Soundproofing the floor in the apartment - features of the device for different types of bases and floor coverings. Soundproofing the floor in an apartment under a screed with your own hands What is used to soundproof the floor

Residents apartment buildings the problem of constant noise coming from adjacent apartments is well known. But this is only one side of the problem, because just as you are annoyed by the neighbors above, you can disturb the peace of those who live below you. This issue is especially acute for those who have small children.

Soundproofing floors will help solve this problem. It will reduce the level of extraneous noise in the apartment, and in the winter months the rooms will be much warmer. So you will please not only yourself, but also the neighbors below.

It is important to understand that the noise that interferes with our comfort has a different nature. In particular, the following types of noise are distinguished:

• Acoustic. It occurs in empty rooms and represents reflected sounds (echoes). In apartments, he rarely annoys residents, but can penetrate from the entrance.
• Spatial (airborne noise). This includes almost all the sounds that accompany our lives: the voices of people, music, the sound of working household appliances, etc.
• Structural. This type of noise is shock vibrations that diverge through the structural elements of the house.

It should be borne in mind that soundproofing for floors is not able to eliminate absolutely all sounds. But it's worth paying attention Special attention to the last category. Since it is structural noise that most annoys residents of apartment buildings, it is mainly soundproofing that helps to cope with it.

Types of soundproofing floors

Taking on the arrangement of sound insulation, you need to understand that it will not be possible to completely eliminate all extraneous sounds. Despite the abundance of high-tech materials, only a thick one can provide complete sound absorption (99.9%) concrete wall, two-meter layer insulating material and several steel partitions.

Soundproofing scheme under the screed

Nevertheless, high-quality sound insulation of the floor of the apartment is quite capable of providing you with a comfortable level of silence. Consider the most popular ways to solve the problem with extraneous noise in apartments.

Use of sound-absorbing coatings

Cork soundproofing

The easiest and fastest way to implement is ready-made floor coverings. They do not require major repairs and are inexpensive. Among the materials that are good at damping shock vibrations transmitted through the floor, we highlight the most common options:

• linoleum on a thick basis;
• carpets and carpet;
• cork coating;
• foamed polyurethane;
• laminate + soundproof lining.

All these options solve two problems at once. They provide a certain level of sound insulation and at the same time perform a decorative function. The exception is the polyurethane coating, since it must be additionally covered with decorative flooring.

Soundproofing with screed

To make high-quality sound insulation, you will need to completely dismantle the floor to the floor slabs. After this is done concrete screed floating type, which will be separated from the walls and floor slabs. Step by step, this process looks like this:

1. The floor slabs are covered with cellophane so that after pouring the screed, it does not protrude on the ceiling of the neighbors.
2. To separate the walls from the screed, use a special foam polystyrene tape or a laminate substrate cut into strips. Tape or strips of laminate should be laid out along the walls. The optimal width of the gaps is from two to five centimeters, they are filled with sealant, covered with a plinth.
3. A layer of foam is laid out on top of the cellophane, which will act as an insulator.
4. So that the screed does not crack, it is desirable to strengthen it with a fine-mesh metal mesh(50x50 mm or 100x100 mm) with a diameter of around 3 mm. This mesh is laid over a layer of insulation.
5. Next, beacons are set up, which is not so easy to do due to the characteristics of the foam and possible irregularities in the floor slabs. You can solve this problem with the help of special adjustable fasteners or cut holes for beacons in the foam.
6. After that, you can pour the screed. The solution is kneaded in a proportion of 1 part of cement and 4 parts of sand. Keep in mind that the thickness of the solution must be at least 50 mm, otherwise everything will crack. Filling is done in one layer.

It is important to leave the room alone until the solution is completely dry, polystyrene foam and polystyrene foam are very elastic materials and can easily crack, one step on a damp screed can completely ruin all the work done. Full drying will take about 4 weeks.

Insulation under the screed is very effective method. But before soundproofing the floors using this method, it must be taken into account that it will have a significant weight, which puts an additional load on the supporting structures. So make sure that such an upgrade will not lead to undesirable consequences for the home.

Soundproofing wooden floors

Soundproofing wooden floors

Take off wood flooring quite simple and can be dealt with without third-party advice. The further course of work can be as follows:

1. Logs under the removed coating must be treated with an antiseptic. After that, they need to be reinstalled in the horizon plane. For these purposes, U-shaped brackets are best suited. You need to fix the lags in the same way as when working with drywall.
2. When the logs are installed, the space between them is filled with mineral insulation. It is better not to use polystyrene for these purposes, it is vapor-tight and will not allow air to circulate normally under the floor. This will cause the boards to rot quickly.
3. After that, you can proceed with the installation of the flooring. The boards are moved as tightly as possible to each other and screwed to the logs with self-tapping screws.

The choice of materials for sound insulation

In order to achieve a high-quality result, it is important to take into account the features and properties of insulating and consumable materials.

