Central Air Vent... should I return the Green Glue?

S

ShortPat

New member
Hi, first post here, couldn't find an answer elsewhere, (sorry if it's a stupid question)

Long story, but basically I'm finishing a basement that my fiance and I are going to move into and I am trying to make one room a little more soundproof than the others so I don't have to worry about bothering my new landlords when I practice/record music.

I ordered enough green glue to treat the ceiling between two layers of sheetrock that will be attached to resilient channels... but just remembered, I need to make a hole for the heating/AC... is this a lost cause?

The vents do not connect to upstairs, the basement is a separate zone. what I'm worried about is if leaving a 10"x10" hole in the ceiling is going to defeat the entire purpose of the green glue, and if so is there a countermeasure?

This is my first time trying any of this, so thank you very much for any response I really appreciate it!
 
All is not lost. If you have not put up the drywall yet, just box the area between the upper floor and your ceiling and pack it with rockwool or pink insulation, then build a air silencer and attach it to the ceiling, over the vent. Just make sure that if your air vent is a 10 x 10, your opening on the air silencer must be twice that size. You simply have two 10 x 10 outlet vents, something like pictured below. This will keep you from creating back pressure and damaging your air handler. Build the box using your green glue to seal all the corners as well as the maze area.

View attachment 100913
 
How noisy is it, really? In our house, it's the returns, and those moments where the system kicks on/off that are the real problem. So, for me, the sealed door does more than anything to cut down that. Not that you can't hear the inflow, but unless I'm recording solo acoustic something, I rarely give it a thought. Then I have to get the room (actually the upstairs in our case) a couple degrees plus or minus and just turn off the system for an hour or so.
 
Thanks for the replies, glad to hear there is something I can do. I'm more concerned about sound escaping the room than I am about the sound of air coming through the vent. That air silencer is very interesting I will definitely do more research on that. Thanks again!
 
ShortPat said:
... I'm more concerned about sound escaping the room than I am about the sound of air coming through the vent. ...
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Was just about to edit as I was re-thinking what your OP said - that's going to be a challenge, but [MENTION=196922]Mack Caster[/MENTION] posted an interesting design. It would have to help - depends what you're doing in the room whether it's enough to keep the upstairs folks happy. Maybe something like just a temporary shield/closure would work too, depending on how long you'll be banging away in there, of course.

P.S. But don't forget about the door - whatever gets out there will go through the rest of your place's ceiling quite easily.
 
ShortPat said:
Thanks for the replies, glad to hear there is something I can do. I'm more concerned about sound escaping the room than I am about the sound of air coming through the vent. That air silencer is very interesting I will definitely do more research on that. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

The air silencer does two things. It will remove any noise from your air system that comes from your air handler as well as builds mass to keep the sound from passing through the ceiling up to the next floor.
 
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