Wood Floor Soundproofing
Sound Proofing Your Wooden Floors
No matter how much you may love your neighbors, being made aware of their every movement as the ceiling creaks and wobbles is a recipe for a bad relationship.
Not to mention their taste in music or domestic shenanigans.
Of course, this nuisance can work both ways. It can be a particular problem in converted flats from Victorian properties on several floors. “these were never designed to function as separate living spaces.
So what can you do? Acoustic insulation can diminish the effects of acoustic and impact sound. For the best advice on installation, call on a specialist wooden floor restoration company.
Sanding Wood Floors is a family firm who have restored and upgraded hundreds of floors over the past twenty years – in every kind of domestic and commercial setting.
Acoustic Insulation
This helps to protect you and your neighbor from acoustic sound: when voices and music travel through the shallow void space between your floor and your neighbor’s ceiling.
Impact sound is the noise from the fall of heavy feet, the banging of furniture and just every day moving about. The most suitable insulation depends on the kind of flooring you have – and the nature of the subfloor.
Plywood and chipboard are commonly used when a major property refurbishment requires the replacement of older subfloors. Chipboard sheeting has a tongue-and-groove fitting to create a smooth and solid subfloor.
They both offer limited soundproofing qualities. The additional fitting of rock wool insulation for properties with such wooden subfloors will improve soundproofing.
- For example, we will lift every fifth to sixth board. We then cut the insulation to the width of the space between the joists.
- And then fill in the space under the boards with as much insulation as possible – packing it under all cables and pipes.
- After the boards are refixed, we continue with the process of sanding and sealing.
A typical quality underlay will provide soundproofing of 18-24dB of airborne sound.
Some are capable of going beyond these limits, such as the double rubber E-Board – an expensive but highly effective option. The job is far easier during the installation of new floors – when we can choose the most appropriate underlay.
Call us today for your free assessment. Sanding Wood Floors will examine your floor – and demonstrate the range of underlays available.