Suggestions to block sound

[Ryland]

Part of my ongoing renovations is to turn what used to be a first floor bedroom into a dining room. I removed the closet in that room and the adjoining coat closet which is at the bottom of a staircase. I then found that sound from the new living room travels through the new kitchen (which isn't finished) through the empty dining room to be right up the stairs to my sons room. I need some idea on how to block this sound path. My wife refuses to let me put a door back on that wall and wants me to wait to see how bad it will be after the room is finished. The only options I can think of are:

• Pocket door (would require tearing out a wall along the staircase which just had carpeting put down).
• Drape system in the now open doorway.

Im drawing a blank on other options...

 

[tdkkart]

Check your hearing settings, being married you should be able to engage the selective hearing mode any time you want to block out sounds.

Assuming your son is not married, unfortunatelly he will not yet be able to engage the selective mode.

 

[Ryland]

Assuming your son is not married, unfortunatelly he will not yet be able to engage the selective mode.

Im 1/2 deaf so thats not a problem except that I tend to have the 7.1 system up a little higher than I probably should which travels way too well.

 

[Rosco]

when you say unfinished, depending on flooring type/walls/furniture status, they can really make a huge difference in sound travel.

I have bi-fold doors between my kitchen and den/computer room (used to be the dining room). They look nice and cut down on noise. I would have done a pocket door if not for the wall configuration.

 

[Ryland]

Unfinished means that the kitchen is painted but the is subfloor only and I have a bunch of tools in there. The dining room to be is subfloor only. I don't really want to get into redoing drywall over the new rug on the stairs by putting in a pocket door although a pocket door would probably be the best bet. Bifolds might work too to cut the direct line between the stairs and the kitchen.

 

[ddawg16]

Bi-fold....?
Door with frosted glass panels?

 

[ForceFed70]

Carpet and other soft materials help to deaden sound.

 

[rickycobra]

Assuming your son is not married, unfortunatelly he will not yet be able to engage the selective mode.

Sons have ADD pretty much the same thing. Bare with the noise if it loud organize your day around going outside.

 

[mmhouse]

Not having a floorplan makes it a little tougher to come up with good suggestions. As someone else mentioned, wall and floor fiishes and even window coverings will abosorb sound so it may get better depending upon what you do there.

If your wife won't go for a pocket door would she consider a glass door, maybe one with divided lights for appearance? This would allow for visibility while blocking sound and may even add some architectural interest.

 

[cowboy73]

Since neither the kitchen or dining room is finished yet, you could drill holes into the cavity between the studs and blow insulation in the walls to help absorb some of the sound. You would have to patch alot of holes but it would work. If the kitchen is going to have cabinets on the wall it shares with the dining room the patches wouldn't have to be quite perfect because they would be covered by the cabinets. Just a thought.

 

[ChristopherLutz]

I have to say - I dont' totally understand the configuration to which you're referring; however, you might be able to take advantage of better/new drywall.

I was watching "Holmes on Homes" - he put in a sound deadening drying (membrane converts sound waves to heat) which was the equivalent of 9 regular drywall pieces together. I was pretty impressed. In this issue - he was using on a shared wall of a duplex.


http://www.quietrock.com/quietrock-...ef2e418042ed&gclid=CJnbib7d0qUCFcPt7Qod51Ql3A

http://homasote.com/products/440-Soundbarrier.aspx?gclid=CMad99Ld0qUCFQrt7QodqyO-jg

http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pid=1071


Good luck - I have high ceilings in my living room....TV noise travels all around the house and drives my wife nuts.

 

[28HopUp]

Carpet and other soft materials help to deaden sound.

Agreed. Plus if the the spaces are now empty during construction, having the furnishings in both rooms will help.

You could tackle the sound problem another way too. I suspect that your son's bedroom door is hollow-core. You could install a solid-core door and add weatherstripping along the edges and door bottom to keep noise from entering his room.

 

[Ryland]

we talked about it this weekend (along with my FIL) and came up with a wait and see approach. Finish the construction and move the furniture along with drapes and everything else in. If furniture isn't enough to deaden the sound then I will install a glass door to further block sound. We are also in the process of replacing all of the hollow core doors on the 2nd floor with solid 6 panel doors.

 

[brownbagg]

you have to isolate the sound wave, open air does nothing, sound hitting a wall will amptfly through the wall, so you need to isolate one side of wall from other dead air, not having both side of drywall nailed to same 2x

 

[slopecarver]

check out sensible sound solutions, a commonly used resource for people designing home theaters. There are 2 major ways to reduce or remove sound transmission, decoupling and mass. decoupling would be building a stagger stud wall (Google it) and an example of mass would be a 4" thick hollow door filled with sand or concrete. Having an open doorway makes any sound treatments useless.

 

[Ryland]

The problem is is that there is a direct line between the living room and the bottom of the stairs with open air the entire way. I guess i will need to figure out something to break that up.

 

[m.james]

Use Old Carpeting. Other than that you really going to have deal with the noise.