do i need floating floor for a concrete ground room?

T

tonyton

New member
ok i m planning to do a room in room for good soundproofing, the room is on the ground floor and the surfaces are made of concrete and bricks. i want to stop sounds from geting in the room so i wont have any problem recording,
i m not sure if i need to float the floor though...do you think i should? there is a street about 35 feet away of the room, so i m afraid there might be basy sounds transmiting through the ground. what do you guys think would be a good thing to do?
 
thanks for the link rick, it realy helped, i think floating the floor wont be necesary after all, since the concrete floor is built on solid ground...thanks again
 
thanks for the link rick, it realy helped
Click to expand...
No problem. :) The real problem with roads being very close is usually Low Frequency rumble via structural transmission. However, to really address this problem takes a robust solution, which is usually floating a slab via spring isolators. And this type of slab needs to be professionally engineered AND installed. To make matters worse, the whole room needs to be built on this floating floor, and considering the mass it takes to match the TL of the floor, this room can weigh more than the supporting slab was designed to support, which could possibly mean cutting the existing slab and repouring a new one with footings perhaps. Which could actually be a decoupled slab in the first place. ;) This actually is what Kieth did here.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&highlight=garage

However, depending on how bad the transmission is from the street, you could float a floor on a product which is a matt of roll out fiberglass with Sylomor pucks integrated into it. Then simply lay down a plywood subfloor/finish floor. Although this is usually designed for rooms that do NOT require substantial low frequency transmission loss from the outside world.

And then there is the matter of need. Do your recordings ACTUALLY require the kind of isolation that prostudio SERVICES require. In otherwords, are you selling studio time. And then theres budget/time/skill/permits. Those are all things that must be considered as well.
I know of one person who floated a floor that was CALCULATED for 110db TL at 2:00 in the morning, so he wouldn't wake his wife:D Of course, this also took walls and ceilings structurally engineered to support FIVE layers of 5/8" drywall and one layer of 3/4" MDF:eek: And then there was the engineered HVAC and computer Silencer ducts:eek: They EACH had the same assembly composition:eek::eek::rolleyes: Thats what I mean about "need" vs ability to either build it DIY or deep pockets to achieve it.


Anyway, good luck.
fitZ
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
No problem. :) The real problem with roads being very close is usually Low Frequency rumble via structural transmission. However, to really address this problem takes a robust solution, which is usually floating a slab via spring isolators. And this type of slab needs to be professionally engineered AND installed. To make matters worse, the whole room needs to be built on this floating floor, and considering the mass it takes to match the TL of the floor, this room can weigh more than the supporting slab was designed to support, which could possibly mean cutting the existing slab and repouring a new one with footings perhaps. Which could actually be a decoupled slab in the first place. ;) This actually is what Kieth did here.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&highlight=garage

However, depending on how bad the transmission is from the street, you could float a floor on a product which is a matt of roll out fiberglass with Sylomor pucks integrated into it. Then simply lay down a plywood subfloor/finish floor. Although this is usually designed for rooms that do NOT require substantial low frequency transmission loss from the outside world.

And then there is the matter of need. Do your recordings ACTUALLY require the kind of isolation that prostudio SERVICES require. In otherwords, are you selling studio time. And then theres budget/time/skill/permits. Those are all things that must be considered as well.
I know of one person who floated a floor that was CALCULATED for 110db TL at 2:00 in the morning, so he wouldn't wake his wife:D Of course, this also took walls and ceilings structurally engineered to support FIVE layers of 5/8" drywall and one layer of 3/4" MDF:eek: And then there was the engineered HVAC and computer Silencer ducts:eek: They EACH had the same assembly composition:eek::eek::rolleyes: Thats what I mean about "need" vs ability to either build it DIY or deep pockets to achieve it.


Anyway, good luck.
fitZ
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well its for a music school fitz, ( i teach the guitar there), the plan is to soundproof the room for rehersal purposes and then after a while use the same room as a live room (for recordings). i guess the soundproofing will have to be good.
i dont think there will be a problem with noise from the street afterall, because its a small street and cars go slow. Although on one side of the room there is a space where children play sometimes, so i m guessing that the worst scenario would be a kid bouncing a ball on the ground outside the room.
Do you think, something like what i draw on the picture can happen without a floating floor?
if you bounce a ball outside of the room now..(without the double wall and ceiling) you can hear the ball clearly inside the room...although i cant determine if any of the sound is coming through the floor....but there s definately a lot coming through the walls..
 

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tonyton said:
if you bounce a ball outside of the room now..(without the double wall and ceiling) you can hear the ball clearly inside the room...although i cant determine if any of the sound is coming through the floor....but there s definately a lot coming through the walls..
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Tony,

why wonder? Identify the source - get a mechanics stethoscope and check the floor when the ball is bouncing.

Rod
 
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