Sound proofing ceiling

[Daniel Alegre]

So today my wife was showing one of our apartments that is a multifamily, a unit upstairs and downstairs. My wife and I along with our son use to live in the upstairs apartment and rented out the bottom. Being that we had rented out to an adult couple we never heard them at all. Well during the showing today the tenant downstairs was yelling at her kids trying to get them bathed and ready for bed, they have a boy (4) and girl (6). We forgot to tell her we were showing tonight. My wife and the prospective tenant could hear everything, we didnt think it was going to be a problem.

I spoke to the tenant and asked them to be more aware when we get tenants upstairs but this will not matter to the kids im sure they will yell and fight. So i am thinking i am going to have to bite the bullet and pay for sound proofing. Our unit is in Burlington city NJ , does anyone know of who i can contact who specializes in sound proofing, because i don't want to spend thousands on quiet rock just to find it didn't work? So does anyone know of anyone in particular near me or tell me what kind of contractor i should be looking for?

[Kurt G.]

We used a type of 'resilient channel' in our home years ago to sound proof between our family room in the basement and main living area.  It is essentially a spring between the floor joists and the drywall that absorbs sound vibrations instead of transferring them through the joists.  We also insulated between the joists with sound batts to be sure we got the best possible result.  The channel was relatively inexpensive and works great, but it will require another layer of drywall or tearing the existing out and re-drywalling the ceiling.