how to soundproof a ceiling
If you’re experiencing significant levels of noise passing through floors and ceilings, this guide has been written to help you. Whether you’ve got noisy upstairs neighbours, or you’re a venue owner who wants to create the perfect ambience for your customers, properly soundproofing your ceilings should be high on your agenda.
As experienced soundproofing specialists, the experts at Oscar Acoustics are well qualified to help you with ceiling sound insulation. If you’d like to discover how to soundproof a ceiling, we recommend reading this guide in full. Read on to learn all about this important topic.
how to soundproof a ceiling: the science
Sound passes through ceilings and floors as vibrations and sound pressure waves generated by footsteps, music or voices from the space above. These penetrate and travel through floorboards, joists and ceilings in the form of vibration and noise. By creating an isolated, floating ceiling using our Iso-Mount acoustic hangers, you will stop the vibration that causes the transfer of unwanted noise from floor to floor.
Oscar Acoustic’s recommendation for achieving soundproof ceilings is fitting secure acoustic hangers to either new or existing ceilings. We outline this method of soundproofing in more detail later in this article.
different types of noise to soundproof against
When soundproofing ceilings, we typically want to protect our ears from two types of sound – Airborne and impact.
airborne sound
Airborne sound is any sound that travels through the air from a source to the receiver. Typical airborne noise include conversations, music and phones.
impact sound
Impact sound is what the name suggests, sound created by some form of impact. Sound is radiated from a vibrating surface, common examples of this include an item hitting the floor and an individual either walking or running.
This type of sound is typically experienced through ceilings of a lower property or room.
ceiling sound insulation techniques
There are different insulation techniques available to help you soundproof ceilings. Some of the typical options include:
- Direct-to-ceiling soundproof panels
- Floor soundproofing
- Acoustic ceiling hangers
At Oscar Acoustics, we believe that acoustic hangers provide the best ceiling sound insulation for our clients. That’s why we invested our time and energy into creating our Iso-Mount acoustic hanger range.
Iso-Mount Type1
Oscar Acoustics Iso-Mount Type1 acoustics hangers are ideal for ceiling soundproofing with minimum ceiling height loss (as little as 5mm).
In order to soundproof your ceiling with Iso-Mount Type1, you’ll need to follow these 14 simple steps:
- Remove existing ceiling boards
- Fix or ‘push fit’ mineral wool batts between ceiling joists;
- Fit Iso-Mount Type1 hangers to ceiling joists accordingly.
- Evenly space Iso-Mount Type1 fittings across ceiling joists, 3 Iso-Mounts provide a max loading of 54kg/m2;
- Clip on the Gypliner 1 steel channel.
- Apply self-adhesive foam, using the underside of the channel as a guide, fix the bottom of the foam 5mm higher than where the bottom of the plasterboard ceiling will be, to create a ‘sealant gap’ between the ceiling boards and walls.
- Fit the plasterboards securely using standard drywall screws, stagger joints if fixing 2 layers.
- When installing, push the perimeter ceiling boards tight into the self-adhesive perimeter foam.
- Tape and joint the boards;
- Apply Oscar Seal intumescent acoustic sealant to fill the ‘sealant gap’ and level off;
- Plaster over the plasterboard and dried Oscar Seal;
- Before the plaster is fully dry, run the tip of a nail or a blade around the edge of the plaster to create a small gap of about 3mm between the plaster and the walls;
- When dry, Reseal the gap created using Oscar Seal;
- Decorate your soundproof ceiling.
In order to understand these instructions more easily, we recommend watching our ‘How to Soundproof a Ceiling’ video using Oscar Acoustics Iso-Mount Type1 below:
If you’d like to explore some more content around the installation of Iso-Mount Type1, we’ve created a walkthrough video demonstrating ‘How to Install a Soundproof Ceiling’. You can learn all about this method of soundproofing by watching the video below:
Iso-Mount Type2
If you’re looking to soundproof existing ceilings, Oscar Acoustics’ Iso-Mount Type2 acoustic hangers offer a great solution.
In order to soundproof your ceiling with Iso-Mount Type2, you’ll need to follow these 12 simple steps:
- Screw Iso-Mount Type2 brackets through existing ceiling boards and securely into timber joists, these can also be screwed directly into concrete;
- Simply clip on the lengths of steel channel to the brackets;
- Apply self-adhesive foam, using the underside of the channel as a guide, fix the bottom of the foam 5mm higher than where the bottom of the plasterboard ceiling will be, to create a ‘sealant gap’ between the ceiling boards and walls.
- Use mineral wood adhesive or stick pins to fix insulation to existing ceiling;
- Fit plasterboard securely using standard drywall screws, stagger joints if fixing 2 layers.
- When installing, push the perimeter ceiling boards tight into the self-adhesive perimeter foam.
- Tape and join the boards;
- Apply Oscar Seal intumescent acoustic sealant to fill the ‘sealant gap’ and level off;
- Plaster over the plasterboard and dried Oscar Seal;
- Before the plaster is fully dry, run the tip of a nail or a blade around the edge of the plaster to create a small gap of about 3mm between the plaster and the walls;
- When dry, Reseal the gap created using Oscar Seal;
- Decorate your soundproof ceiling.
In order to understand these instructions more easily, we recommend watching our ‘How to Soundproof a Ceiling’ video using Oscar Acoustics Iso-Mount Type2 below:
soundproofing ceilings with Oscar Acoustics
If you have more questions about our acoustic hanger range or general queries about how to soundproof a ceiling, we recommend contacting us. One of our experienced soundproofing experts will be more than happy to answer your questions.