Acoustic underlay or sound insulation slab?

[Beau]

Morning all. 

 

I'm about to start putting a bedroom and bathroom floor down in our renovation. It's directly over the kitchen which is the heart of the home. I'm wondering what to do to limit sound transfer through the floors. Is it best to maximise on acoustic insulation slab between the joists or would an acoustic underlay make a big difference? I'm not intending to touch the ceiling below on this round of works so resilient strip isn't an option.

 

Thanks

[Nickfromwales]

Hi. 
 

What are the floor coverings going to be in those rooms?

I assume you’re lifting the floorboards to do the work and install acoustic insulation, and if so you can start by putting 50mm wide acoustic strips on top of the joists for the new floorboards to sit on.

 

Depends really on how ‘mad’ you want to go, but you’ll need to be cautious of what insulation you pack around electric cables / light fittings etc, but the more acoustic insulation the merrier obvs. 

[Beau]

38 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Hi. 
 

What are the floor coverings going to be in those rooms?

I assume you’re lifting the floorboards to do the work and install acoustic insulation, and if so you can start by putting 50mm wide acoustic strips on top of the joists for the new floorboards to sit on.

 

Depends really on how ‘mad’ you want to go, but you’ll need to be cautious of what insulation you pack around electric cables / light fittings etc, but the more acoustic insulation the merrier obvs. 

Hi Nick.

 

It's carpet in the main bedroom and vinyl in the en-suit. It's already a low room so raising the floor much is not an option we would take. We are not paranoid about soundproofing just want it better than it has been which shouldn't be difficult as there hasn't been any sound proofing up to now.

[Nickfromwales]

The foam strips compress down to a few mm, so no probs there. 

[Beau]

35 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

The foam strips compress down to a few mm, so no probs there. 

 Dyslexic me not reading things right. I saw 50mm and thought depth even though you clearly state width

 

I will have a look into them as I suspect isolating the floor boards from the joist would be very effective

 

Something like this? https://www.affixit.co.uk/resilient-floor-tape.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwytS-BhCKARIsAMGJyzpTKk0V_IiQFt2eKMd07jjuHNF9DwWr-1wxHEwb4Xz4bYq08rtZz4IaArsTEALw_wcB#180=844

Edited March 15 by Beau

[Nickfromwales]

8 minutes ago, Beau said:

 Dyslexic me not reading things right. I saw 50mm and thought depth even though you clearly state width

 

I will have a look into them as I suspect isolating the floor boards from the joist would be very effective

 

Something like this? https://www.affixit.co.uk/resilient-floor-tape.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwytS-BhCKARIsAMGJyzpTKk0V_IiQFt2eKMd07jjuHNF9DwWr-1wxHEwb4Xz4bYq08rtZz4IaArsTEALw_wcB#180=844

Yup.

[Beau]

2 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Yup.

Sorry for endless questions but I am presuming screwing floorboards over it is alright?

 

Just envisioning it getting crushed when screwing down especially on the ends with small contact point.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, Beau said:

Sorry for endless questions but I am presuming screwing floorboards over it is alright?

 

Just envisioning it getting crushed when screwing down especially on the ends with small contact point.

Yes, it still functions even when screwed down, but a proper setup sees the floor floating iirc. See the manufacturers YT videos for install techniques  

[Nick Laslett]

This is one of my small bugbears. Building my stud walls was my first encounter with resilient acoustic tape. 
 

I ordered Siniat Resilient Tape along with all my Siniat metal framing materials. 

 

https://www.siniat.co.uk/en-gb/products-and-systems/products/finishing/siniat-resilient-tape/

 

I didn’t quite have enough and ordered some more generic tape from Amazon. The non-branded product was significantly poorer in quality than the Siniat product. It may be twice the price, but I definitely preferred it. 
 

This is probably just one of those small decisions that nobody cares about, but for me there are a number of items where the difference in quality vs the cost saving were a false economy. The more expensive Illbruck FM330 expanding foam was another item, worth the price over the cheaper options.