Sound-deadening my utility room in basement?

Question

have a newer single story home with a full-finished basement.
The entire basement is finished except for a utility room where the furnace and water heater are located.
The problem is -- You can hear the furnace running and the gas water heater running in the family room directly above this utility room. The utility room has the ceiling open and the 1st floor joists exposed, etc. I was thinking of putting some Rockwool insulation in the utility room ceiling between the joists to help soften the noise..... Any other ideas?
tj

Answer 1

to do this right you need to know that just using insulation will not work the sound will telegraph thru. floor joist to over com this first put in your insulation then hang 3/8 dry wall on ceiling add furring strips to run across in the opposite way the joists run and put up 5/8 rock this should cure the noise problem

Answer 2

Insulating the ceiling will help. But, I don't know if you should necessarily go all out with the Rockwool. You can probably more cheaply just used rolled fiberglass insulation between the ceiling joists and then drywalling off the ceiling.

You can hold the insulation in place before the drywall a number of ways. The quickest and easiest is probably to use duct tape across the insulation every couple of feet. Then screw up the drywall to the joists (you can leave it rough, or finish it off with drywall mud and paint).

For additional sound deadening (so the sound doesn't reverberate up through an open door), set down a piece of carpet or an inexpensive area rug on the basement floor.

Answer 3

There are sound deadening panels you can get from music suppliers that you could install on the ceiling. A local music store can provide you the catalogs or companies that sell them in your area, or, many home improvement stores have acoustic tiles you could use and I mean in addition to the insulation. Since the hot water heater and the furnace are low level sounds that should be enough. If not check some other companies and add to your insulation as well as tiling the walls. Providing acoustic tiles on your walls will also reduce noise as it will absorb noise before it echos to the floor above.

Answer 4

Cheap way to go same Principal are the foam mattress that go over your bed mattress. Find the thickest one & cut with a 4" razor blade & staple or glue to ceiling of utility room.
If you glue, beware it will never come completely off.