I have Angry nieghbors, How would you Soundproof your basement?

  • Thread starter Thread starter funksoulrubber
  • Start date Start date
Hey phones,

nice record ya got going there......... about 25% of your posts actually have merit........ nice to see you aren't a complete waste........ I mean hell - 75% of the time - could be worse right?

Most sincerely,

Rod
 
Trying to return the thread to real information....

Understand, funksoulrubber, that real isolation, the kind that will allow your neighbors really to not notice that you are making a whole crapload of sound, require carefull attention to details. Bad seals on the door or bad caulking or a penetrating duct or outlet box or even a screw-through on resillient channel can undo a lot of other expensive work.

Ok, that being said, lets look at your specific problem. First of all what you are describing seems sort of like mass loaded vinyl but not quite. I am leary about their claims. Be leary about miracle soundproofing claims from a material that is not heavy. Besides I am guessing this stuff is pricey.

Usually the biggest problem with converting a basement is headroom. If you are lucky your basement has a full 8 feet of headroom but many do not, Adding a whole extra set of joists, at least six inches deep plus sheathing is going to give you a rather claustrophobic space.

Now, lets go to the basics. What you want is two massive and decoupled leaves with a cushioned air space in between. You already have your first leaf, the floor above. but how do you add mass to it? You could add it to the floor above, like putting mass loaded vinyl under the carpet, or if the floor above is untouchable direct screw a layer of gypsum board directly to the underfloor between the studs, caulking the edges. sure the joists themselves will represent a flanking path, but they have some mass too.

Next comes the airspace, which you have between the joists already. You just have to cushion it so standing waves do not get set up in the cavity. Fluffy insulation found at home improvement stores is sufficient for this. Fill it nice and solid.

Now comes the lower, decoupled leaf. What I would suggest is two layers of gypsum board screwed to hat channel on isolation clips, such as RISC-1 or ISOMAX. The mounting clips are expensive, but the gypsum board is cheap. But watch the details: caulking, penetration, connections to walls, etc. And of course this is just the ceiling. No soundproofing is better than its weakest element.
 
frederic said:
I don't know what it is, but lately the crankyness is astounding.

Is it because its cold and wintery, and no one's going outside for fresh air anymore? Or is the sun setting too early and the constant dark is affecting people's moods?

Geez.

Prozac for everyone!

I just get annoyed at the amount of people that ask questions, but don't give enough information for them to be answered. Then they get an attitude like the person wasn't trying to help or can't help.

I actually like the winter. I drove past a local ski mountain and they were spraying fake snow. I really want to have a snowball fight now. :)
 
geet73 said:
I just get annoyed at the amount of people that ask questions, but don't give enough information for them to be answered. Then they get an attitude like the person wasn't trying to help or can't help.

I could easily write a 30 page dissertation of what annoys me, however I'll spare all of you that agony. Lets just say because of such, my participation lessens almost daily. I've all but dropped off various automotive forums because of this.

When guys like Rod state something, I listen. Period. I'd be willing to bet cold cash that he's correct the vast majority of the time, based on my reading 99% of his posts. I'm sure on rare occasions he's incorrect, but if you pay careful attention to the language he chooses, you can easily see when he's stating a fact based on knowledge and/or experience, or an educated guess based on what he believes to be true. He's very fair that way in his writing.

This also applies to Steve, Ethan, and many others who are knowledgeable in various areas of the recording environment and incredibly generous of their time as well.

I in turn appreciate their advice, and take it as such. If I were paying them to design my studio, that would be an entirely different situation. There would be expectations placed upon them, and they would have deliverables that were measurable and meaningful. But that's not the case here, they are giving their time, knowledge and experience away for free, free for our benefit.

The least we can do, as a group, is spit on their hats less often.
 
Ok, i am only relating what I saw a buddy do with angry neighbours.....

If any of this is against any of the laws of physics of sound... then email me an ill bend over!

this old lady called the cops on my buddy for drumming. He put up two layers of the brown 4x8 sound board they use in construction (like between apartments). It was dead quiet in there. Too quiet. And you could hear nothing outside. Almost couldnt hear yourself speak. Really weird. then he got this idea to resheetrock the wall over the two layers, that were over the original layer of rock, that had fiberglass under it......it brought some.... uhhhhhhhh... uuhhhhhhhh.....
***(Bigdaddyd stops to find a word, and worries that he may use the wrong word-....and get yelled at)

....Reflection! back into the room. quite outside, decent inside.

