sound deadening a bedroom?? need ideas.. lol

[SkinnyBoy]

mum always complains about my music... too loud, too bassy, bla bla bla... I'm making new speakers, almost done, that will be quite an improvement on my current ones... louder, and much warmer low end bass... anyway, what am I supposed to do? lol.. its a solid brick house, but with the door and windows closed you can clearly hear the music from the backyard (my room is at the FRONT of the house) I think that replacing the door with something thicker and "sealing" around it would be a good start.... all I want is to be able to listen to my music at the level I want, without the rest of the house having to listen too.. lol hehe

any ideas?

[jackinnj]

I'm coming mother !!!!!

[elizard]

having lived in an apartment for the past 12 years of my life, I've come to face the fact that I'll just have to turn it down a bit to listen to it without others listening to it as well ..

[faustian bargin]

some suggestions from an architect:

add mass to the walls and ceiling by putting on another layer of gypsum board. seal all joints.

adding gasketing to the door should help (make sure you do the threshold as well as the head and jambs), but you need to go further: make sure there is NO air infiltration at all. (temporarily) remove all the base molding and trim around doors and windows, and caulk all the joints in the room. (re-install the molding, unless you really want to make your folks mad.)

also caulk around all wall penetrations such as power outlets, switches, and heating vents. if you have vents you might think about intalling a damper if there isn't already one.

if your windows are single-pane, replace them with double-pane glass. if that's not feasible, maybe adding a 'storm window' would help - just be sure it's installed with caulking or gasketing.

if you're really fanatical you can blow insulation into all your wall, ceiling, and floor spaces. (assuming there is something below the floor to hold the insulation.)

put down thick heavy carpet or a rug on the floor, to add mass.

if adding gyp board to the walls is too extreme for you, consider just hanging heavy wall tapestries on all 4 walls. serves dual purpose: adds mass for lowered sound transmission, and absorbs sound for lowered room reflectivity. (may or may not be totally desirable.)

/andrew - lives across the country from his folks

[SY]

I'm coming mother !!!!!

He's so good with the servants, Fred.

[wintermute]

And here I was thinking you had found a GF

Tony.

[tpenguin]

Well, first of all (I'm sure you've heard this many times before), if it's loud enough for people in your back yard to hear it, it's loud enough to damage your hearing irreversably. That said, the volume levels you expose your ears to are your own business, not mine. First, rip out the crappy, paper-thin door that all bedrooms have, and replace it with a proper exterior door of either exterior wood or insulated steel/vinyl. Then add some weatherstripping around it. As for the windows, really heavy curtains should work pretty well (the type that block out the sunlight completely), and be less trouble than replacing the windows or adding storm windows. Next, you'll need to decouple your speakers from your floor (maybe sacrificing some bass response in the process, but it's a necessary evil sometimes). There are all sorts of ways to do that, so I'll leave that up to your imagination.

As for the walls, the low frequencies are going to get through almost anything, so unless you want to resort to drastic and expensive measures, you'll just have to hope the smaller fixes will do.

[mrfeedback]

Originally posted by wintermute
And here I was thinking you had found a GF

Tony.

The sound deadening is for when he does get one...

Eric.

[SY]

Believe me, with the stereo cranked, girlfriend noises will not be heard. If they are, she's a keeper.

[johnferrier]

Sell the speakers for headphones (a pair).


JF