2. tech-talk
  3. 119545-501

Treating Floor in New Construction - Reducing Footfall and Vibration

Looking for some good ideas/solutions to treating my new dedicated music room's floor.  The room will be fairly large at 22w x 29L, built on the main floor of the new house with a basement below.  My current room is in my basement with concrete floors so footfall is never an issue.

I have asked the engineering firm to give me some recommendations on making the floor stronger structure wise; not sure what they will suggest, maybe floor joist on more narrow centers, say 12 inch vs 16.  

Have you tackled this issue?  What about mass loaded vinyl (MLV); would a layer of heavy vinyl between the OSB floor boards and carpet pad help?  Use two layers of OSB flooring and glue them together?  Ideas?

stickman451
last_lemming
638 posts
 
Oh and cross brace you're floor joists beyond code requirements. Cross bracing is there to distribute live and dead loads to adjacent joists.  Plywood on the underside of the joist is a good helper as well.  Also at very little added cost ask them to double up or even triple up the floor joists under where the speakers will be - or even better use a glue-Lam member in liue of a open web joists as this will be substantially stronger and more rigid  then anything other than steel. 
last_lemming
638 posts
 
 Whatever you do it is very important that any  sub flooring be adhered as tightly as possible and that any additional flooring layers be adhered just as strongly as the first subfloor so that you don't end up with a system that allows vibration to be absorbed. Unless of course you're trying to absorb sound. But if not the more rigid the system obviously the more lively the sound 
last_lemming
638 posts
 
 As for walls you can use a concrete board like they use in bathrooms behind tile and then half-inch sheet rock on top of that which will  achieve a dense-rigid system 
tarheeltraveler
4 posts
 
Stickman:  Sounds like you're all in on this music room.  I'm envious for sure.  And you're getting some great recommendations.  I did a music room in 1994 and used 10 inch fabricated beams on twelve inch center.  Then plywood and wonderboard, and finally a thin layer of concrete to level the locally quarried field stone.  The floor is incredibly solid and the floor joists met the engineering requirements at sixteen inch centers.  Stone is incredibly durable, permanent, and maintenance free.  And when it's sealed it's dust-free and requires only  a mop to clean periodically.  If you have access to local stone you might want to give it a look.  Best of luck.  Tarheeltraveler
More to discover