Drop ceiling for insulation

manic111

manic111

manic111

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Hi everyone. I've moved into a ground floor maisonette recently. It's great, except that in my living room I can hear the TV from the upstairs flat really loudly. I have pretty high ceilings (about 2.6m) so could happily lose a few inches for the sake of some insulation. How easy and expensive would it be to get a drop ceiling with some rockwool installed? The only slight complications are that the room is a slightly funny shape due to a bay window, and presumably I'd need to get the (single) light fitting moved onto the "new" ceiling.

The room is around 2.8m by 3.4m plus the area of the bay window which is 0.8 by 1.8.

Thanks!

Edit: oh, and how do I check whether it's already insulated? Presumably I just drill a little hole and see whether there's anything there?
 
I guess by the height this is an older property so probably no insulation there. Although do you have any decorative cornicing or an old ceiling rose on the ceiling? Just to try and gauge whether its been changed at some point.

Another thing to check is the living room height in comparison to the bedroom etc as if they are higher its possible the living room ceiling has already been dropped.
 
sja360 said:
I guess by the height this is an older property so probably no insulation there. Although do you have any decorative cornicing or an old ceiling rose on the ceiling? Just to try and gauge whether its been changed at some point.

Another thing to check is the living room height in comparison to the bedroom etc as if they are higher its possible the living room ceiling has already been dropped.
Click to expand...

Cheers - the living room and bedroom are the same height. Weirdly the kitchen is quieter and has a lower ceiling so I reckon it's better insulated.

There's no ceiling rose. There's some coving which looks pretty new but nothing more decorative than that. I know that the flat was redone in around 2017, but on the basis of the noise there doesn't seem to be any insulation.

Any idea of very approximate cost for getting someone in to do this? Towards the low end of the 1000s or into the 10000s?

Edit: just read more into acoustic fibreboard which looks pretty straightforward - do you just stick it on and plaster over it?
 
You could rip the ceiling down yourself to save some pennies. It creates a proper mess though so get one of those plastic sheet coverings for your lounge door.

Boarding and skimming a ceiling isn’t that expensive. But you need to paint again and put coving up again (if you want it). Also it’s a good time to chase more power sockets if you want them while the ceiling is down.
There’s also the added problem that if it’s an old ceiling it could be lath and plaster which is a right mess to clear up, and also the possibility of asbestos. I think if you got a plasterer in they’d probably suggest boarding over the top rather than ripping out the old and reboarding.

Cost completely depends on what you’re willing to do yourself and where you live so people can’t help too much on that. Ask for advice from local Facebook groups etc for recommendations for builders + plasterers.
 
Low £1000's depending on the choice of soundproofing for eample you can get soundproof platerboard for £15 per sheet and higher quality stuff up to £50 per sheet.
 
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