Can anyone advise the best way to soundproof a bedroom on a budget ?

Question

I live in a smi detached and there is no carpet on the floor yet. Is there anything I can put under the carpet to stop noising travelling up from the next door neighboors ground floor to our first floor bedroom. The offending noise is music and load voices

Answer 1

I had a similar issue recently and found that the following worked very well and is relatively low cost. If you take up the carpet and underlay and put down a 'solid wooden floor' sound proofing layer - its thin black rubber (usually 3 or 5 mm) thick with a silver or gold heating insulator on one side. Its works very well!

Answer 2

I live in a first floor flat and sound proofed all my floors when I first moved in. If it's possible for you to move all of the furniture out of the room for a weekend the most effective method would be to remove the floorboards and place a double layer of rockwool slabs between the joists - you can cut them to size very easily. Then put the floorboards back down again and cover them either with rubber or fibre tiles (as you would use under laminate flooring), taping the edges to hold them together. Then on top of that add another layer of hardboard, again taped at the edges rather than nailed down - as without any nails less noise will transmit through the vibrations through the walls and floor. Then use as thick an underlay and carpet as you can find on the top. The alternative would be to create a suspended ceiling in the room below to hold the rockwool panels and line the party wall with Rockwool backed plasterboard panels.

Answer 3

Take up the carpet, and seal all the gaps in the floorboards with Silicon sealant or similar. Then get some thermal/acoustic insulation boards, they are dense paperboard about 2' x 3' x 1/4" and works very well (I have them in my office, and it is lovely). Make sure they are snug fitting, all the way to the walls, then relay the carpet or wooden floor. I find the board a great insulator for heat as well.

Answer 4

Go to a flooring store and ask them for suggestions on sound dampening alternatives. Problem though, is that you are likely living in a wood frame building and the best sound insulation would be to inject material under the floor boards & you probably don't have the permission to do that. You could get a white noise machine. Or, you could move.

Answer 5

I may have the answer for you. I had the same problem living next to my brother and the noise would bother my baby girl. So I went to Home depot and got decorative cork squares and did the walls with them. I then took pictures and such and added color and decorations to them. It worked wonders and you can change the decor any time with posters, pictures or other assorted things that can be push pinned up. Hope this gives you some ideas. Like I said it worked like a charm.

Answer 6

i disc meat loaf with bat outa hell on it. two woofers pluged into a sterio system place woofers on the wooden floor (pull carpet up on the corner) what goes up comes down. wait till the offenders are in bed 1 hour should do put volume on high and blast for about 2 mins, if the offenders persist do the same again the next time, they will soon get the message that the noise is p1ssing u off.why should you spend for there self centered behaviour,

Answer 7

most effective is to lay 25mm rockwool 4ft by 2ft slabs over the floorbords, cover that with 12.5mm plasterboard, then cover that with 12.5mm ply before your chosen flooring finish. The only downfall is you lose 2 inches on your cieling hieght and material costs all in, about £5 to £10 per sq meter tops. We sound proof biuldings converted to apartments this will do the trick! promise

Answer 8

Cheapest would be the fibreboard slabs about 6mm thick that usually go under laminate floors. Then cover that with hardboard sheets, nailed down every 6".

Answer 9

if you havent got laminated flooring and your allowed to do it a cheap method is to use "deafening". as long as the floor can support the weight. so lift the floorbaords up and lay gravel inside the cavity. in the olden days they used to take old carpets and other crap as a deafening agent. i dont know if the practice of gravel as deafening is still legal or not. but you would need expert advice on that, wouldnt want your neighbours to get a headfull of small stones.

Answer 10

The cardboard sheets that come in packs of 2 1/2 dozen eggs. You know what I mean? Well put those on the floor and the walls and they will muffle any sounds.