soundproofing

[amoeba]

i am intersting in soundproofing ar oom in my house , do any of your DIYers know of ways to do this without spending obscene amounts of $$$?

[Schaef]

Well, to answer that depends on several things. First, how much are you willing to spend? How much soundproofing is desired? Are you trying to keep outside sound out or inside sound in? What are the sources of the sound? Is the room completely built already? How much work are you willing to put in?

As you can see all of these come into play. Also, how handy are you? If you're looking to do a decent job, there are quite a few things you can do, but they generally will involve some construction work. The more soundproofing you want, the more construction work it will take.

So, what are the details on what you're trying to do? (Is this a practice room for a guitar, or drums or is this your home theatre you want to isolate?)

[AuroraB]

The easisest and cheapest way to achieve an acceptable level of soundproofing is to make a "room in room" construction with e.g 1.5x3" struts and preferrably double layer of plaster board. The ceiling will have to be done likewise, with appropriate beam structure. A suspended ceiling from the old one will do the job, but not as good as a mechanically free bearing one. This will, provided it is correctly done, give appx. 45-50 dB of isolation. The general idea is that the new walls should not touch the outer walls at all, or in as few points as possible, in other words a totally free standing box. The floor can be done by making a float on heavy grade mineral wool, specifically for this purpose, and raise the new walls atop of this float....

This is the "cheap skate" way of making small sound studios, but it really depends on the size of the room and the existing counstruction....
If you want further help, you must describe the existing construction, along with some details about the level of isolation and decay times you want .....

Regards