Extensive Drop Ceiling Project- I need help!

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kpatten

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Ok. We have an odd situation. First off- we own a loft- in which the upstairs neighbor decided to put in hardwood floors without soundproofing. The HOA can't do anything about this- so we're on our own. The biggest problem is the bedroom- It has one brick wall, one load bearing wall, then two walls that don't go all the way to the ceiling (which is 13ft) We were thinking about doing the whole ceiling with green glue and another layer of sheet rock- but it's expensive, we would have to do the whole loft all at once, and it's not fun- plus would be a lot of money that wouldn't make the place look any different... So, as the bedroom is the worst area (as she walks around a lot at night), we've had an idea. The problem is- I don't know if it can be done. This is where you come in! My thought is to just do the bedroom and start by finishing the two walls- so they go all the way to the ceiling. Then, add wood beams (to represent the wood beams that are usually in floors/ceilings) and fill them with some kind of impact sound proofing foam?? Any ideas on this? Add a layer of foam pads (for extra sound proofing) Then put in a 'drop ceiling' to go down from the 13ft ceiling to the height of the original walls (8ft). Adding a sliding panel on the new side wall- for easy access to this upper area- and be able to use it as storage. Then put lighting and speakers in the new ceiling. Now this new ceiling can be made out of wood or whatever- because I'm going to cover it with plastic ceiling (decorative- to look like old metal ones) tile. It needs to be strong enough to hold a decent amount for weight- yet be supported enough so it doesn't bow or fall in. It also needs TON of impact sound proofing- otherwise it's all in vain. Is this even possible? How would I go about it? What products should I use? Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated!!! THX!
 
Why not just do a spray foam insulation on the ceiling and drop ceiling tiles?

Or a really loud stero when she starts hoofing it around.
 
She walks around at night- and while we can mask the sound with turning the tv up really loud during the day- it doesn't work so well at night. We can hear her over a noise machine we got- and the washer- that we start when we go to bed to help mask it. At the current time- all of our loft is open at the ceiling- so if we just did drop ceiling tiles- we would have to do it over the whole loft- and loose some value (as we lost height) instead of gaining value by adding storage (like in my idea).
 
You're certainly not alone. This is a very common scenario and question. There are increasing levels of isolation, which require increasing levels of recources to achieve.

Solutions range from adding drywall and a damping material as you suggested to removing the ceiling drywall board and replacing with a drywall system.

The problem you face is known as impact noise. This is different from airborne noise. Harder to deal with.

You have a lot of ceiling height. Could the new ceiling be drywall?
 

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