It was farely cheap to do.

d
 
:D hey thats a good idea big d. i think thats homisode what your talking about? ive heard of that working well someware before. i bet its fairly cheap aswell? i will look further into it. Thanks a bunch!
 
dont worry i was realy just faking that i want to try to soundproof an area in a basement. what i really want to do is dance, and have a snowball fight aswell,
thanks for all your help though, i understand you need more info, i apologize if i picked some kindo of scab open when i asked a seemingly easy question, i dont know much but im trying to fit this into a busy scedual i have and i wish i could spend the time to really research all of these things that rick wants to know, right now unfortunatly i cant, but i still thank you for your advice and time. i am wondering if there is a more straite forward way of useing a particular material that is the most dedinging inside the walls, maybe someone would know from an experience what works pretty well asuming i dont leave any holes or drafts or fasten any new walls or cieling to any allready existing ones. Possably a method that someone was successfull with previously. The humisote or(brown 4x8 sound board they use in construction )idea is a good one to try as well, and fairly cheap i bet, i have heard of that working pretty well from some other people. everyones advice if very apreciated on this end. i just dont apeciate being barked at because im not as experienced and im asking questions maybe the wrong questions.
happy holidays to you either way
thank you everyone for all your time and help.
 
Do not confuse the sense that the room is 'swallowing up the sound' with the fact that the sound is not getting out of the room to the neighbors. The first is called absorbtion and the second is isolation, and they are not the same. An open window does not reflect any of your sound back at you but it sure doesn't keep it away from the neighbors.

Now what his friend did was not a bad solution, but it was most likely not the best bang (or no-bang) for the buck. Two layers of Homasote (a brand name for that kind of Soundboard) under a layer of gypsum board would be kind of a C+ level of sound treatment, definitly good for a few decibels of reduction. The Homasote added some mass, put some cushioning in the air gap, and because of its springyness partially decoupled the final layer of the gypsum board. But gypsum board has more density than Homasote so one layer of Homasote and two of Gypsum board would have right away been better and cheaper. But better still would be to put some real absorbtive material (fiberglass) in the air gap and to genuinely decouple the two layers of gypsum board by using resillient channel.
 
thank you

#27 Today, 23:16
funksoulrubber
Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 9
Rep Power: 0


dont worry i was realy just faking that i want to try to soundproof an area in a basement. what i really want to do is dance, and have a snowball fight aswell, NOT?
thanks for all your help though, im just not hip. i understand you need more info to give me precise advise, i apologize if i wasnt a fag i dont know much but im trying to fit this into a busy scedual i have and i wish i could spend the time to really research all of these things that rick wants to know, right now unfortunatly i cant, but i still thank you for your advice and time. i am wondering if there is a more straite forward way of useing a particular material that is the most dedinging inside the walls, maybe someone would know from an experience what works pretty well asuming i dont leave any holes or drafts or fasten any new walls or cieling to any allready existing ones. Possably a method that someone was successfull with previously. The humisote or(brown 4x8 sound board they use in construction )idea is a good one to try as well, and fairly cheap i bet, i have heard of that working pretty well from some other people. everyones advice if very apreciated on this end. i just dont apeciate being barked at because im not as experienced and im asking questions maybe the wrong questions.
happy holidays to you either way
thank you everyone for all your time and help.
 
i dont know much but im trying to fit this into a busy scedual i have and i wish i could spend the time to really research all of these things that rick wants to know,
Thats alright funk. I understand busy schedules. What I don't understand, is if you don't have time to plan correctly, how the hell are you going to find time to BUILD it correctly :confused: As far as my questions are concerned, they were NOT for me. They were for YOU. Go to a doctor and tell him your gut hurts, but you only want him to tell you whats wrong and don't ask questions :rolleyes:
i am wondering if there is a more straite forward way of useing a particular material that is the most dedinging inside the walls, maybe someone would know from an experience what works pretty well asuming i dont leave any holes or drafts or fasten any new walls or cieling to any allready existing ones. Possably a method that someone was successfull with previously.
Straight forward? How more straight forward can you get than KNOWING what you are dealing with. Without that, you are spitting in the wind. Funk, when it comes to isolation, there are ONLY two ways to deal with it. The wrong way and the right way. The wrong way is guessing. The right way is knowledge. Knowledge of what exists, goals, budgets and everything else I asked you for. I COULD tell you why I asked for EACH thing so you would understand. But since you don't have time, I won't. Since thats the case, excuse my lack of consideration. Had I known that in advance, I wouldn't have bothered posting a reply. Well, good luck with your project and I hope your neighbors arn't violent.
fitZ
 
Dear Funksoulrubber,
Learn to spell.
Thanks,
Nicholas Steinborn

Besides that..
If you can at least try to give a little bit more information about your situation, you will get better answers. As it stands now:
-You have a basement with an unfinished ceiling
-You have neighbors.
-You want to make alot of noise.
-The floor joists are 9 1/2" deep and 14" apart.

That's not too much information. It seems that you don't want to leave any holes in any walls, or add any new walls. All you're looking for is something to plop on the wall. This is what I'm picking up from your posts.

As far as I know, which isn't much, is that there aren't any materials you can just stick on the wall that will reduce the sound transmission enough that it will be noticable.

I'm coming to think that you're not very old, or you need to go back to school.
 
Back
Top