Thoughts on Sound Proofing a Media Room?

[krizzz]

I am building out a media room in my basement. Apparently my home is made of balsa wood, because sound carries far too easily through floors and walls. I am trying to sound insulate the new room as best I can (without breaking the bank).

Does anyone have some techniques/products that they have been happy with for this purpose? I have looked into the "Owens Corning QuietZone" stuff and the "Roxul Safe'n'Sound Insulation Bats" and "Roxul Rockboard 60". But I have only read the literature and not bought any product yet.

My biggest concern is sound traveling through my ducts and over my stud-walls.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[kccarl]

I looked at all the same products you did while I was building my dedicated home theater room. I was shocked and Awed by the prices everyone was charging. I was so shocked at how much I would have to spend, it stopped me for a while. Then, one day, it came to me. In two ways.

First, for sound proofing, there is nothing better than good old insulation. If you already have your room built, there is nothing you can do really, but if you are still building it, double insulate with the pink stuff. Stuff it in every place there is any opening no matter how small.

Second, for sound proofing, but also for sound dynamics. I came upon an idea while building my theater room. I put up regular sheet rock. Once the room was fully sheet rocked, I nailed lathe boards (ususally 1x 3/8 inch) slate boards called lathe boards forming a border all around the wall and down the middle parallel to the flor. It essentially formed outlined squares with the sheet rock open in the middle. Then, I took industrial spray glue and sprayed the back of 6 lb carpet pad and glued them up on the wall. The whole room was pink by the time I was done. Then, because there is an outline of lathe boards, I bought and pulled material across the carpet pad, covering it up. Mostly material is 48 inches or so wide which is perfect for a nine foot ceiling. I stapled the material to the lathe boards pushing down on the carpet pad so when it rose back up, it strained against the material. Once that was done, I used regular trim to cover the material stapled lathe boards.

The end result was a room that was sound proofed, with the dynamics that the room sounded wonderful. The material makes the room look like a theater. The best complement I got was from a friend who upon first walking into the room, he said, "its like walking into a anachoic chamber".

You can get 25 foot rolls of carpet pad from home depot for 25 bucks each. Spray glue is nothing. Staples are nothing. Lathe boarding costs about 2 bucks for a 6 foot length. The material is a bit more, depending on what you want, but I looked for coupons for Joann's and got all the material I needed for about 400.00. Insulation was about 200 dollars.

I don't know if this helps you, but I'm telling you I saved a ton of money and have a dedicate home theater that looks and acts the part with gusto.

KCCCARL

[MuG]

Originally Posted by kccarl

I looked at all the same products you did while I was building my dedicated home theater room. I was shocked and Awed by the prices everyone was charging. I was so shocked at how much I would have to spend, it stopped me for a while. Then, one day, it came to me. In two ways.

First, for sound proofing, there is nothing better than good old insulation. If you already have your room built, there is nothing you can do really, but if you are still building it, double insulate with the pink stuff. Stuff it in every place there is any opening no matter how small.

Second, for sound proofing, but also for sound dynamics. I came upon an idea while building my theater room. I put up regular sheet rock. Once the room was fully sheet rocked, I nailed lathe boards (ususally 1x 3/8 inch) slate boards called lathe boards forming a border all around the wall and down the middle parallel to the flor. It essentially formed outlined squares with the sheet rock open in the middle. Then, I took industrial spray glue and sprayed the back of 6 lb carpet pad and glued them up on the wall. The whole room was pink by the time I was done. Then, because there is an outline of lathe boards, I bought and pulled material across the carpet pad, covering it up. Mostly material is 48 inches or so wide which is perfect for a nine foot ceiling. I stapled the material to the lathe boards pushing down on the carpet pad so when it rose back up, it strained against the material. Once that was done, I used regular trim to cover the material stapled lathe boards.

The end result was a room that was sound proofed, with the dynamics that the room sounded wonderful. The material makes the room look like a theater. The best complement I got was from a friend who upon first walking into the room, he said, "its like walking into a anachoic chamber".

You can get 25 foot rolls of carpet pad from home depot for 25 bucks each. Spray glue is nothing. Staples are nothing. Lathe boarding costs about 2 bucks for a 6 foot length. The material is a bit more, depending on what you want, but I looked for coupons for Joann's and got all the material I needed for about 400.00. Insulation was about 200 dollars.

I don't know if this helps you, but I'm telling you I saved a ton of money and have a dedicate home theater that looks and acts the part with gusto.

KCCCARL

is there any way you can post a picture of this theater?? I really want to see it. lol

[clyon]

soundproof drywall & more


http://quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

[Beta Man]

They also have CARPET that is sold in squares, not rolls, and you put it down (or up since you're gonna want it on the walls) with an adhesive and paint-roller..... I'd question if straight dry-wall would hold the adhesive, but the stuff is pretty nasty, so I think it would. I'd leave a couple of blank spaces for wall sconces, and then you got yourself a theater!