1. Styrofoam- the traditional and most popular material for heat and sound insulation. But far from any foam is suitable for these purposes. The material must have a high density. If you pour the screed onto soft foam, it will soon crack and all the work done will come to naught. The thicker the foam layer, the more effective it is. The optimal thickness is 50 mm.
2. Styrofoam- A great alternative to styrofoam. It has greater strength and allows lightening the weight of the insulating structure.
3. Mineral wool copes with noise absorption and perfectly insulates the room. With proper installation, it can last up to 40 years. But do not forget that it is very vulnerable to moisture. Choosing mineral wool, you will have to take care of high-quality waterproofing. In addition, it is a source of dust and phenolic resins, which are considered by many to be hazardous to health.
4. Expanded clay- an environmentally friendly, inexpensive option that will also provide high-quality and durable thermal insulation.
5. cork crumb sheets are rapidly gaining popularity due to their durability (up to 40 years) and ease of installation. They don't rot, absorb well impact noise and vibration.
6. Foamed polyethylene easy to install and affordable. But under prolonged loads, it loses its insulating properties, and when moisture gets on it, rot will spread.
7. Perlite used for soundproofing floors, however, it is not the most the best choice. The quality of sound absorption here will directly depend on the thickness of the pillow, and this is a huge load on the supporting structure of the house.
8. glass wool absorbs well impact noise, differs in fire safety and vibration resistance. Due to its low weight, it is perfect for old houses.

No less important is right choice cement for

Noise pollution is not the last of the harmful side effects an increasingly complex world. A neighbor who plays the clarinet and trumpet will no longer seem remarkable to anyone. Even if everyone knows that he good man, earns a living from the game and has no money to rent a hall for rehearsals. The whole set of circumstances of modern life exacerbates the bad impact of noise on a person, so soundproofing a home in our time is vital. This article discusses how to optimally drown out one of the most "stubborn" noise sources in the apartment - the floor.

They or us?

The floor is not the main, but not the last way for noise to enter the apartment. It is more difficult and expensive to deal with a noisy floor than with walls, ceilings and even openings - windows, doors. First of all, it is necessary to soundproof the floor from the lower neighbors, because. sound is attenuated least of all, propagating from bottom to top. If the neighbors are intractable and regularly make noise, you can only rely on yourself and spend less on insulation; possible options will be discussed later in the presentation.

However, it is also necessary to suppress noises propagating through the floor in the opposite direction. Firstly, the neighbors downstairs, albeit scandalous, are people with the same rights. Secondly, successful noise reduction in a residential building can only be complex: turning one single apartment into a sound chamber is no more technically possible than building communism in one single city.

What to mute?

Sound and noise reduction are often considered synonymous, but this is not entirely true. With regard to our topic, the differences are as follows:

• Floor soundproofing- when suppressing, the spectrum of unwanted sounds (noise) changes so much that they lose their intelligibility, i.e. audible meaningful components. An indistinct extraneous sound at the same intensity (see below) as a semantic one is significantly less annoying, and with regular and / or long-term exposure, it does less harm to bodily and mental health. Soundproofing, as a rule, is a technically complex, expensive event and is carried out during the construction of a building or is timed to coincide with its overhaul.
• floor soundproofing means that extraneous sounds are suppressed without spectrum conversion. The background noise remains as it is, but is muted to the threshold of psychophysiological perception (also see below), i.e. It is fixed by devices, but it is not deposited in the mind and does not interfere with life. Sudden sharp sounds are muffled to the threshold of comfort - audible, but not annoying. In addition to greater simplicity and cheapness, soundproofing is also more natural - living in complete silence is like walking blindfolded while being sighted, tapping the road with a stick.

Hearing and sound

It is impossible to make soundproofing or choose a suitable contractor for it without having some special knowledge. Materials, schemes and methods for suppressing indoor noise on the market - eyes run wide and ears wither. Almost the same thing can be found under completely different names and confusing descriptions, and fundamentally different products may look similar after “processing” by marketers. We will need most of all the section of acoustics - building acoustics - and the discipline of psychophysiology of hearing, or PPS, closely related to the whole science of sound.

Hearing

The human ear distinguishes sounds over a huge range of frequencies, from 20 to 20,000 Hz, and intensity levels of 140 dB (decibels). dB - 1/10 unit of measurement of the ratio of magnitudes, named after the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Bell. The ratio of sound intensity levels in dB is

L(dB) = 20lg(L1/L2),

i.e., to get the ratio in times, you need to divide L (dB) by 20 and raise 10 to a power equal to the resulting number. 140 dB thus corresponds to a difference of 10,000,000 times. In practice, it is often necessary to express the sound level in dB relative to some conditional zero value, called the hearing threshold. This absolute sound intensity level is referred to as L(dBA). The sound power flow is also expressed in dB, but its power itself is proportional to the square of the intensity, so in dB it is expressed as follows:

P(dBm) = 10lg(P1/P2).

The sensitivity of the ear both in frequency and in level is logarithmic, i.e. the ear, as it were, involuntarily listens, trying to distinguish a weak signal against the background of a strong “hammering” one. This helped our ancestors to survive and succeed, but it makes it difficult to soundproof: the more we deafen, the better the ear distinguishes the remnants. Also, the sensitivity of the ear is very uneven in frequency, which is shown on the left in the figure, which shows a family of equal loudness curves; the audible loudness of a sound is measured in phons. Those same 140 dBA are the so-called. pain threshold: the ear ceases to distinguish sounds by meaning and perceives the sound simply as an unpleasant stimulus. p with a tilde denotes the absolute instantaneous maximum pressure of the sound wave.

