I am moving into a loft in a day or two and was looking for some advice on
"soundproofing" part of the room. Is the room within a room idea worth any-
thing? I want the ability to play my drums during most normal hours of the
day without bothering my neighbors. I have 1440 square feet
(32W*16H*45L) at my disposal and was thinking of taking one quarter of this
space to build a room. I have neighbors below me, but am unsure of the
thickness of the flooring... I would imagine judging from the building that
there is probably a foot to a foot and a half of thickness between floors if
not more. There are people above me as well but I'm unsure as to whether
or not they are there during the evening.
I've read the other threads on here about soundproofing, but I was looking more
for a condensed version of them, possibly additional information.
Personally, I have experience with construction and electrical work.. so
most of that isn't a big issue for me.. the logistics is the problem for me.
Another thing is how to do what will work best to keep sound from being
an annoyance, within a budget of ~$1000.
Thanks in advance for the help.
P.S. What's up sakes you old bugger!
Questions about " soundproofing" a room.
2I correct the height to be 12-14 feet depending on area of the room (pipes hanging
from the ceiling.)
from the ceiling.)
Questions about " soundproofing" a room.
3Hi Ian.
First of all, there is a wealth of information about sound isolation here on the Acoustics & Design forum. I've learned a ton from that site.
Unless there's some serious concrete between you and your downstairs neighbor you are going to need to build a room within a room on top of a floating floor. To do this right you will need more than a grand. I recommend talking to your neighbors before you build anything to find out what their schedules and lifestyles/personalities are like. If the guy beneath you is cool you could probably get away with a "sandwich" style floor, which might keep the project within you budget. My live room is built on top of a four layer sandwich of Sheetrock, Soundboard, and plywood. We are in a basement and don't have downstairs neighbors to worry about - the purpose was simply to decouple the room from the existing floor to minimize transmission through the concrete to adjacent rooms. Some crude tests showed that it helped considerably, but it won't be as effective in your situation as using U-boats or springs.
What you want to do is not impossible - definitely check out that forum because there are people there who know way more than I do about this stuff. And feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.
-Charles
First of all, there is a wealth of information about sound isolation here on the Acoustics & Design forum. I've learned a ton from that site.
Unless there's some serious concrete between you and your downstairs neighbor you are going to need to build a room within a room on top of a floating floor. To do this right you will need more than a grand. I recommend talking to your neighbors before you build anything to find out what their schedules and lifestyles/personalities are like. If the guy beneath you is cool you could probably get away with a "sandwich" style floor, which might keep the project within you budget. My live room is built on top of a four layer sandwich of Sheetrock, Soundboard, and plywood. We are in a basement and don't have downstairs neighbors to worry about - the purpose was simply to decouple the room from the existing floor to minimize transmission through the concrete to adjacent rooms. Some crude tests showed that it helped considerably, but it won't be as effective in your situation as using U-boats or springs.
What you want to do is not impossible - definitely check out that forum because there are people there who know way more than I do about this stuff. And feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.
-Charles
Questions about " soundproofing" a room.
4www.kineticsnoise.com is a good place to look into construction products.
They have a nice 'glass mat flooring with pre-spaced isolation blocks to easily do a lower cost floating floor. If you want the high dough fully sprung floating floor, they have that too.
They have the wall isolation braces to structurally tie into the existing wall to keep the floated walls plumb while isolating them from the existing walls.
They also offer ceiling isolation products to suspend the ceiling from an existing structure.
Also, the inline duct silencers muffle the extraneous noise that WILL creep in through your HVAC, even if it you keep it turned off while the tape is rolling.
They have a nice 'glass mat flooring with pre-spaced isolation blocks to easily do a lower cost floating floor. If you want the high dough fully sprung floating floor, they have that too.
They have the wall isolation braces to structurally tie into the existing wall to keep the floated walls plumb while isolating them from the existing walls.
They also offer ceiling isolation products to suspend the ceiling from an existing structure.
Also, the inline duct silencers muffle the extraneous noise that WILL creep in through your HVAC, even if it you keep it turned off while the tape is rolling.
Questions about " soundproofing" a room.
5Under a grand is going to be very tough. Some freinds of mine tried to make a practice space in their apartment and could never stop the noise leaking, no matter how hard they tried, and no matter how much they built. They spent over a grand on soundproofing that was $4 per square foot, let alone the other building costs.
And still the neighbors complained. Eventually they gave up and just decided to rent a practice space.
And still the neighbors complained. Eventually they gave up and just decided to rent a practice space.
Questions about " soundproofing" a room.
6patrick md wrote:Under a grand is going to be very tough. Some freinds of mine tried to make a practice space in their apartment and could never stop the noise leaking, no matter how hard they tried, and no matter how much they built. They spent over a grand on soundproofing that was $4 per square foot, let alone the other building costs.
And still the neighbors complained. Eventually they gave up and just decided to rent a practice space.
That's understandable. I realize under a grand is going to be a huge huge
stretch now. We'll see how it all pans out. It's an artist loft space and the old
tenants used to skate in the place all the time, and the neighbors didn't get
all up in arms about it, but I would like some noise reduction in place because
drums are definitely louder than a skateboard.
Thanks guys.
