Soundproofing an apartment ceiling??

[withm]

The standard way to solve this problem is to "laminate" your existing drywall ceiling - that is to add another layer of drywall over top the existing drywall, and with a new layer of sound- insulation in between. This will lower your ceiling height by several inches. If you have standard 8' ceilings you probably won't want to do this, and it's probably prohibited by your local building code. Plus, unless you did it yourself, it would cost a couple thousand dollars or more, per room. This is a common method that some people like to do to cover up the old textured "popcorn" ceilings. (The popcorn starts to disintegrate after 30 years or so, and can't be cleaned, nor painted, at that point because it just falls apart, making for a very messy, messy job.) Laminating the ceiling is much cheaper, cleaner, and faster, than it is to demo the ceiling, and put up new drywall.)

Another way to solve this might be to go upstairs and talk to your neighbors and let them know that they probably don't realize how sound carries in the building and perhaps they could put some carpeting down. Bring a batch of homemade cookies, or bread, or something nice. Invite one of them to come down to your unit while the other proceeds to move the furniture around in their usual fashion so they can hear how loud it is, even if just one at a time.

If you sense resistance, you might even offer to buy them a thick rug that would go with their decor. That would be by far the cheapest solution.

If it's mostly the furniture moving that's an issue, buy them a set of glides for whatever it is that they are moving. If it's loud talking, TV, music, then you need to get them to agree to be more conscientious about the noise, a rug, and/or pay for part of your ceiling renovation.

I know how much loud neighbors can destroy your sanity. Good luck!