Note: don't pay attention to the shaded areas and colored lines on the equal loudness curves for now, we'll need them later.

The psychophysiological effect of noise, i.e. its impact on the mood, well-being and health of people is defined in a slightly different way, see on the right in fig. The maximum allowable levels of indistinct noise for premises for various purposes are also given there. Unbearable noise means - capable of immediately damaging human organs and / or causing concussion without personal protective equipment. On an airplane, it is measured at the ends of the wing; Explosive devices, the catastrophic collapse of high-rise buildings and natural disasters can also be sources of unbearable noise.

In some countries, the so-called. an extended scale of the psychophysiological effect of noise, where the maximum noise level is set:

• Children's, bedrooms - 20-26 dBA.
• Quiet work areas - 34-36 dBA.
• Common living rooms - 40-44 dBA.
• Public spaces - 60 dBA.
• Offices and open public places- 70 dBA.
• Industrial premises - 90 dBA.

That is, at work and in public there, in general, it can be noisier, but at home it should be “quieter than water, lower than grass.” But what is curious: in such countries, mass riots and various fermentations-turbulences of mass consciousness occur about three times more often, all other things being equal, and last 7-10 times longer. This, of course, is not the determining factor of "zombie" and "buildup", but - the chicken pecks grain by grain ...

Sound

"Characters" of sounds

The effect of sound on a person also strongly depends on its spectrum. The least noticeable and harmful are the noises of the structural spectrum (item 1 in the figure): continuous, smooth, indistinct. Industrial equipment, eg. a ventilation chamber or a high-rise booster pump gives a “pink” structural spectrum, with a predominance of low-frequency (LF) components, and a power tool - “blue”, more saturated with high-frequency (HF) components. Attenuation of structural noise is required less deep than intelligible of the same intensity, by about 12 dB, i.e. 4 times.

An intelligible spectrum is similar to a structural one, but contains semantic components. When the volume of intelligible noise changes, the envelope of its audible spectrum also changes (pos. 2), because the ear listens to something that seems to mean something. The degree of suppression of intelligible noise is a reference and is given in the specifications for soundproofing materials, soundproofing projects, etc.

The most harmful noise is spectral shock (SUSh), pos. 3. He acts not only by his presence, but also by his absence: waiting for the next "thump" or a series is sometimes more painful than hearing them. The islands of the shock spectrum are located on the frequency scale at intervals that are multiples of the fundamental frequency of the primary (which caused the noise) impact. They can merge (something gray behind the background, pos. 3), and then the shock spectrum is similar to a continuous one, but with a big difference: it is enough to drown out the noise from the primary impact (and in pos. 3), and the rest will go away. However, jamming SUSh in building structures is a difficult task: the primary island, as a rule, is of high intensity and low frequency, and low frequencies in dense heavy materials are much more difficult to jam than high frequencies. On average, for jamming SUSh noise isolation is required by 20-26 dB (10-20 times) more effective than for intelligible noise.

How much to mute?

Now let's get back to the colored details on the curves of equal loudness. It is immediately clear that approximately the same insulation is required to dampen “squealing” HF noises, less audible low frequencies and intelligible in the best audibility range of 200-5000 Hz to a level on the verge of comfort of 85 dBA, which is already good. Let's take into account the following:

• The intensity of the sound depends on the amplitude of the oscillations of the emitter (see below) by the square of the frequency, i.e. LF radiate into the air poorly.
• The negative impact of high-frequency sounds is more short-term, and low-frequency sounds are more harmful with long-term exposure.
• The levels of excessively loud but tolerable sounds are in the range of 100-126 dBA; this acc. a pneumoperforator in the immediate vicinity or a jet liner landing over the house (100 dBA), from a rock band in the first rows of the stalls (110 dB) and a firecracker 1 m from the ear (126 dBA).

It is simply impossible to drown out the noise from the pain threshold to the rustle of leaves in a residential building. It is forbidden to blow up firecrackers in housing, the amplifier for the stage at home will not pull the wiring. Therefore, let's go from 100 dBA of a construction tool. To drown them out to a quite comfortable 45 dBA, you will need 55 dB isolation, which is achievable in a house without a global repair, see below. Then, with a noise of 140 dBA, there will be 85 dBA in the room, which is tolerable for a short time. It makes no sense to rely on unbearable noises, because. their occurrence in habitable places is impossible to predict. Actually, we "on the fingers" came to the normative noise suppression index -Iv according to SNiP II-12-77 at 60dB.

Where to mute?

Airborne noise from the floor (1) in the figure penetrates through cracks and holes, sorry, gaps and openings in the ceiling. It rarely occurs: the neighbors from below hardly need a slotted holey ceiling. However, airborne noise is loud, and it is difficult to deal with it on the floor: you need to remove the flooring, knock down the screed to the slab and close up all its loopholes with soundproofing mastic and / or foamed insulators (see below). There is no sense in smearing and caulking from above: air shocks will shake the screed, crate, flooring, and the general, as they say, integral noise, can only intensify. Hold a piece of paper near the exhaust jet of a vacuum cleaner and you will understand why.

