How to Soundproof a Basement: Soundproofing your Basement Room Solutions

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DIY Soundproofing Applications

Soundproofing a Basement

Understanding Noise

To understand why soundproofing is necessary in providing an acoustic solution, you first have to have an understanding of how sound behave within an internal and external environment. Sound waves travel through a medium such as air, liquid or solid objects.

Some medium offers little or no resistant such as air and the sound wave travel with minute reduction the further away it travels from the source. If the sound waves come into contact with a solid object, some of the sound waves will pass through the object (if it is not dense enough) with some reduction and some will reflect back off the object. If the sound waves on the other hand come into contact with a solid object with enough density or density couple with engineer air pockets, the sound waves will dissipate to a tolerant level or prevented from travelling through the object.

Other noise pollution sources are produce from vibrations, vibration occurs when sound waves travels back and forth between two or more objects. Some common vibration sources are machinery, pumps (shower pumps, central heating pumps) and sound waves bouncing off walls in an enclose space.

I must point out that to achieve total reduction of sound can be very expensive and will only be recommended for specialist solution such as recording studio or where noise sensitivity is a particular issue. In majority of cases a soundproofing solution will only require you to meet the WHO (World Health Organization) Standard which has a range of 30 - 55 dB (for most applications).

Soundproofing your Basement

The basement is often used when we require extra spaces within our home. Generally we use our basement for storage or utility room, but we are now using this space for living accommodation, home cinema, music room, rehearsal room, games room and much more.

We find that noise problem is then generated based on the usage of this room, airborne noise and impact noise from the floor above. This in most cases leave us little choice but to get adequate soundproofing. We can sound proof the walls and floors so that noise doesn't travel into or out of the basement.

This will provide for a better living environment and happier neighbors. This can be accomplished with soundproofing the ceilings, floors and walls by adding greater density of materials in the most affected areas.

Soundproofing your ceiling:

To go about soundproofing your ceiling will require you to take one of two approaches or a combination of both. First if you have access to the room above; this will enable you to apply a solution to the floor above, the floor cavity and the ceiling. For this solution we would recommend our NSSF7 Underlay, Dense Fibre Matting, SoundBreaker Bar and NSSC1+ Ceiling Board.

If you do not have access to the floor above; you can apply the solution directly to your ceiling. Depending on the height of your ceiling and budget, you can use any of our three Ceiling Systems Options in this application.

Soundproofing your wall:

Soundproofing your walls is a lot easier because you do not need access to your next door neighbours property. Again base on your budget and total room space you can use anyone of our Wall System Options or our Direct to Wall System to meet building regulation standard. Our Direct to Wall System is a stand alone product and is use in application where building regulation requirement has to be met.

Soundproofing your Floor:

We have a wide range of floor soundproofing solutions to meet any application. We have products that are for specific applications such as concrete floors, timber floors, metal floors and under screed. We have underlay products such as NSSF7 Plus Underlay, Noise Stop Isolation Mat excellent in impact noise reduction; NoiseDeck 36, NoiseStop Isolation Tape and Dense Fibre Matting excellent for timber floor, use to meet Building Regulation 2003; Monarfloor Impact 18 excellent for reduce sound transmission through concrete floors.

We also offer custom build solutions to meet specific applications. We can help with ceiling soundproofing, floor soundproofing and wall soundproofing. If you need any advice or help, one of our consultants will be happy to help you. Call: 08451 306 269

Soundproofing Insulation for Ceiling - Walls and Floors

	How to Soundproof your Ceilings: Take off current plaster board to expose the joist. You will need access to your original joist to carry out the work. Place Dense Fibre Matting (DMF 100mm 100kg) into the void between joists. Cut to fit, making sure that there are no gaps. Build another layer of joist going horizontally to the original joist, with 2x2 timbers. Place Dense Fibre Matting (DMF 50mm 100kg) into the void between joists. Cut to fit, making sure that there are no gaps. Attach sound breaker bars horizontally across new joist, by screwing it into the joist. The Sound Breaker Bars has pre drill holes. Screw NSSC1+ to the Sound Breaker Bars. Skim plaster to finish. Decorate to your requirement after. You will loose a total of 100mm to 150 mm of ceiling height. If you have purchased NSSC1, NSSC1+, NSSC2 and NSSC2+ you can follow the above instructions.

	How to Soundproof your walls: Remove any skirting, coving, sockets and any other items on the wall. A stud frame is then attached to the wall using either 25 or 50mm stud depending which system you are using Place Dense Fibre Matting (DFM) into the stud frame. Cut to fit, making sure that there are no gaps. If you have the sound breaker bars these are then screwed to the front of the stud work. The sound breaker bars already have predrilled holes for this. Screw the wall board that you have, to the face of the soundbreaker bar, if you do not have the bars the board is screwed to the stud frame. Seal any gaps that you may have with suitable filler. Skim plaster to finish. Decorate to your requirement after. If you have purchased NSSW1 or NSSW1+ you can follow the above instructions.
	How to Soundproof your Floor: NoiseStop NSSF7 Plus Each sheet comes in 1200mm x 600mm sheets making them easy to handle, store and fit. NSSF7 Plus needs to be installed compactly with no gaps between sheets and the joins staggered. You can either bond them to the floor or lay them loose. The edges can be tightly pushed into the edges of the room as sound does not vibrate along the sheets. Method 1 - Adhesive Clean and secure all floorboards, this is essential for achieving the best results. The NSSF7 Plus membrane can be bonded to most hardwoods and carpets. When using this method, the NSSF7 needs to be bonded to the floor before it is bonded to the carpet. Method 2 - Carpet grippers A 25mm perimeter strip needs to be purchased and applied to the perimeter of the room; this allows the gripper to be flush with the surface of the NSSF7 Plus. Fix the perimeter strips using nails with the rubber face down. This creates an anti vibration layer in which the carpet gripper can be nailed to. If the gripper is to in contact with the skirting board, then we recommend applying a flexible mastic bead in between the two surfaces to reduce any transmission of sound. Dense Fibre Matting Place Dense Fibre Matting (DMF 100mm 100kg) into the void between joists. Cut to fit, making sure that there are no gaps. Fit around pipes and cables, to ensure a complete absorbent layer. The depth of the DFM can vary and for maximum efficiency 100 or 140kg density is recommended. NoiseDeck 36: Fix NoiseStop Isolation Tape, for acoustic flanking resistance, at the floor perimeter. Lay NoiseStop Systems NoiseDeck 36 over floor joists, in staggered broken bond pattern, generously applying adhesive to all tongued and grooved panel joints. Install skirting. Materials Required NoiseStop NoiseDeck 36 NoiseStop Isolation Tape DFM100 (45kg/m)