You came home after a long exhausting day, lying on your couch and relaxing with your eyes shut to calm your mind. Suddenly, you hear a sound from upstairs, an item of furniture dragging from one corner to the other corner of the apartment from upstairs.
Now you feel like you’re in a middle of a construction field. Or maybe loud music or voices are coming from the upstairs continuously. Irritating, right? If your neighbor isn’t cooperative, then it’s really unfortunate to have such a neighbor.
So, let’s get to the steps of soundproofing condo apartment ceiling. So what? If they are not cooperative? We are! We are here to help you so that you can prevent this kind of irritating sound from disturbing you by soundproofing your apartment ceiling.
How To Soundproofing Condo Apartment Ceiling? [Pro Guide]
Soundproofing a condo apartment ceiling is not that difficult. You can do it by yourself. But before you start soundproofing your apartment, you need to identify what kind of sound you are hearing?
Two types of sound coming from upstairs.
- Impact noise
- Airborne noise
Impact Noise: Chair dragging sound, footsteps, kids scampering, etc., are impact noise. These kinds of noises travel through the object and reverb to the down. For impact noise, you can take these steps—
- Mass loaded vinyl
- Acoustic Foam panels
- Soundproof curtains
- Soundproof drywall
- Acoustic foam egg panels
- Acoustic paint
Airborne Noise: Sound that travels through waves such as loud music, people screaming, etc., are considered to be airborne noise.
- Fix holes
- Green glue
- Cellulose
- Fiberglass
Each one has different kinds of solutions. You can not apply one’s solution to the other one. For impact noise, you can not apply airborne noise solution and vise-versa.
How To Block Impact Noise
There are some effective ways to block impact noise. We will guide you through this process one by one.
Acoustic Foam Panels
Using an acoustic foam panel is one of the most effective ways to block the unnecessary sound coming upstairs.
The musician also uses this foam in their studio to isolate the studio room from unnecessary noise. Materials that are needed—
- Acoustic foam panels
- Adhesive spray
- Cup-board
- Hand gloves
- Sticky double-sided tape tabs
Related: How To Stop Fridge Rattling Noise
How To Use Acoustic Foam Panels
To soundproof your condo apartment ceiling, you can use acoustic foam panels by yourself. You don’t need an expert for this job. Just follow our instructions—
- Step 1: Cut the acoustic foam panels in the same size. So, when you put them in the ceiling, there is no space left in the middle.
- Step 2: Cut the cupboard into thin slices to place them behind the foam panels.
- Step 3: Now, use an adhesive spray in the cupboard also behind acoustic foam panels.
- Step 4: Place two cupboard pieces in the foam panels, one on the extreme right side and the other on the left side, so a small space is visible in the middle.
- Step 5: Now press the cupboard gently so that the cupboard gets stuck with the foam panels. Do not forget to wear hand gloves because these adhesive sprays get stucks with the hand easily.
- Step 6: Put two double-sided sticky tape tabs on the cupboard. One in the right-sided one and the other one on the left-sided one.
- Step 7: Now, put them into the ceiling one by one. You are DONE!
Now enjoy your time with complete silence.
Use Mass-loaded Vinyl
The primary purpose of mass-loaded vinyl is to work as a sound barrier. They are made of two elements calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, and vinyl. The vinyl gives the MLV its flexibility, and the other two elements with their highly dense compound give the MLV soundproofing capability.
Mass-loaded vinyl works both ways. They work as a sound barrier and also work as a sound absorber. For its super flexible capability, you can use it in any corner of your room. Now, this question might come to your mind, is mass-loaded vinyl safe? Well, the answer is a big YES! Barium sulfate is one of the ingredients that is used to make MLV. It is used in its inert form to create MLV.
In its inert form, barium sulfate is safe, unlike elemental barium, which can be very toxic to individuals exposed to high levels. Mass-loaded vinyl is not a hundred percent fireproof, albeit it is designed to assign higher temperatures. Still, if the temperature continues to get high, the plasticizers within it will ignite after a time.
But compared to other soundproofing processes, materials used in this process are much safer than others. Another question that might take place in your mind that, Is MLV painting friendly? Well, the answer is yes. There are two colors available in the market for MLV, black and gray. If it doesn’t suit your taste of color, then you can paint them with your favorite color.
How to Use MLV to Soundproof the Ceiling
If your neighbor’s footsteps make your peaceful room into a noisy room, then using MLV in your ceiling is your solution. Follow our instructions on how you can make room silent with mass-loaded vinyl.
- Step 1: Measure the ceilings from one corner to the other.
- Step 2: Now, cut the MLV with an extra one or two inches so that when you put it on the ceiling, it does not go short in size.
- Step 3: Put the MLV in the ceiling and grill the whole ceiling.
- Step 4: This particular step is optional. Suppose you do not like the color of the MLV then, paint it according to your taste of color.
The only downside that we found of this product is that it is a little bit pricey, but if you are looking for a long-term solution, it’s all worth it.