Vibronoises (2) penetrate the floor indirectly: the primary source creates mechanical stress waves with a structural spectrum (C) in the walls. Having reached the crown (root) of the slab in the wall, the C-waves rush into it just with a frenzy, and then they go up a little bit. The physics of this phenomenon is quite complicated, but the fact is obvious: you can’t hear the lower neighbors across the floor even in block Khrushchevs, even if they danced on the walls there. Further, the vibrations of the plate are converted into surface waves on it, which “sound” the room. Vibration noise can be very loud, but they are muffled without any problems and destruction in the apartment, because. lie in the MF-HF region.

Impact noises (3) and (4) are much more serious, not to be confused with spectral-impact sounds. Firstly, they are excited by vibrations of the plate as a whole under the action of sound waves from the primary source, which are much more difficult to suppress than surface vibration. Secondly, they lie in the region of low frequencies, which are especially harmful during long-term exposure and are difficult to extinguish. Therefore, it is necessary to take a closer look at the centers of impact noise on the floor.

Piston and membranes

The best soundproofing of the "shockproof" type is the transfer of the floor to the piston emitter mode: a rather heavy and rigid plate on elastic suspensions, pos. 1 in fig. To achieve noise suppression by 60 dB in this way is not the limit. How the floor is made by a piston technically, we will see further, but for now we will note its most valuable property for building acoustics: the extremely low radiation efficiency. Electrodynamic loudspeaker heads (speakers), which are the most advanced emitters-pistons, have an acoustic efficiency at low frequencies of a fraction of a percent, and at high frequencies of a few percent. That is, from tens to hundreds of ULF electric watts, fractions of a watt go into the air with sound. A half-piston will give the resulting sound into the room even worse. True, in electroacoustics, another quality of piston emitters is more valued: high fidelity in the reproduction of the primary signal. For building acoustics, this is also essential: a low level of overtones makes it easier to deal with vibrations and high-frequency noise.

However, the half-piston is technologically very complex, time-consuming and costly. Only a complete re-laying will not do, you will have to change the finish. In addition, piston sound insulation will take at least 100-150 mm from the height of the room, which does not contribute to comfort in any way. Therefore, in the order of current operation, floors are often soundproofed, leaving them in the mode of a membrane - an elastic plate rigidly fixed at the edges.

The membrane, unlike the piston, has a mechanical quality factor Q>1 (see below) and therefore can radiate individual frequencies well. How many and which - is determined by the so-called. the radiation mode of the membrane. On the 1st mode (pos. 2) there is one radiating region, not necessarily a point / compact; 1 frequency is emitted. On the 2nd mode, 1 and 2 frequencies can be emitted, on the 3rd - 1, 2 or 3, etc. The radiation modes of the membrane can be longitudinal ml and transverse mw. The common mode m is defined as their product. For example, at ml = 4 and mw = 3 m = 4x3 = 12 and up to 12 frequencies can be emitted, and the total emission spectrum will be shock. Which, of course, is bad, but if suppression of up to 26-30 dB is required, then sound insulation can be done by hand, bypassing the floor bulkhead.

Q

We still need the concept of mechanical quality factor. This, simply put, is the ability of a mechanical system to respond with vibrations to external influences, its “voicing”. You can understand its meaning more clearly by conducting the following experiment: we make a pendulum with a length of approx. 1 m of twine with a nut. On a sheet of paper from the 1st center we draw 2 circles with a diameter of 10 cm and 27 cm, i.e. 2.7 times more. More precisely - in e \u003d 2.718281828 ... times.

Next, we hang the pendulum low above the table / floor and put a piece of paper under it so that the center of the circles falls exactly under the load. We remove the weight by 13.5 cm, to the border of the larger circle, release it and count the full swing, back and forth; time is not needed. As soon as the oscillation amplitude decreases to 10 cm, we detect how many times the pendulum has already swung, this is its mechanical quality factor. If, say, 15 full swings were noted, then Q = 15.

Wooden building structures are characterized by Q = (3-5) in a wide frequency range; about the same for bricks. But the concrete "rings" at certain frequencies, but very well; Q of concrete structures can exceed 100.

An important characteristic of soundproof materials is their own, i.e. not part of the design, mechanical quality factor Qc. It is determined already in laboratory conditions, and what its practical significance will be seen below.

standing waves

The speed of sound in air is approx. v = 340 m/s. The highest audible frequency is f = 20,000 Hz. Then resp. its sound wave length λ = v/f = 340/20,000 = 0.017 m or 1.7 cm. 0.2mm, material thickness, multiple of half wavelength given sound, then standing waves may appear, as in a tuning fork resonator box, and the degree of noise reduction will drop sharply.

Note: if the cavity / channels are narrower, then the own viscosity of the air will affect and resonance phenomena will not occur.

To avoid resonance, improvised "air" materials cannot be laid in a layer of more than 8.5 mm; then at any frequency the multiplicity of the half-wave is excluded. In dense materials, the speed of sound is greater. Branded noise insulators are produced with a thickness of no more than a half-wave of 20 kHz in them, taking into account the attenuation of sound in the material. It is impossible to impose them in layers in order to muffle more noise, the effect may be reversed. It is necessary to make interlayers from another material. If the manufacturer is conscientious, proven, it is necessary to follow the schemes recommended by him for this material.

