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By: Robert W. Orther
It’s kind of nice being in the “do it yourself
kind of business” like soundproofing. In today’s
world taking the family out on a Friday night for dinner and
a movie might cost you more than your monthly mortgage payment.
That is why many families are opting for their very own home
Theater. If you have a spare room or an empty space in your
basement or attic, you have a potential Home Theater.
It used to be that the best way to build a home theater or
a home studio was to construct new wall within the existing
room and then build what we call a “Room within a room.”
Though this method of soundproofing is still quite effective,
it is costly and eats up a lot of wall space in your already
cramped theater room.
A better suggestion is to work with your existing walls by
applying a new layer of drywall to the existing walls and
ceiling but applying a layer of a product called Green Glue
on the new drywall and sandwich it in between the existing
wall and the new drywall. If you do this to all the walls
and the ceiling you are well on your way to a great soundproof
home theater. Now if your home theater is on a second floor,
the ceiling now becomes less of a concern and now the floors
become more of an issue. Floors can be soundproofed in many
different ways depending on what the finished floor is going
to be installed. If you are planning on having carpet and
pad for the finished floor in your theater, then a soundproof
floor underlay would be in order. Something like American
Impactless soundproof floor underlay or American Impact Standard
underlay. These are both recycled rubber products that would
lie atop of the wood or concrete sub floor to stop the airborne
sounds of the home theater from traveling down to the people
below.
The Impactless is a less dense rubber underlay and would
be perfect for under carpet and pad. The American Impact Standard
would also be effective under the carpet and pad, but is more
suited for hardwood and ceramic tile floors due to its sheer
mass.
Other concerns that you might have with your home theater
would be doors and windows. Let’s talk about doors for
a minute; if you are trying to keep the movie in the home
theater, then a hollow core door could be your worst enemy.
Most modern bedroom doors are hollow core and do little in
the way of soundproofing. Your best bet would be to go to
Home Depot or Lowe’s and purchase a solid core MDF or
solid wood door. You could ad an automatic drop down transom
seal to the bottom of the door and also a door perimeter seal
kit to seals around the door where it closes into the jam.
A real soundproof door could cost thousands, with a little
time and careful planning; you can get the same results at
¼ the cost.
The last thing we need to talk about are the windows in your
home theater. If neighbors are a concern, then I would suggest
building window plugs with the 2” America Mat closed
cell vinyl nitrile foam mat. For example, if your window were
3’ X 3’, you would cut the foam to 3’1”
X 3’ 1” thus giving the window plug and extra
½” around it’s entire perimeter. This extra
½” will help to hold the window plug tightly
into the window frame much like a cork in a bottle. If the
window is 4’ or more on either dimension, it is suggested
that the window plug be glued to a backer board, something
like wood paneling or Luaan. These wood panels can be found
at home Depot or Lowe’s.
Well, I think we have covered every aspect of building your
very own home theater; next time we will discuss acoustical
treatments for your theater, until then, Dr. Bob…. Out!!!
About The Author
Dr. Bob is the Senior Technical Advisor at Soundproofing America
Inc, the leading authority in Soundproofing and Acoustical
treatment technology.
Dr. Bob O.
Soundproofing America, Inc.
Senior Technical Director
Soundproofing Expert to The New York Times, The San Francisco
Herald Examiner,
The San Diego Union Tribune, and the Charlotte Observer
Ph (877) 530-0139 Toll free Fax (347) 721-9079
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