You have probably come across situations when the resonance emanates from the walls and ceiling in the room so that even the slightest sounds are heard, both from outside and inside the building. To make soundproofing floors in houses with wooden floors, you can use two technologies. In the first case, it is necessary to mount the floor structure in such a way that as little noise as possible is generated during operation, which means that the beams and the entire flooring must be given the property of damping sounds. The second method is based on laying soundproofing materials in the floor or ceiling structure itself.
We will tell you how to make soundproofing in a wooden or brick private dwelling, although many tips can be applied when carrying out the corresponding work in an apartment building, where there is a wooden floor on the logs.
Quiet design
Now we will talk about how to make the floor structure quiet and non-creaky with your own hands. Wood floors on logs that are not touching the walls of the house are best distinguished by sound absorption. To do this, you need to shorten the logs so that from them to each of the walls there is a gap of about 10 mm, which is also necessary for shrinkage of the building. The extreme floor board is nailed up to a distance of 15 mm from the walls, and the resulting gap is foamed and covered with skirting boards.
If the boards are attached directly to the beams, sounds are very poorly absorbed due to the fact that in conjunction with the walls of the house they create a rigid structure. The sound from the steps when walking on such a coating is transmitted to the beams and then resonates along the surface of the walls and ceiling.
Noise isolation here is carried out using a special felt or rubber gasket, which is attached to wooden beams. Before laying, the cushioning material must be soaked with an antiseptic that will prevent the damage of wooden elements by harmful insects.
If you plan to build the floors of the first floor with your own hands, under which the basement will be equipped, or you will arrange jumpers between floors or the attic, which will simultaneously serve as the floor and ceiling, then the floor will have to be mounted on beams. To make sound insulation more effective, experts advise to lay logs across the beams so that they do not reach the walls of the house. At the points of support of these two elements, rubber or felt pads impregnated with antiseptic are placed to improve sound insulation. As gaskets, roofing materials laid in several layers can be used. If the flooring from wooden boards is mounted on beams, then the soundproofing material is lined throughout their area.
In a house that is not equipped with a basement, the floor on the first floor can be made quieter with your own hands, if the logs are not fixed to the walls, and also not laid on beams, but installed on pillars in the form of columns that are not related to the basis of the building. In this case, the noise of steps from the floor will not be transmitted over the surface of the walls and ceiling.
The connection of the boards is a dowel or a quarter. It is with such connections that the best sound insulation is provided due to the fact that there are no gaps between the elements of the flooring. For laying the flooring, well-dried material is used. After drying, the raw wood bends and forms cracks, therefore, here we cannot talk about high-quality sound insulation.
What if the floor creaks?
Most often, the wood flooring creaks due to uneven boards and the same curved logs and beams, and in order to eliminate such a problem in the house, the following manipulations must be performed:
- strictly maintain horizontal and level when laying logs and beams;
- to lay the board flooring on one level;
- use exclusively dry material in the work, otherwise the boards from the damp can get out and from this make a creak.
If you are laying laminate flooring or parquet board yourself, control the level of flooring from the boards. It must be laid strictly horizontally, without the slightest sagging, also vapor barrier will not be out of place here.
A detailed guide on how to clean the creak of a wooden floor.
We resort to the help of soundproof materials
To enhance the effect of sound insulation in the house, arrange a double floor or overlap with a hollow space designed for laying insulating material. The technology of the soundproofing process of the double floor begins with the fact that a solution of clay or lime is laid on a rough basis and allowed to dry. Then sprinkle with dry sand or expanded clay aggregate to the final flooring. Dry filling should be poured with a solution of lime, and after it has completely dried, they are taken for a fine finish. In this case, half of the space between the roughing base and the finishing floor is occupied by dry components, the second half is filled with air. Thanks to this simple method, the sound insulation of the double floor and at the same time the ceiling on the lower floor will improve significantly. Do not forget to install a vapor barrier before installing parquet or laminate, which will also positively affect the sound insulation of floors.