What to mute?

Modern materials for sound insulation provide a high degree of noise suppression; e.g. domestic Shumanet staple weave 40 mm thick suppresses noise by 40 dB. 2-layer Texound (vibration absorber + vibration damper) provides 30 dB damping. However, there are dozens of brand names and do not give a complete picture of the properties of the material. So we will not list them, diluting them with excerpts from advertising brochures, but we will try to understand the essence.

First of all, sound absorbers for the floor are sound absorbing and damping. What is the difference? For the first Qc<1, но не на порядок. Скажем, 0,7 или 0,4. Такие звукоизоляторы легко «раскачать»: звук в них проникает и, блуждая в материале, затухает. Пригодны материалы с Qс<1 для гашения вибраций, поэтому называются виброгасящими.

Under materials with Qc<<1 вибрация может «проскользнуть» в толще плиты. Но раскачать их трудно, нужно много энергии звука, поэтому они хорошо гасят колебания плиты как целого. В крайнем случае – уменьшают их амплитуду и подавляют призвуки, переводя излучение в НЧ. Как сказано выше, излучаемая звуковая мощность зависит от частоты по квадрату, поэтому уровень шума падает очень сильно. Такие материалы называются вибро- (что не совсем правильно) или звукопоглощающими. Используются в паре с виброгасителями. Пример использования Тексаунда для звукоизоляции под стяжку см. видео ниже.

Video: soundproofing the floor under the screed

Note: Styrofoam and polyurethane foam, contrary to popular belief, are not sound insulators, their Qc>1. Not much, but still they “ring”, albeit deafly. And excellent in many other respects, extruded polystyrene XPS and rings for real.

According to the structure, sound insulator materials are divided into fibrous, layered, foamed, loose, granular and honeycomb. An example of the first is the heavy (dense) mineral wool ISOVER and ROCKWOOL. They dampen both vibrations and shock sounds, but, alas, only with a fairly thick layer, from 15-20 cm. In addition, under static load, they sag over time and begin to let noise through, and the floor is deformed. Fibrous also include basalt cardboard and cellulose ecowool insulation. Basalt cardboard holds the weight load well and is therefore suitable as sound insulation under tiles. Ecowool is easily blown into closed cavities through holes, excellent thermal insulation. The sound absorption index of both is also not bad, approx. 12 dB/cm.

But in a panel house, 12 dB / cm is too little: 60 dB requires 5 cm of insulator. Taking into account the substrate, screed, finishing flooring, the floor will rise by about 15 cm. From the standard ceiling height of 2.7 m, 2.55 will remain, and this is already a discrepancy with modern sanitary standards. It is required to muffle noises most of all just in panel houses. Here, insulators with an absorption rate of approx. 1.7 dB/mm are required.

This, and the best, degree of noise attenuation is provided by layered noise-reducing coatings made of several materials with different properties, the so-called. complex absorbing structures. An example is the same Schumanet (pos. 1 in the figure) and his “relatives”. When laying complex absorbing structures, the recommended technology should be strictly observed. For example, Shumanet is laid with overlapping mats, gluing joints with adhesive tape and ventilation gap along the contour, and Vibrostek boards are placed end to end. The disadvantage of complex absorbing structures is a rather high cost, as well as insufficient, not much greater than those of heavy mineral wool, long-term bearing capacity and moisture resistance.

Note: for unloaded places, e.g. edge dampers (see below), microporous and bubble materials are well suited, e.g. foamed polyethylene, pos. 2 in fig. It does not hold long-term mechanical loads at all, but it is cheap, and the sound attenuation is up to 12 dB / mm (!). Microporous rubber is not inferior to him, but much more expensive.

Absolutely moisture resistant natural bulk materials - sand, expanded clay (pos. 3). They reduce noise by only 6 dB / cm (approx.), but any, due to friction between the granules, therefore they are most suitable for noise suppression from basement ceilings: nothing comes from the basement, but cheap and reliable. True, it's hard work. It is still bad for sand that it weighs a lot and, where there is sand, there are grains of sand, and there is no need to remind about their effect on the floor, decoration, furniture, shoes.

Modern achievements have also touched bulk materials: the so-called. noise plastics, pos. 4. The initial mass is formed directly on the overlap or substrate with a flanging - an edge damper, polymerizes in 48 hours, and the screed can be poured. Bearing capacity - as in XPS or sand bedding, i.e. quite sufficient. The disadvantage is the high cost.

Also expensive, but very effective is a granular combined (moisture, heat, sound) insulator - a rolled rubber cork. If you want to get rid of noise, then the rubber-cork substrate is made 2-layer: the lower, vibration-absorbing layer is made of light, with a small amount of binder (pos. 5), and the upper, sound-damping and weight-bearing layer is made of dark, with a large amount of rubber, pos. 6. These two layers of 4 mm each will allow you to meet the SNiP in terms of noise. Rubber cork - optimal insulation for laminate without battens, laid on a self-leveling floor leveler. In this case, the cost of insulation in the estimate for repairs will not stick out too much.

