decoupling a ceiling

[Rod Gervais]

Brian,

Where are you located?

Could you provide a sketch? Difficult to visualize what you're trying to describe here.

Rod

[brianltd]

Thanks for replying Rod:
I will try and explain myself as clearly as possible.
I am from Montreal, Canada.
I have added some photos to the e-mail. Hopefully a photo is worth a thousand words.
From the photos you see there is some beams on the ceiling on top of that you have the wood floor,on top of that you have two by fours running the same way as the beams, on top of that you have the people upstairs flooring.

I was wondering if I should put Gyproc in between the exposed beams with that green glue, will that help muffle some sounds. Or is the noise coming from above that ceiling and in between the two by four and their flooring.(around a 4 inch space)

I also wanted to put new beams in the wall in between the exposed beams but not touching the ceiling, and finish it off with gyproc. New ceiling would be Gyproc on new beams.

Hopefully that wasn't too crazy, complicated.

Thanks again Rod!!

[Rod Gervais]

Brian,

If your concern here is simply impact noise and speech - then this should not be all that big a deal......

The first thing I would do would be to seal beneath that drain pipe I see in the first 2 photos..... just some drywall applied directly to the underside of the deck beneath the drain would help a lot - you might have to install some furring to the underside of the decking in order to clear the fittings on the pipe - can't really tell from the angle of the photo - however - seal up that hole and fit your patch as tightly as you can to the drop (expansive foam around the edges works wonders in cases like this). Stopping air movement is an important part of isolation between spaces.

Then I would recommend either resilient channels or RISC clips with channel applied directly to the underside of the structure that carries your ceiling - with a double layer of 5/8" drywall beneath that.......

I would be remiss if I did not point out that it is easy with standard resilient channel to short circuit the system - care must be taken to make certain that none of the screws attaching the drywall to the channel touch the framing above - the RISC systems are pretty much foolproof.

This will decouple your ceiling from the floor above and should add enough mass to stop the voices....

Good luck,

Rod

[brianltd]

Thanks Rod, will take that advice.

[Rod Gervais]

Brian - re-read the post above your last one - I read through it and it needed a few changes/clarifications to really make sense.

One other thing - before you tape the corners of your walls to the new ceiling - make sure you seal those edges with backer rod and caulk.....

your best installation would be with the drywall ceiling floating 3/8" away from the existing walls - you do not want a tight fit with these systems - and then seal the edges - tape them after sealing.... I know that the USG acoustic caulk is rated for taped corners.........

Rod

[Ted White]

Brian, in addition to Rod's great advice, you might find this article helpful: How to Soundproof a Ceiling - Soundproofing Products for Ceilings