As mentioned earlier, in the process of constructing a wooden floor, a dry backfill is usually used as sound insulation, which is placed between the rough and the final floor. Please note that the run-up must be built strong and in no way thin so that it can withstand the load from expanded clay or sand without problems. The flooring boards are fixed tightly to each other with their own hands, but it is better to use shields for this purpose. The backfill here can be used the same as when laying the double floor. If the run was built not from boards, but from boards, it is necessary to process it with a lime solution. Then a layer of sand or expanded clay is poured onto a dried surface or on boards. As in the previous case, the dry components of the floor should half fill the space between the run and the flooring from the boards. Backfill is also poured with diluted lime. So that at the same time noise insulation performs the function of a heater, a bulk insulation material is used as backfill, which is laid on the roofing material.
Floating device
This is another effective option of soundproofing in a house with wooden floors, which is carried out using soundproofing materials and copes with the task. In addition, the overlap will not be as heavy as in the case of sand or expanded clay backfill, and the point here is not only that the bulk components weigh a lot. Less weight will be provided by rolling a smaller thickness, because he does not need to keep dry backfill.
Floating is called the floor structure because the support point for it is a layer of soundproofing material, and not rigid elements. As an insulator, you can use:
- mineral wool;
- glass wool;
- extruded polystyrene foam, etc.
Floating Soundproofing Floor - Simple Layout
Soft rolled material is lined with solid cover on wooden beams so that it slightly sags between them, while not touching the lower level ceiling. If one roll of insulation does not cover the required space, the edges of adjacent sheets are overlapped by 10 - 15 cm, and its edges should reach the walls and go a little into the space formed between the flooring from the boards and the walls. Calculating the thickness of sound insulation and the gap between the edge board and the wall, make sure that the extreme element of the flooring firmly squeezes the material to the wall, and the cotton wool closes after mounting the skirting boards.
To improve sound insulation in the house, professionals advise the skirting board to be fixed to the floor surface. If you have a furnace, make sure that the mineral wool does not touch its pipe. In this area, soundproofing will be done with asbestos board or felt treated with clay mortar. This technique will protect the wood from the pipe emitting high temperature.
Work stages
- At the first stage, you need to get rid of the gaps and gaps that transmit sound. If the "floating" design will be mounted with your own hands on a solid base, the joints are coated with sealant. If the flooring is completely dilapidated, you can skip this step.
- All engineering communications, if any, are necessarily wrapped with construction film and fixed with tape.
- The next layer should be vapor barrier, which will prevent the penetration of moisture into the structure of soundproofing material. The only exception is polystyrene foam - it does not need protection. True polystyrene is far from the best sound insulator.
- Roll insulation is overlapped so that it touches the walls. If mineral wool or felt is laid, then a soundproofing strip is pre-fixed on the walls, which in width will be no less than the thickness of the future floor. Thus, we get a kind of bowl that does not allow hard elements to touch the beams and the surface of the walls.
- After laying the log, a mesh structure should be formed, due to which the necessary rigidity is achieved, and the floors will not bend during operation. Here stiffness is indispensable, since the “floating” floor implies a free position when the logs are not fixed to the surface of the beams, and due to this there is no noise transmission bridge.
- A layer of soundproofing material is laid on the logs.
- Boards or plywood are attached to the logs. To improve the rough coating in the house, OSB sheets can be laid on top. Ensure that the sound insulation is firmly pressed against the wall.
- The finish coating is mounted, under which the substrate is spread.
- The baseboard is installed, but before that the strip of sound insulation is cut off, which sticks out of the gap between the wall and the floor. Its remains will be covered with a skirting board, which can be fixed to the floor or wall.
Properly made "floating" floor with your own hands is lightweight, copes with noise absorption, and also retains heat. Due to the evenly distributed load, the absence of rigid joints, as well as the availability of high-quality materials, this floor design will last a long time and create an excellent atmosphere in the house.