Honeycomb insulating panels are represented on the market most of all by channel PhoneStar and cellular SonoPlat, pos. 7 and 8. They suppress sound very well, but the first wall ones are not suitable for long-term load. The second ones seem to be sexual, but the forming structure is also cardboard and will flatten over time, no matter what anyone claims. Price - let's not talk about sad things, but the absorbent filler is quartz sand. With everything that follows, more precisely - getting enough sleep. If you can still keep the bedding under the screed, then in the panel on the wall or under the finishing floor you will see the inscription “Buffalo” on the elephant’s cage, do not believe your eyes (Kozma Prutkov). In general, PhoneStar and SonoPlat are not very popular and deservedly so.

Note: sometimes it is advised to muffle floor noise with ZIPS soundproofing panels. It would not hurt the authors of such recommendations to know that the “C” in the abbreviation does not mean “structural” or “layered”, but “wall”. Do not put ZIPS on the floor, because. they are completely unable to bear the weight load.

How to mute?

It was said above that the most complex and expensive, but the most effective way to suppress floor noise is to transfer it to the piston sound emission mode. If you are planning a major overhaul or decide to build, this option should be considered first. Technically, it is implemented by the floating screed method; see diagram in fig. on right. The natural resonance frequency of a large and heavy free-lying screed plate is about 1 Hz, and the dampers reduce the quality factor of the system to Q<1, поэтому слышимые и физиологически активные частоты излучаются ничтожно мало. «Прошибить» плавающую стяжку можно разве что взрывом в буквальном смысле. Поэтапно общий порядок работ по ее устройству «мокрым» способом следующий:

1. The former floor is removed before the overlap, which is cleaned and leveled;
2. Rusts (inter-plate joints), gaps and openings are insulated with anti-acoustic mastic and / or foamed polyethylene;
3. A vapor barrier is applied with a twist on the walls above the level of the final flooring;
4. The lower damper is laid (heavy mineral wool, bulk or layered);
5. An edge damper is installed (foamed, microporous, granular or fibrous);
6. Reinforced cement-sand screed is poured;
7. According to the set of strength, a finishing floor is mounted.

The difficulty here is that the floating screed plate itself can tremble and sag like a membrane. Therefore, for a specific room and materials, exact plans for the production of work on the installation of a floating screed are developed especially. Some typical options are shown in fig. below.

On the left - with a sufficient height of the room, it allows you to do without a general defeat or hide communications in the floor. Which, however, from the point of view of emergency response is more of a fashion than a rational measure. Combination of materials - Shumanet with Vibrostek or Texound kit. Under Shumanet, waterproofing is needed, because. it is hygroscopic.

In the center - a dry screed on a bulk insulator for basement ceilings. The piston in this case is a strong "puff" of EPS and GKL with Q a little more than 1. This is enough to muffle basement noises. On the right is an inexpensive “pie” for laminate or plank flooring in buildings with high ceilings. Particularly well suited for old houses with wooden floors, because. the whole assembly weighs a little. Mineral wool can be ordinary loose; the substrate under it is Shumanet-100C (Super) or Akuflex.

On fig. on the right - another option for inexpensive and uncomplicated soundproofing under the laminate in houses with ceilings of normal height. Its noise reduction index is approx. 20 dB; in a residential area with normal neighbors with a home theater, this is enough. Or vice versa: without a cinema, but loud and scandalous. More than 80 dBA will not initially squeal even a bazaar woman, and together with the efficiency of transferring the impact to the structure plus the attenuation of the sound in it, the desired 60 dB of attenuation will be obtained. Substrate under the OSB - Shumostop or Vibrostek.

Options for similar conditions under other floorings are given on the next page. rice. On the left - inexpensive with a high long-term bearing capacity for an elastic finishing floor. In the center and on the right - under fragile heavy tiled floors, e.g. porcelain stoneware.

About skirting boards

Vibrations of the walls can be transmitted along the plinth, reducing the damping of the floor to nothing. Therefore, usually the plinth of the floating floor is not attached to the walls, only to the finishing flooring. But then dirt will accumulate in the gap between it and the wall. To avoid this, the plinth can be attached to the wall, and an additional polyethylene foam damper can be laid between it and the flooring.

About lighthouses

When pouring a floating screed by amateurs, it turns out that ordinary linear beacons do not stick to the insulation layer. For such cases, the so-called. benchmarks or spider beacons, see fig. below. Filling the screed on the spiders is done step by step:

• the legs of the lighthouses are slightly pressed into the substrate;
• the heads of the benchmarks are set to the horizon;
• pour the bottom layer of the screed to the level of the nuts of the beacons;
• when the primary screed sets, but has not yet hardened, apply a reinforcing mesh and check the leveling of the heads;
• immediately, without technical interruption, add the solution to the level of the beacons heads.

