiling below is finished.?

Question

I have a Master Bedroom upstairs and a guest bedroom right below it. They are separated by a 16 inch truss system, but there is no insulation between them and all sounds from above get transmitted directly to the guest room below. I know I will have to cut hole(s) in the guest room ceiling to put in some kind of sound insulation. My thought was to use the cellulose material that can be blown in, but the guy at Lowes said that would not do much for sound insulation. I asked about if I doubled the amount I put in and he said that would help but then I ran the risk of the weight of the insulation collapsing the 1/2 inch drywall in the ceiling. I also contacted an Icynene (foam) dealer but was told it would be cost prohibitive to use that because of the setup expense for such a small area. The room is about 14' x 14'. Short of taking down the entire ceiling does anyone have any suggestions and what are your thoughts about the comments of the man at Lowes? Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Roxul sound batts are the best bet. I was going to suggest 5/8 " dryall on top of the 1/2" but if you are going to buy the drywall.....the mine as well redo the ceiling. If you have the access. Purchase the 4 X 12' sheets of drywall. (less taping) Also..if you are a terrible taper....purchase MDF corner mold and some panel adhesive...NO CORNER TAPING! and it looks great. There is a small art to corner mold with the corner work, bu the mdf is great and easy to work with...plus any mistake is remedied with a little gap filler.

Answer 2

Really the best thing to do is pull the ceiling & put rigid styrofoam in, then fiberglass bats. Get a few guys together, & you could knock out the bull work in a weekend or two.

If you're not comfortable taping, maybe you could farm that part of it out.

Bottom line is there's no real quick fix to solve your problem.

Good luck, hope this helped a little!

Answer 3

Take a look at the aerosol insulation that is used to fill gaps between doors and windows. I still think your best results will be to remove the sheetrock from the ceiling and install styrofoam or fiberglass batts.