[guitarist155]

when hanging the sheet rock use resilient channel to hang the sheet rock also before installing the sheet rock use a sound barrier it is a kind of fabric that is used like a vapor barrier, you would fill the wall with insulation (rock wool) then put up the barrier, you then attach the resilient channel and then hang the sheet rock on the resilient channel. if possible use two layers of sheet rock.

now about the air system, what you do is build boxes that the air lines for the room go into, inside you build walls that are half the width of the box and alternate sides like a maze then cover the inside with sound proofing foam, when the air flows through the box it will hit the walls and the sound will be absorbed and not make it through.

here is a good link to some stuff you can do. http://www.audioholics.com/education...-noise-control you will not be able to do everything as it can get quite expensive and complex. it can go as for as floating and isolating all floors walls and ceilings, not having any parallel walls, having an airlock sliding door system, filling the floor studs with sand, and staggering the wall studs.

i did design and research for a studio i was going to build and found you can isolate as far as money will go

[Blu Pill]

You're not concerned with sound absorbtion as much as preventing it from travelling to the other rooms in the house correct? You may also want to make sure if you have hard-wood floors in the room upstairs, to throw a good, thick rug down, etc.

[RUR]

Originally Posted by guitarist155

when hanging the sheet rock use resilient channel to hang the sheet rock also before installing the sheet rock use a sound barrier it is a kind of fabric that is used like a vapor barrier, you would fill the wall with insulation (rock wool) then put up the barrier, you then attach the resilient channel and then hang the sheet rock on the resilient channel. if possible use two layers of sheet rock.

Resilient channel AKA J-channel. Used this when I re-did my dedicated 2ch audio room, and in lieu of "normal" rock wool, I used therma fiber, which has better sound-proofing qualities. The room is very, very quiet.

[krizzz]

Thanks for all the responses! I am still in pre-planning so any and all options area still on the table.

I'm not sure I followed the explanation of how to minimize sound-travel through my ductwork and ceiling. Since this is a basement, I only have 84" to the bottom of the duct right now. My initial thought was to build a drywall soffet around the HVAC duct and pack insulation bats in all of my ceiling joists, then do a drop ceiling.

I've also seen some products that line the duct, but again, reading about them is no replacement for experience.

[guitarist155]

here is a pic that shows somewhat what i was saying about the ducting http://www.audioholics.com/education...iew_fullscreen
it is basically a box that the air flows through and inside the box you have dividers that go half way across the box so that they do not block the flow then the next divider would start on the other side, the box has foam on the inside and the air has to weave around the dividers to get to go out as it does this the sound in the air is absorbed by the foam

also if you are going to do a drop ceiling use sound absorbing tile in the grid and hang the grid with isolators like these http://www.residtronics.com/page/SR/PROD/KIN-ICW-100
http://www.residtronics.com/page/SR/PROD/KIN-AF100

and put alot of insulation above and maybe even sound barrier

[Psiweaver]

I would definately use lots of insulation and quiet rock. The owens corning stuff works very well. It depends though if you simply want to add sound absorption or if you actually want to acousticly tune the room. 2 completely different things.

[krizzz]

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

I would definately use lots of insulation and quiet rock. The owens corning stuff works very well. It depends though if you simply want to add sound absorption or if you actually want to acousticly tune the room. 2 completely different things.

Sound absorption is all I'm really worried about. Is the Owens Corning stuff and the Quiet Rock designed for absorption or acoustical tuning?

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by krizzz

Sound absorption is all I'm really worried about. Is the Owens Corning stuff and the Quiet Rock designed for absorption or acoustical tuning?

It is designed for sound isolation, not tuning. Tuning requires a whole set of different acoustical tools than isolation. Isolation tools need to be put IN BETWEEN walls. Tuning tools are required to be IN the room, or electronically based for deep bass.

What you don't want to do is to have isolation materials in the room. They will soak up ALL of the high frequencies, and you would have to equalize the hell out of your speaker to compensate for it. This will likely over drive the tweeters and destroy them.

The absolute best way to isolate a room is to create a room within a room. This is expensive, and you will lose square footage in the room. This is why it is better to build a room from scratch than to outfit an existing room. Trying to isolate outside of the room within a room technique will yield spotty results as you may be able to keep mid and high frequencies from leaking out, but bass will easily travel through existing walls, or its vibration will.

[Psiweaver]

The quiet rock is to isolate the Owen's Corning stuff tends to be to tune in my experience. There is also this really cool rubber thing that you put in the walls in between the studs and drywall that isolates really well. Forget what its called though its like a sheet of rubber that you screw/nail onto the studs.

[gearyt]

also when a room is sound dampened.. they use seperate studs from the exterior wall.. so that the wall board doesn't vibrate the stud, which vibrates the wallboard on the other side.

[guitarist155]

yea it's called staggered studding, it is where you use a 2x6 for the base and cap and use 2x4's for the studs you then go from the alternate studs from side to side every 6in