On a wooden floor

Although wooden buildings are not as noisy as stone ones, the soundproofing of the floor in houses with wooden floors is characterized by the fact that it is impossible to do without air gaps that can become acoustic resonators. They provide floor ventilation, without which the tree will soon suffocate and rot. It is possible to make a resonator non-resonant by reducing its quality factor with the help of vibration-absorbing materials or by “blurring” the general resonance peak by making the cavity walls resonant at more than 2 frequencies. Both options are shown in Fig. left and right respectively. The noise attenuation index here and there satisfies SNiP.

Modern housing should provide its inhabitants with a certain level of comfort. This multifaceted concept takes into account a number of factors, one of which is the low visibility of external noise and sounds of a very different nature. Reducing the level of external noise to a certain limit provides not only a good mood for people, but also directly affects their well-being and health.

A good acoustic environment in residential premises is ensured by a number of measures. One of the most effective in their list is deservedly considered floor soundproofing.

This problem is quite acute. In some houses, the audibility from the floor is so great that the question is not even about how to soundproof the floor, but how to properly soundproof the floor, that is, to achieve the desired degree of its effectiveness.

What is meant by floor soundproofing and how to do it

Floor sound insulation is understood as a complex of finishing works, after which the level of noise penetrating into the apartment through the supporting base and the adjacent ceiling is reduced, as well as their distribution throughout the apartment.

Usually, sound insulation is carried out in the process of finishing work and is based on laying materials on the base that reflect and absorb extraneous sounds and other acoustic influences.

An example of sound insulation implemented even at the stage of construction of apartments is the use of floors, the concrete of which has been added with appropriate additives, as well as the installation of these floors on soundproof pads. This completely solves the problem of how to soundproof the floor from the neighbors below.

Varieties of acoustic noise

The type of noise insulation used depends on the type of noise.

External noise originates outside the isolated room. It is created by moving cars, animals and people.

Intra-house noise is inherently internal in nature and occurs when elevators move, residents move up stairs and corridors, and various mechanisms operate.

Internal noise is created both by indoor appliances for various purposes (TV, dishwasher), and by the inhabitants of the apartment.

Regardless of the type of noise, it is impossible to achieve 100% isolation from noise of any of the noted varieties. However, any kind of noise can be reduced to an acceptable limit.

For example, the use of triple-glazed windows on windows significantly reduces external noise. The main means of suppressing house noise is considered to be the elimination of rigid mechanical connections between the individual elements of the building structure.

You also have to take into account the type of floor finish. For example, soundproofing under parquet is carried out according to different rules than in the case of carpet.

Ways to perform soundproofing

When answering the question of how to soundproof a floor, there are several basic approaches to choose from.

High noise absorption efficiency is demonstrated by sound-absorbing pads under a parquet board or laminate. For these types of fine flooring, a cork board or polyethylene foam pad is best suited. The high sound absorption coefficient characteristic of these materials in a wide frequency band makes it possible to significantly reduce the thickness of the gasket used.

The most difficult, but also the most promising type of sound insulation is the implementation of the so-called floating floor. It is based on the use of absorbing materials, the installation of which provides decoupling from the bearing floor.

Types of floor soundproofing materials

The choice of soundproofing floor material is seriously influenced by the applied work technology.

All materials available for soundproofing are divided into:

• soft (compositions based on felt, mineral or glass fibers);
• medium hardness (the most famous mineral wool with a cellular structure);
• hard (granular materials based on mineral wool, perlite and vermiculite).

According to their structure, materials with acoustic absorption properties are divided into fibrous and cellular. Their effectiveness in terms of eliminating unwanted external noise of acoustic origin differs slightly.

Soundproofing can occur both in the structure of the floor and at the level of finishing materials. For example, a soundproof carpet gives a good effect.

Soundproofing a concrete floor under a screed

In the case of concrete floors, sound insulation under the screed is often used. The popularity of this solution is due to its reliability, fairly high efficiency and ease of self-implementation. As the basis of the screed, cement grade 400 is used with a concentration of one to three.

The use of this method is most often required if soundproofing of the floor under the tiles is required.

The main feature of this method is that it provides for the formation of an additional layer up to 15 cm thick, which, coupled with rather heavy materials, creates a significant additional load on the floor. In addition, due to the long curing time of the cement mixture, this type of sound insulation device requires at least two weeks.

The main stages of soundproofing technology "under the screed"

The technology is based on the use of the following materials:

• self-leveling composition;
• sound absorbing tape;
• plates of extruded polystyrene foam;
• polyethylene film with reinforcing reinforcement;
• reinforcing mesh.

Additionally, metal T-shaped beacons will be required to set the base surface for alignment.

Soundproofing the floor for tiles begins with the preparation of the room: removing furniture from it, dismantling the existing floor covering and cleaning the base structure to bare concrete (details: "").

The base is controlled for the presence of mechanical damage in the form of chips, potholes and cracks, which are sealed with mortar. In case of irregularities with a height of more than two to two and a half centimeters, the surface is preliminary leveled using a self-leveling compound.

