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So, I have a rental duplex and one tenant has absolutely DESTROYED a unit. I won't get into all of it here as it makes my blood boil...but suffice it to say I will have all the studs exposed including the ceiling. This is an over/under duplex, not a side by side, so in order to cut noise between the two apartments I plan to insulate the first floor ceiling. Right now, rockwool appears to be the solution - albeit pricey (I'm looking at about 800 square feet). I've also considered plain ol' thermal pink fiberglass insulation (less $, but less isolation too), and companies also offer acoustic panel boards (like drywall) but not sure how those would work in this application.
I'm a concert engineer and I've done lots of acoustic work IN rooms - cutting echoes, reducing rumbles, reducing amblents, stuff like that - but this is my first foray into keeping noise from traveling from one room to another. I know there is "amblent" noise, as well as "mechanical" noise - ambient being voices transmitted through air space, mechanical being footsteps transmitted through the structure itself. I'll never get all the mechanical out - and I'm OK with that. People talk, and watch TV, a lot more than they walk around - and frankly anything is better than it is now (bare - original 1952 - hardwood flooring upstairs, bare wood joists, and zero insulation whatsoever).
Just curious if anyone here has done something like this, before I spend a ton of money on something that doesn't work worth a damn...
I'm a concert engineer and I've done lots of acoustic work IN rooms - cutting echoes, reducing rumbles, reducing amblents, stuff like that - but this is my first foray into keeping noise from traveling from one room to another. I know there is "amblent" noise, as well as "mechanical" noise - ambient being voices transmitted through air space, mechanical being footsteps transmitted through the structure itself. I'll never get all the mechanical out - and I'm OK with that. People talk, and watch TV, a lot more than they walk around - and frankly anything is better than it is now (bare - original 1952 - hardwood flooring upstairs, bare wood joists, and zero insulation whatsoever).
Just curious if anyone here has done something like this, before I spend a ton of money on something that doesn't work worth a damn...