Townhouse basement HT - how soundproof? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Wong]

Hi,

I'm thinking of moving into a townhouse in the next year or so, and placing my HT in the basement. Will the common basement wall usually afford enough soundproofing so as not to disturb the neighbours? As an idea of what my HT will contain, I'm adding 2 SVS 20-39 CS+ to my current 20-39PC, in a basement room about 22x16 in size.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Joe

 

[Jim Tressler]

I am assuming your townhouse basement walls are concrete...

So, the answer is yes and no. Depending on the construction of the townhome in general .. ie ... is there a concrete block separation between neighbors on the 1st and 2nd floor..

some of the bass may bleed through the first floor walls or the common floor joists. Most of the highs will be blocked out.

If you can provide more information I can compare it to the townhome I used to live in.

Jim

 

[Joe Wong]

Thanks Jim.

I believe the basement walls are concrete, but not sure about the main and 2nd floor walls. I'll try to find out. If it gets too bad for the neighbours I suppose I could get some bass traps.

Thanks again,

Joe

 

[Scott-C]

Hi Joe,

I live in a townhouse and have my HT in a finished basement, though the basement is above-ground (in other words, it's the first floor of our townhouse). There are concrete walls separating each home but they only extend approx. 4' up from the ground (don't ask me why!).

For the most part, mid and high frequencies pretty much stay in our house and do not bother the neighbors, but the low freqs do wreak havoc. My neighbor has told me she can hear the bass pumpin' sometimes in her bedroom, which is on the 3rd floor of the townhouse next door (and I don't even have any SVS subs yet). I usually watch movies at about -10 Db to -7 Db.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I would advise against that much bass in a townhouse unless you want to really piss off your neighbors. I have a little DefTech ProSub 100 against the outside wall in my townhouse basement and I wouldn't dream of upgrading. Low Frequency sound WILL bleed through the walls. It's all about how considerate you are to your neighbors.

 

[Dan Mercier]

You should check out the Home theater contruction forum's here and over at avsforum. Building a room within a room would really help you Isolate the bass from your (way too many) SVS's

 

[Joe Wong]

Thanks guys.
Looks like I may have to go for a detached home . Even then, it looks like I may have to sell my 20-39PC.
Cheers,
Joe

 

[Scott-C]

It's all about how considerate you are to your neighbors.

Yep, 'tis very true. I try to watch movies early in the evening when I know I'm not bothering the neighbors too much. Psychologically, it takes its toll though, knowing that at any point during my "home theater time" I may be boethering someone outside of the home. This is why I can't wait to be in a single-family home!

 

[Bob Christensen]

I used to work construction, and we “soundproofed” several rooms for clients. There are several aspects that need to be considered, but most importantly is the heavy bass from 3 SVS heavy-hitters! If you hope to contain this kind of pressure, you are going to have to do some serious “decoupling”. You need to decouple the surfaces of the two living areas as much as possible. By decouple, I mean eliminate any common “hard-wire” physical transmitters. The main culprits are wall studs and floor joists. It is fairly easy and straight-forward to decouple common walls by either building another “false wall” (and sometimes filling the void with sound deadening insulation), or by furring out the existing wall and doing the same. There are special products made for doing this, and they are available to builders. A “poor man’s” approach (which works fairly well) is to simply “glue” foam insulation to the existing wall, and then glue sheet rock to the foam. Also try to avoid any empty spaces between existing studs or joists. They can act like resonation chambers. Carpeting walls and floors can help, as can hanging heavy drapes against the common wall, but this mostly helps with mids and high frequency.

3 SVS’s??

 

[Joe Wong]

Hey Bob,
Thanks for the info. Yes, I've got 3 SVSs inked in at this stage...but I think I'm going to look for detached single family homes now. The 2 main reasons I'm moving out of my apartment are 1. my wife wants the space and 2. HT. Nowmy wife has given me carte blanche on my HT upgrade, so it would seem like bad planning if I move into a townhouse (we had our eyes on a newly constructed beautiful end unit, with loft, skylights, plant shelves, and quality finishes...sigh ) and still annoy the neighbours!
If 3 SVSs are still too much (I'm not really a bass head...though I loved the rumbles, explosions and the general deep stuff on, say, SW:TPM) I'll sell the PC. Still, I fall many SVSs short of fellow HTFer Frank Manrique's 8x16-46 CSs!!
Cheers,
Joe