Add soundproofing insulation (1 Viewer)

[blobula]

I have a room that is 12 x 23 x 7 which will be used for a dedicated home theater soon. My dad, brother and myself finished the basement a few years ago and at the time really didn't see it being a home theater. Because of that very little to no insulation was put between the ceiling joists that separate the basement from the living room. Now that I own the home I was wondering if it would be possible to sound proof the ceiling without tearing out the drywall? Any idea of insulation to use?

Thanks
-E

 

[BillSuneson]

You could look into blown in rock wool insulation. It is a little more pricey than fiberglass but will give you a better sound barrier between levels.

Rock wool is the same insulation that is used in the wall construction of professional studios/theaters. (that is coming from a Union Insulation installer that only works on studios/theaters.)

Bill

 

[DrPainMD]

You could add more drywall (thx soundproof drywall)

dryco dot ca (cant post links yet)

google - thx drywall

 

[DrPainMD]

or a theres a forum sponser

quietsolution dot com

 

[Gerry S]

Are there currently any holes in the existing ceiling (such as for can lights)?

Insulation won't help much. You need mass for sound isolation. Add another layer of drywall. If you can afford it, some sort of vibration dampening "glue" between the layers of drywall.

You should probably add extra layers to the walls as well as the ceiling. Otherwise the sound will get out through the walls and still disturb the other rooms in your house.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Gerry is correct. Insulation has a very minimal impact on STC. You need mass, preferably separated mass. Green-glue double layers of drywall, floating ceiling etc.

If adding insulation in is the only feasible option for you to do, it's probably not worth the cost because the impact on sound transmission may be almost nothing. It certainly would have an impact on heating/cooling of the room though.

 

[Artisan]

I'm just curious, is the soundproofing aimed at keeping the sound from the HT out of the rest of the house or does it also improve the experience in the theater room?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Soundproofing/sound isolation is aimed at keeping theater sounds from disturbing other parts of the house. A natural upside to that is that sounds from outside the room don't enter, so that lowers the noisefloow in the theater space which is an improvement to performance. But no, this is a very distinct question from treating the interior of the space acoustically so as to control the sound within the room when you actually watch a movie. They are two very distinct tasks.

Sound isolation is mainly concerned with wall structures and mass and sealing the room up and isolating it from the rest of the structure.

In-room acoustical treatments is concerned with treating the surfaces of the space with absorption and diffusion mainly to control the sounds that go on inside the room.

Each of these tasks can be done on their own, or they can be done together. There can be some blurring when it comes to bass and the nature of the wall structures, and isolation can both help and hinder in-room acoustics in the bass arena, depending. But generally speaking they are two completely different tasks. As an extreme example, if you built a big giant cinderblock walled and cement ceilinged room, it would be extremely well isolated and keep sounds in(or out), but left like that the interior would sound hidiously terrible as you could imagine with all that bare cement which is extremely reflective.

 

[AndyF]

Does anyone have any experience with an isolation pad that mounts in between the wall plates like this:

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/wallmat.html


Seems like a simple solution anyway...