So I'm going to build a room in my basement to soundproof it. Any advice? I know it needs to be mechanically isolated. I need to float the floor, I've heard you need to use these hard rubber pellets to put your floor frame on but I don't know where to find them. What do you use to float your floors and where did you get them>?
-n

hey-

there's tons of info on that and many other things here:

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewforum ... bafd549b6d

which kinda "soundproof" do you mean? prevent transmission of noise to the outside of the house, prevent transmission of noise to the other parts of the house, make it so it's not as loud inside the room itself, or the only true definition of "soundproof", the one where you suck all the air out of the room, creating a vaccuum, thus preventing the ability of sound to exist inside the room? unless it's the second one, there's no sense in building a room-within-a-room type deal.

I'm looking to prevent as much noise as posible from getting in or out of the room.

Ideally I want absolutly no sound to escape the house. A tiny little bit of bleed within the house is okay, but there are neighbors.

-n

brick house? basement room? and how much bleed into the house are you willing to deal with?

i have a brick house with a basement rehersal room, and for a total cost of less than $100, we sound-insulated so the transimission to the exterior was cut down enough that we can play loud rock any time of day with no complaints. but it's pretty damn loud inside the house.

anybody in DC wanna take my spot in this house, there's less than a week left before my roommate is gonna hafta give the place up, probably to some punk-ass yuppie family who won't use it to rock out. he needs a roommate.

yeah, under $100.

yeah, under $100.

cazzo!

I remember your post about the materials. How much time (man-hours) did it take to set it up?

I've heard hockey pucks make cheap alternatives for floating floors.
later,
m

gio wrote:

yeah, under $100.

cazzo!

I remember your post about the materials. How much time (man-hours) did it take to set it up?

including the time to drive to home depot and buy the materials, and then design, measure, cut, assemble, caulk... i dunno, maybe 10 hours total? i was gonna say 6, but we did the windows one day and then had to go back and get more wood to do the door since it turned out that was the major source of leakage anyways. so maybe 10 hours, give or take a couple hours.

this is funny, cause now that i'm moving out, i just remembered, i'll find out what i had crammed into the window cavity to help soak up sound... one cool blanket that i remember, but other than that, it's gonna be all surprise.

I'm not worried about the money. Just the neigbors continuing to like me and the ability to record drums at just about any time.

Hockey Pucks would add like an inch.....

That link is totally helpful, still can't find where to buy the little hard rubber pieces.

-n

yeah, i dunno i always just take this maybe unrealistic maybe realistic approach, but floating the floor is maybe only important if you're worried about not picking up or transmitting vibrations from/to the room below you, or from the earth in general if you're in a basement, and are part of the whole room-within-a-room thing, if you're going all-out like that. but then, room-within-a-room, are you serious? isn't that at least 10 grand to pull that off in a meaningful way? after you've gotten into the cost of buying the badass doors you'll need, all the other materials for hanging a ceiling and floating a floor, bringing in an electician to run new electrical to your room, and an HVAC contractor that can handle providing HVAC with that low of an STC? or were you planning on doing that stuff yourself? i know in chicago it would be illegal to do the electrical part yourself, and as far as the HVAC, that's a tall order. and without it, boy is that room gonna get unbearable after an hour or so of a drummer working it, sweating like mad and making the place all hot and reeking of drummer-stink. and no fresh air at all. yeah, wow, expensive yuck if you don't do the HVAC. is it realistic to build a room-within-a-room without spending a load of money? has anybody here done it on the cheap, i.e. not costing many thousand dollars, and had it turn out good? i'd love to hear stories of that, but so far never have. on the cheap, under like $10K anyways.