Sound Proofing for Home Cinema

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
15,861
Location
NW London
Hi,

Ive just bought my own place and I intend to have a very loud home cinema setup in the living room. But to avoid waking up the neighbours upstairs, i wanted to install some sort of sound proofing in the ceiling.

Does anyone know anything about sound proofing a living room (ceiling) or can anyone point me in the right direction? Also any ideas of how much sound proofing would cost?

Thanks.
 
rewire or soundproofing: which should be done first?

Right. After some research, i think i know what needs to be done. The picture below shows how the soundproofing materials are attached to the existing ceiling:

http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/soundproofing/ceiling_rbars1.html

So, thats what im going to get done within the next few weeks. However, i now have a new dilemma. I will also be having the ceiling lights in that room rewired. The rewiring project would include removing the existing spotlights and repositioning them elsewhere.

My question: which should i get done first, the rewiring or the ceiling soundproofing?
 
The problem with getting the ceiling sound proofed and rewired at the same time is that the people doing the jobs are different and i would rather do them one at a time. It will be impractical to have someone skimming the ceiling (with plaster) while someone else is pulling wire out from the ceiling. One job has to be done before the other, unfortunately.

Point taken about the bass. Im just trying to do whatever i can to minimise disruption to the neighbours upstairs when i crank up the volume levels.
 
Of course the best way to deal with this situation is to have a room within a room type system in place. However, the cost of this would run way too high. Hence, i'm just looking to protect the upstairs neighbours from my movie watching. I have no neighbours to the sides of me, in that there are no party walls. There is a 2 meter gap on either side of the room, hence im not worried about the neighbours to the side. The only people that count are those who live above me. Its so bad right now that if they had a conversation at normal volume i could tell them exactly what was said. This is totally unacceptable to me. They are tennants so they cant lift up the floorboards and soundproof from their end.

Ive since discovered that the lounge has a suspended ceiling with about 13cm of air space above it. So ive changed my plan. Im gonna buy 10cm thick acoustic mineral wool (density at least 60kg/sq.m, preferable 100kg/sq.m). I will then lay it above the suspended ceiling. Im gonna see if that works. If it doesnt, then the next step would be to spend about £3k+ and have a room within a room. However, this would be an extreme measure.
 
pieman109 said:
Stick a load of egg boxes to the ceiling! (sorry couldn't resist, but its feasible as a temporary try out)

That wont work - the density of the egg boxes is too low. :p

Im currently in contact with the guys who supply the mineral wool. If i do get it in i will take pics and show how ive installed the stuff and will give an idea on whether or not they have helped out with the sound proofing.
 
When i first read that u wanted the egg boxes filled, i thought u were gonna recommend that they be filled with eggs. And that u had read some research documents which stated that eggs are terrific for sound proofing. Furthermore, i also had the idea that u would recommend that the eggs be rotten, to increase the sound proofing. It would then not surprise me if other people backed u up on this. ;)

Anyway, im gonna stick with my current idea. The mineral wool looks like it gonna set me back £400, plus installation charges (if i dont do it myself).
 
From what ive read Green Glue is excellent and providing u have 2 surfaces, to sandwich the GreenGlue its great.

But i did read someone elses comments on another forum and they stated that "weight" is very important. For example, lets say for example u r sound proofing a wall. The most important thing is to make use a material that has a lot of mass, like thick, heavy plasterboard and some sort of insulation (like mineral wool, or acoustic quilt). Then after u have done that, add green glue in between 2 sheets of plasterboard. This will give you the weight as well as the sound absorbing properties of GreenGlue.

Unfortunately, i am doing the ceiling and i have no desire to rip down the current ceiling. So, i will try and work with the suspended ceiling that i have in place already and see what i can achieve with that.

On a further note with mineral wool slabs; i tried to get a sample, but the guy said they dont have any spare bits lying around. Hence, without even seeing the product, i will have to make decision on which wool i will be buying - 6kg/sqm, 8kg/sqm or 10kg/sqm. I am erring towards 10kg/m with a thickness of 10cm. It will set me back £400 for the room i plan to lay it in.
 
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