Speakers on Timber Floor

Motions

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Jul 8, 2014
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I am in the process of renovating my music cum study room,enlarging it to 32ft x 19.5ft x 11.5ft(ht).The room is at the attic level and directly below it,is my master bedroom.
I sleep late and i do work,reading and the best time to listen to music is late into the night and you can imagine if i play loud,my wife will be having a hard time sleeping.
Thus i have laid the sound proofing membrane Acoustiblok on the concrete floor to help reduce the noise transmitting down to my master bedroom.
I was informed by the local dealer of the Acoustiblok that a slight cavity is required,and the acoustiblok is best laid with a bit of "wave".

After much discussion with my timber floor contractor and the Accuostiblok dealer we agreed that we lay 1 inches thick timber battens at about 4 inches interval on the concrete floor,then lay the acoustiblok on top of the timber batten.
The next layer,we laid 1/2 inches thick solid plywood on top of the Acoustiblok and nailed it onto the timber batten below..
And finally we install 10mm thick solid Burmese Teak on top of the plywood.
When i walk on the floor it feels solid enough but my concern is when i stomp on the finished timber floor,the floor sounds hollow and not as solid as i wish it should be.
Is this a bad sign?The room is not completed yet,the wall acoustic treatment works will start next week,so i have not setup my equipments and speaker to test out.
Will this be a problem?I have spend substantially to upgrade my room and this is worrying me,that i might not be able to get the best out of my investment.
Or there is really nothing to be worried about..
But if this is indeed a bad sign,what can i do now (since the rest of the works on the wall has not started yet) to rectify this issue of my timber floor.
Any help or input is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
 

zztop7

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Dec 12, 2012
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Build It & Break It

Acoustiblok on the concrete floor to help reduce the noise transmitting down to my master bedroom.

There is an ancient system called Build It & Break It. A sample of what you want is built & tested to the point of destroying it in some cases in order to confirm what you hope works. In your case in would be done differently, but hopefully you will get the picture; even though it is probably TOO
LATE for what has been built. But NOT too late for some additions. From the beginning I would have used a heavy bass boom box for convenience on your concrete floor; maybe facing down. Moving it around to check the areas. This can still be done to check what works at this point. You probably need another layer of battens that are NOT directly above the first layer, but are staggered [so no part of any batten is above another]. More sound block material of course.
Continue building until the Boom Box does not sing to your wife.
For quality of floor [not necessarily sound], I would have >at least 1 inch< of Baltic Birch under teak [possibly two 1/2 inch layer run 90 degrees to each other - glued & screwed /two - 3/4 even better]. Teak nailed every 6 inches, NOT staples.
Etc.
zz.
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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I am no contractor, and there are professionals who would clearly know more. What i can share is my personal experience. Our neighbors were able to feel all the bass coming from the speakers and sub...until i isolated them using Auralex and/or Ultra 5s. Getting high quality isolation between the speaker and the timber flooring in here has helped tremendously. Additionally, i dont think it was just the floor but the frame of construction generally.

I see you've got a lot of extremely high quality isolation (in addition to great electronics!!!)...hopefully the Magico feet, its low noise floor...will allow you to play at listenable levels without needing to crank it (low noise floor)...and the isolation of the feet will help keep the vibration a bit from the floor...but if not, the question is do you wish to isolate the whole floor even more than you have?...or do you want to ensure that the speakers themselves are given more robust isolation?

I know magicos were not intended to be isolated with, say, Ultra 5s...but perhaps you could work with your contractor to create some kind of footing, heavily isolated/insulated...to go directly under the speakers that keeps them that much further away from vibrating into the structure?

Finally, if you stomp on the floor...the real question is not what YOU hear...its what the person on the floor below hears. YOu might need to stomp/make noise upstairs, while someone listens downstairs.
 

DEV

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Oct 19, 2011
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I was quenching when reading - :( Your floor is going to interact like a trampoline effect.

Kindly provide further info

1. what is the structure build of your home.
2. is this a free standing home.
3. in reading your room is in the attic space which is located above your master bedroom correct.
4. you wrote concrete floor - this is where you loss me

so please clarify

5. is this a floating slab or poured over top of a wood structure

so need clarification on this prior to proceeding.
 

Motions

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Jul 8, 2014
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Thank you guys for the input...
To answer Dev..
Yes my house is a free standing and the floor is a suspended concrete slab..,
House is built on solid concrete foundation,the super structure of the house are concrete/steel and all walls are solid brick walls
 

treitz3

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Dec 25, 2011
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Good morning, Motions. One thing you can do (if possible) is to add isolating rails or what is technically referred to as drywall furring channels on the bedroom ceiling (and/or the listening room walls). Please check out this link and scroll down to Soundproofing Walls Solution 5:

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing-solutions/soundproofing-walls/

This is the most effective way I know of that will help eliminate foot traffic noise, kitchen type noise, TV's, stereos and other noises that can emanate from above. Please keep in mind that to really "seal" the deal, all outlets, duct work or flanking possibilities must be addressed as well for the best possible outcome. While this will help to greatly control or eliminate most frequencies, the lower registers will still transfer. For this, I would take up some of the suggestions presented already with isolating the speakers and sub(s) from the floor itself. IME, it doesn't take much for the lower registers to make it through whatever it wants too, including entire buildings. I hope this helps you with your inquiry and good luck with the project!

Tom
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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Thank you guys for the input...
To answer Dev..
Yes my house is a free standing and the floor is a suspended concrete slab..,
House is built on solid concrete foundation,the super structure of the house are concrete/steel and all walls are solid brick walls

sounds very similar to our situation. Side walls solid brick, concrete frame with wood floors over the concrete. We found extremely good benefits from isolating the speakers (Auralex, Ultra 5s) from the floor. Both sound-wise and neighbor-wise.
 

Motions

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Jul 8, 2014
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Thank you guys..zztop7,LL21,Dev,treitz3
 

microstrip

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May 30, 2010
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I am not an expert in sound insulation, but I could see some "sound bridges" in your description. It would help a lot if you could post a sketch of your floor layers.

Sometimes building an insulation floating ceiling, without any connection to the old one in the sleeping room operates miracles.
 

zztop7

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Dec 12, 2012
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Great replies. Now the extreme. Take what you have done so far, and build a floating room that is NOT attached to the structure of the house. How? Layer the existing room with 4 inch thick building Styrofoam: floor, ceiling, walls. Then use very straight high quality stock [ glue-lams, microlams, I-Studs?, etc.] that are used to construct a framework inside the Styrofoam cocoon. The cocoon is not connected to any existing structure of the house, but is built extremely strong for safety [roll-cage]. Better take a look at your local & international building codes. Flexible duct-work for HVAC that does not pass next to the bedroom. Etc. Quite a bit extreme & No guarantees [maybe a taillight warranty].
zz.
 

thedudeabides

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Jan 16, 2011
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Given your listening habits and your wife's need to sleep, I suggest finding another room for your audio system or your bedroom.
 

Motions

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Jul 8, 2014
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Noted with thanks..
 

rugyboogie

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May 30, 2010
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If your floor is a suspended concrete floor my suggestions is to glue down a layer of cork that is 5/16 thick directly onto the concrete.
Cork is installed in high end condos to mitigate foot fall and noise coming from the suite above.

The room within a room that zztop7 and Dev suggested earlier is the best solution. This method will make your room smaller but wife happier.
Have build rooms with in a room and my clients have been very satisfied with the results. Have used the Acoustibloc in two wall application and found it worked well.
The Kinetics noise product that Dev point to above looks like a good solution for the floor as well.
 

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