floating floor help

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:45 pm

If I build a floating floor in a pre-existing room, with the floor not touching the walls, will it help the low end from getting to the outside?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:20 pm

nandoph8,

Maybe, maybe not.

Without any details, there's no way to tell.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:02 pm

Well I made new walls about 2" away from the original walls, without insulation but with two layers of sheetrock and green glue in between. I didn't float the room becuase of the budget. I have no problems with any of the high end getting to the outside but the lows are pretty bad. So I am wonderind=g, as a last resort before tearing the walls off ans starting over, should I try building a floating floor? With u-boats, 2x4, tongue and grove plyboard, layer of sheetrock and then another tounge and grove plyboard all without touching the walls. You think this will help with my low end problems?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:36 pm

What Max said - maybe, maybe not.

You still haven't told us anything to help us give yo an answer.......

explain exactly what it is you have now........

are you sitting on a slab on grade - a first floor deck - up in the attic?.........

what hard connections are there from your inside structure to your outside structure?

how did you handle the ceiling?

etc., etc., etc..........

Rod

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:42 pm

ceiling is resting on the new walls about 2" from the real ceiling. on slab on a single story house. no hard connections from inner to outer

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:52 pm

OK - this is like pulling teeth.........

explain in detail your construction from outside to inside of the building........... both at walls and at the ciling.........

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:11 am

exterior is regular siding, with lumber framing and insultation, and sheetrock on the inner side, just your regular 80's syle house. ceiling i believe is shingles, board? insulation and sheetrock. then inside i built a steel frame that is 2" from touching any walls or seiling and put 2 layers of sheetrock with green glue on the inner side. no insulations. this frame was shot directily to the slab, which i believe is m problem. should have floated the floor, then built the the walls and ceiling on top of that. but now i am trying to see if just building the floor inside the "new" "inside" room will help.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:23 am

It's likely your main problem is having 3-leaf walls - you have the outer siding, then insulation, then sheet rock (second mass) then air, then 2 layers of rock (third mass) - that alone will reduce your low frequency isolation by several dB while (slightly) improving your mid-high frequency isolation.

I hate to say it, but to get your lows back under control you'd need to REMOVE the original sheet rock so you only have TWO masses - the outer siding and the inner double sheet rock - preferably with the stuff you remove being used to "beef up" the outer shell from inside, between the studs.

I know you don't wanna hear that, but it's a basic fact of sound isolation... Steve

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:41 am

Nando,

Steve hit the nail right on the head (not that this surprises me) - and this is why I kept asking questions about your build out...

You threw away a lot of money and now cannot solve that problem even if you had the head room and spent the money on a bonafide elevated concrete slab.

Your problem is the walls and ceiling themselves......

And you are going to have to destroy a lot of work before the problm can now be solved.

Sincerely,

Rod

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