Hi everyone, Dennis Foley from Acoustic Fields. Today we're going to talk about how to
soundproof a basement.
For those of you that are fortunate enough to have a basement
a lot of your work is done for you as far as barrier technology but
we'll talk to that a little bit and address that issue later.
So how to soundproof a basement. We're going to call it the 3 M's.
Measurement, Mass and Muscle.
So those are the three areas that we need to focus on so let's take a
a look at each one of those and talk a little bit about each one. The first one's
measurement.
So what is our issues? What are we trying to figure out? Let's put a number to it.
Putting a number to it makes it a lot easier because the number will tell us how
much mass we need to use in our barrier to keep noise out or to keep noise in.
It also tells how much labor we're gonna need and materials.
So that's really good on estimating job prices and costs. So
if we measure, if we take a reading of what the noise level is in the room or
the basement and what we're trying to accomplish. Do we have a
noisy source outside the basement? Is that our problem? Do we have noise coming
into the structure?
So we need to figure out just how much that is, how big a problem it is?
Or are we generating the sound or the noise that's leaking out?
Maybe upstairs if it's a house structure.
So what are we, what are we doing? You know what,
how big is our problem? Let's put a number to it and
measure it first and then we need to decide what frequency its at.
Deciding what frequency its at is really important because
it tells us what kind of mass or barrier,
which is step two, that were gonna have to construct to
contain noise or isolate from
outside source noise. So defining how big our problem is,
what frequency its at, will help us determine what kind of mass or barrier
technology
we need to apply to the situation.
Two break points we need to look at. Noise that's below 125 cycles
big difference in the amount, type
and construction methods that you used to
create a barrier for that anything below 125 cycles. Now we're really getting into
the low frequency area.
Above 125 cycles human voice and up, a
little bit different. Less mass, less space requirement.
Below 125 cycles, way more mass
and usually more space requirements. So
how big of a problem do we have? What frequency is it at?
Where's our break point in those problems? Is it above 125 cycles? Is it below
125 cycles? We need to determine that
first? Muscle. Constructing
barrier technology is labor-intensive and the materials weigh a lot.
You have to arrange them in a certain way to get the most
isolation so all that needs to be taken into consideration.
In a basement
you have Earth and usually concrete.
So you already have a natural barrier with the earth
and you have usually thick poured concrete walls. So you have two good
things going for you
in terms of outside noise coming in. It won't help with the people upstairs in
the top part of the house if it is a
a residential situation so the ceiling now becomes the issue
and we have to work on constructing barrier technology for that. So with a
basement you kinda got
a built-in outside barrier with the earth
and the concrete but then we have energy that goes upstairs.
Here's another thing you have to realize with low frequency energy in a basement,
with concrete and the earth, the low-frequency has nowhere to go but
up into the house.
The earth and the concrete are going to be really good
barriers for that. It's not going to have anywhere to go and it will find the path of
least resistance
usually through the ceiling. So that's an area that we need to .
Measurement, Mass and Muscle, the 3 M's in
how to soundproof a basement. Thank you.