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fotostat

Soundproofing floor?

fotostat
16 years ago

I just bought a condo, it used to be an apartment building until the 80's when it was converted to condos. It is a 2 floor building, my unit is on the second floor. I am lucky in the fact that there is a full block firewall that goes from the footing all the way up to the attic, this leads to good sound proofing between units. Another nice thing is that the units are separated by stairwells so any noise that escapes thru the block wall (sheetrocked on both sides) will get trapped in the stairwell and not enter the next apartment.

Other than the block firewalls and the brick outside sheathing, the rest of the building is typical wood framing with 10" floor joists. So that leaves one problem, the downstairs neighbor...

I haven't even closed on the condo yet and don't know who the neighbor is. I am a very considerate type of person, I wouldn't be able to watch TV loud or walk around at night if I knew my downstairs neighbor could hear it, it would always be on my mind. The problem here is that I like my big screen TV and killer surround sound system.

So my question is about floor sound proofing. How does one limit the sound that is transmitted thru the floor of a wood framed building? I assume my building has the typical sheetrock (it's actually plasterboard) underneath and 3/4" plywood on top of the joists with insulation in between. How much further can one go to limit sound travelling thru? Would another layer of plywood help? More insulation inside the floor? A different type of insulation?

How is this done? Thanks!

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