Using Acoustic Paint
Soundproof paint is also known as acoustic paint. It can be your permanent solution from outside noises that inflows to your bedroom. It might be surprising to know that even painting can reduce or block sound from inflowing to your room. For the last couple of years, it’s getting more and more attention from the sufferers of impact noise.
Acoustic paint is non-hazardous and apt for both interior and exterior use. You can use it in your ceiling by spraying, rolling, or brushing just like any other paint. When it gets dry, a protective film is created on the paint’s surface, UV and water-resistant. It also unveils very low compressibility.
Regular Paint vs. Acoustic Paint
We are familiar with regular paint, and its both good and bad sides. But what about acoustic paint? Acoustic paints are made of vinyl acrylic, also known as latex. As a result, they hold a manacle of polymer. It works as a binder for the water-based surface of the paint.
And another difference between acoustic and regular paints is that its sense of insulation properties. The vinyl acrylic element is specially made to provide acoustic and thermal insulation on the surface. Acoustic paint holds some specifically made soundproofing fillers, which increases the paint’s noise captivating properties. Those fillers are known as ceramic microspheres.
On the other hand, regular paints contain irregular fillers that do not flow together most of the time. As a result, they leave large gaps that deprive everyday paint of providing a solid surface capable of absorbing noise.
How Acoustic Paint Protects Our House from Noise?
Well, the usual answer is the thickness of the paint that protects our home from noise. We all know that the thicker the materials, the more capable of protecting your house from noise.
Acoustic paints are thicker than most regular paints, so it contains an excessive competency of protecting your house or room from unnecessary noises.
How To Use Acoustic Paint?
The painting process of acoustic paint is as usual. You can use a spray bottle, rolling brush, etc.
But experts suggest that to get full protection from noise, always use three layers of acoustic painting in the ceiling. It will prevent the impact noise from inflowing into your room from upstairs.
How To Block Airborne Noise
Airborne sound travels through waves. That’s why the more holes you have in your house, the more noisy inside of your house will be. But with proper instructions, you can block airborne noise from entering your house. Let us guide you through these processes.
Fix Holes
As we already know that airborne sounds travel through waves. As a result, this kind of sound searches for holes and open spaces to get into the house. If we manage to block those holes, the airborne noise will be reduced considerably. To reduce this kind of sound, you can take the following steps—
Soundproofing Apartment Ceiling with Fiberglass
Soundproofing your apartment ceiling with fiberglass is quite complicated. If you install fiberglass inside drywall, many things create barriers, such as wires, gas lines, water lines, etc. Don’t worry; we are here to help you out in that case. Just follow our instructions step by step—
- Step 1
Put your hand gloves and mask on. And cut the fiberglass packet with a sharp knife.
- Step 2
If there are too many barriers across the ceiling, measure them out and cut the fiberglass accordingly. Remember, do not remove the paper behind the fiberglass.
- Step 3
Put the small pieces first in the drywall in places with no barrier to blockage the fiberglass.
- Step 4
Now, put the big pieces inside the drywall.
- Step 5
Remember we told you not to remove the paper? Now you have to use your staple gun in the paper so that the fiberglass does not fall out from the drywall.
Soundproofing Your Condo Apartment Ceiling with Cellulose
Using cellulose to soundproof your condo apartment ceiling is a popular way of noise blocking. If you want to insert cellulose into an existing ceiling, before that, you have to do some additional work.
Let’s guide you through this process—
- Step 1: First, you need to build drywall throughout the ceiling.
- Step 2: Now, netted the whole drywall ceiling and left some small holes so that pipes can go inside and blow cellulose.
- Step 3: Blow the cellulose carefully, especially in the edge and corner of the ceiling.
- Step 4: After that, install the permanent ceiling.
One of the downsides of this process is it is expensive, and it needs experts’ help. You can not do it alone.
Soundproofing Your Condo Apartment Ceiling With Green Glue
Using green glue for a soundproofing project is better than other options. Why are we saying this? Because when you use this glue for sound reduction, you will see the significant result it shows.
How To Use Green Glue
Using green glue in the drywall is easy. No expert is needed for this task, and you can do it by yourself. Follow our guide to find out how you can use green glue soundproofing compound—
- Step 1: Apply green glue in the compound sheet on edge and slowly throughout the whole compound.
- Step 2: Make sure the compound is covered perfectly with green glue.
- Step 3: Withing the fifteen minutes of applying green glue noise-proofing compound to your drywall, fasten with screws that comply with local building codes.
Conclusion
If the main motto is peace and silence in your apartment, then going through some hassle of building a soundproofing ceiling is all worth it. In this article, we talked about various ways of soundproofing a condo apartment ceiling.
You first need to identify the sounds category because you can not apply the impact noise solution to the airborne noise solution. Then category wised select which option goes with your affordability.
After deciding that make sure that you follow the instructions properly. One simple mistake might cost you a lot. Some processes require experts’ help. Do not try to do them by yourself as the chances of ruining the task are high.
Keep that in mind, some processes might not completely block the sound from inflowing to your house or your room, but it will reduce the sound decibel significantly. I hope now you know how to soundproofing condo apartment ceiling.
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