Treating Floor in New Construction - Reducing Footfall and Vibration


Looking for some good ideas/solutions to treating my new dedicated music room's floor.  The room will be fairly large at 22w x 29L, built on the main floor of the new house with a basement below.  My current room is in my basement with concrete floors so footfall is never an issue.

I have asked the engineering firm to give me some recommendations on making the floor stronger structure wise; not sure what they will suggest, maybe floor joist on more narrow centers, say 12 inch vs 16.  

Have you tackled this issue?  What about mass loaded vinyl (MLV); would a layer of heavy vinyl between the OSB floor boards and carpet pad help?  Use two layers of OSB flooring and glue them together?  Ideas?

stickman451

Showing 1 response by mitch2

Making floor joists deeper than necessary for the span, and/or shorter, will do more to increase stiffness than adding more joists, although 12 inches oc will not hurt in your listening room since there would be less opportunity for speakers and heavy equipment to not be fully positioned over joists.  Proper lateral bracing is also important.

let us know what your engineer says.