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Sound proofing/isolation in a upstairs room

  • 28-01-2021 11:14am
    #1
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 6,996 ✭✭✭


    Hello,

    We have a two story house built in the early 90s and I want to use one of the rooms as an office. I'll be working from home the majority of time for the significant future so I would like to improve it's sound proofing

    The problem is this room is directly above the kids play room, which is also attached to the kitchen which would have the radio/music on a bit(we removed the double doors between kitchen and playroom)

    In its current form you can hear people talking in the room below, not even that they are talking, you can even hear what is being said.

    The house is block walls downstairs with wooden timber frame internal walls upstairs. It's a timber frame floor upstairs too.

    Currently there is no floor finishing upstairs, just solid timber floor boards. I do not know if there is anything between the floor joists (existing insulation), I assume not. You can hear the talking through the floor (as opposed to from the hall)

    The room is a corner room where one of the walls has an ensuite (has tiles, over the kitchen) and also connected to the hot press (not via a door, just share a wall). The other wall connects to the hall where the stairs is. The doors are fairly cheap feeling doors.

    Do people have any advise on approaches for improving this? I would also love to hear people's stories if they did similar and it if was worth it.

    I don't need it to have recording studio levels of soundproofing or anything and I'm also not concerned about noise from the room going anywhere else (footsteps etc) but I would like to significantly improve the current situation.

    I have access to cheap floor coverings, so I was thinking of maybe starting with loose laying something like padded carpet tiles to see how it goes possible even with sound dampening underlay, but I really get the feeling to make a significant impact I need to put acoustic insulation between the joists.

    I'm relatively handy at DIY stuff but I've never had the need to lift floorboards before so that will be a new adventure :)

    I certainly don't have an unlimited budget for the project and would like to keep it as "cost efficient" as possible, but happy to consider any options if it's the right way to go.

    Thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    MicktheMan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    Empty the room. Remove skirting and lift floorboards.
    Place (acoustic) fibre insulation in between the floor joists to the same depth as the joists.
    Lay air tight membrane (lapped and taped if necessary) over the joists and tape the edges to all walls. Make sure to use specific air tight products, not duct tape.
    Re-lay the floor boards and the skirting.
    Job done.

    You have not just sound proofed your office but also probably significantly reduced the heat loss.


  • #3
    Calahonda52
    Registered Users Posts: 12,163 ✭✭✭✭Calahonda52


    You also need to think about the door.
    What I did was bought a set of Bose noise cancelling headphones, which I use when its noisy and also for some light classical music

    “I can’t pay my staff or mortgage with instagram likes”.



  • #4
    MicktheMan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    Calahonda52 wrote: »
    You also need to think about the door.
    What I did was bought a set of Bose noise cancelling headphones, which I use when its noisy and also for some light classical music

    Ha, very good thinking outside the box:cool:


  • #5
    supue
    Registered Users Posts: 143 ✭✭supue


    MicktheMan wrote: »
    Empty the room. Remove skirting and lift floorboards.
    Place (acoustic) fibre insulation in between the floor joists to the same depth as the joists.
    Lay air tight membrane (lapped and taped if necessary) over the joists and tape the edges to all walls. Make sure to use specific air tight products, not duct tape.
    Re-lay the floor boards and the skirting.
    Job done.

    You have not just sound proofed your office but also probably significantly reduced the heat loss.

    Hi, I'm looking at doing something similar in my attic but unclear as to what type of air tight membrane I should use. I've put Rockwool between the attic floorboards all the way to the eaves, however unsure as to how much extra sound reduction the air tight membrane would add, or what I should be ordering. My plan is to cover with MDF, put a laminate (acoustic) underlay on top, then the laminate floor or carpet in my attic.

    Would you have an example of what I should order - when I ask in Goodwins or my local hardware, they're unsure of what I'm asking for.

    Thanks


  • #6
    MicktheMan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    supue wrote: »
    Hi, I'm looking at doing something similar in my attic but unclear as to what type of air tight membrane I should use. I've put Rockwool between the attic floorboards all the way to the eaves, however unsure as to how much extra sound reduction the air tight membrane would add, or what I should be ordering. My plan is to cover with MDF, put a laminate (acoustic) underlay on top, then the laminate floor or carpet in my attic.

    Would you have an example of what I should order - when I ask in Goodwins or my local hardware, they're unsure of what I'm asking for.

    Thanks

    :confused: Why are you looking to soundproof your attic?:confused:
    Unless you have a true warm roof setup (very rare in this country), your attic is external to your thermal envelope.

    Making an internal space airtight reduces significantly airborne sound transmission but will have little effect on impact sound transmission.


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  • #7
    supue
    Registered Users Posts: 143 ✭✭supue


    MicktheMan wrote: »
    :confused: Why are you looking to soundproof your attic?:confused:
    Unless you have a true warm roof setup (very rare in this country), your attic is external to your thermal envelope.

    Making an internal space airtight reduces significantly airborne sound transmission but will have little effect on impact sound transmission.

    My wife's putting an office in one room, the other room will be a kids playroom / TV room. I was thinking of a) keeping noise out as wife works, and b) preventing noise leakage downstairs as I'm considering a mini home cinema addition as I get it completed. Less concerned with noise from movement versus the noise from TV / music.

    As the kids get older, I'm guessing it'll come in handy. The house is circa 40 years old, there was no insulation under the floorboards I took up there (it was floored out into two rooms, no windows previously) hence you could hear conversations from below per op.


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