Then the following operations are performed:

1. The device for soundproofing the floor begins with the fact that the joints of the base with the walls are glued with a sound-absorbing mineral tape, it is advisable to choose the height of the tape on the wall equal to about 10 cm.
2. Extruded polystyrene foam boards are laid on the pre-prepared surface of the concrete floor slab. Laying is carried out in such a way that there are no voids between adjacent plates. If any, they are filled with mounting foam. It is permissible to use small pieces of polystyrene foam for this purpose.
3. The soundproofing plates are protected from moisture by a polyethylene film, which is laid on top of them.
4. The next layer is a reinforcing mesh with 10 cm cells. Beacons are placed on it, which are fixed in the working position with cement mortar or mounting foam.
5. The reinforcing mesh is poured with mortar, the upper surface of which is leveled by the rule along the beacons. After leveling, the screed is covered with plastic wrap and left for a week. The lighthouses are removed after five days, the voids remaining after them are sealed with mortar, after which the soundproofing layer is considered ready for installation of a finishing coating.

One of the rather popular variants of this technology is based on the use of temporary formwork instead of soundproofing tape. The formwork is made of wooden boards, plywood or drywall. After the screed has hardened, the formwork is removed, and the resulting void is filled with mineral insulating material.

Dry screed

Dry screed is used in situations where its implementation on the basis of a concrete solution is impossible. In the case of using this technology, pouring with concrete is replaced by filling the insulated surface with a dry mix. In this situation, expanded clay is often used as floor sound insulation. The formed surface, after additional leveling, is covered with plywood sheets or gypsum fiber boards, after which it is ready for laying the laminate.

Noise-absorbing substrates

The question of how to soundproof the floors when finishing the floor with laminate or linoleum is solved by using sound-absorbing substrates. For example, soundproofing the floor in an apartment under a laminate is performed without any special difficulties and financial costs. This type of material compares favorably with screed due to its noticeably thinner thickness: due to its good acoustic properties, very effective noise suppression is achieved with a thickness of only 2 mm.

For the manufacture of substrates, the following materials are used:

• cork and rubber-cork mixtures;
• foamed polyethylene;
• expanded polystyrene.

Installation of noise-absorbing substrates

In the case of sound insulation based on an absorbing substrate, the process of its formation is carried out in the form of separate successive technological operations:

1. The upper surface of the floor slab is cleaned of dirt and, if necessary, large potholes and cracks are carefully repaired with obligatory alignment.
2. The junction of the floor with the walls with a small vertical margin is glued with sound-absorbing tape in the form shown in the photo. To enhance the resulting effect, the perimeter of the room is additionally covered with foamed polyethylene.
3. The surface of the black floor is covered with plywood. To enhance the resulting effect, it is better to use two layers with overlap.
4. The underlayment is laid on the plywood with separate boards "end-to-end". Joints are fixed with double-sided construction tape.
5. The resulting structure is covered with laminate or linoleum. The protruding part of the soundproofing tape is carefully cut or folded so that it can be hidden behind the baseboard during the final finishing.

Features of the organization of work

The presented description indicates that, regardless of the technology involved, sound insulation work does not require high qualifications and the mandatory use of a special tool. It is not required to apply to specialized construction companies, as well as the presence of an official project completed by a licensed organization.

To achieve a high quality of the formed coating, accuracy and the initial level of skills in working with typical building materials are sufficient, the operations themselves do not require high physical effort.

The soundproofing device is carried out as far as possible. The exception is the cement screed, which must be made entirely at one time.

The materials that are used in the process of manufacturing a noise-insulating coating are not scarce and expensive and are usually presented in a fairly wide selection and are freely available from a warehouse in hardware stores.

Soundproofing the floor with your own hands in the vast majority of cases can be done independently without the involvement of external resources. The exception is the cement screed device. At this stage it is better to work together with a partner.

A common problem in an apartment building is extraneous noise. It comes from above, below, because of the walls, and this does not always mean that the neighbors have started repairs or are moving furniture at night. Sometimes the problem is that the house was built with violations of building codes, or cracks appeared inside the walls.

Whatever the reason, there is a solution - to study the intricacies of soundproofing and soundproofing the floor, and choose the material and method of installation that is optimal for your case.

Peculiarities

Soundproofing and soundproofing are different. Apartment owners do not want to delve into the essence of this difference - any noise is equally annoying. And this is one of the main mistakes that reduce the effectiveness of measures in the fight for silence.

Sounds and noises have different origins. In practice, this division is arbitrary, since initially there was only the term "sound insulation", which took into account only the propagation of mechanical vibrations perceived by the ear.

1. Floor soundproofing implies protection against acoustic and air (structural) vibrations.
2. Acoustic are caused by the reflection of sound from the walls and ceiling of the room (voice, barking dogs, music).
3. Air vibrations are a consequence of the movement of a person around the room: shuffling steps, opening and closing doors, similar actions.
4. Sound vibrations propagate through cracks in the floor, socket boxes, ventilation, pipes.

Floor soundproofing is a measure to combat shock vibrations. They are caused by mechanical impact on any surface. Neighbors from below nail a curtain over the window - the sound goes up and down through ceilings, radiators, walls. Children jump in their room, someone indignantly knocks on the battery - all these are shock vibrations.

To combat sounds, you need reflective materials, and to combat noise, absorbing materials. In one material, these properties may not be combined, therefore, to effectively solve the problem, they need to be combined and layered on top of each other.

There are several other important aspects that to consider when installing the insulating layer on the floor:

• The choice of materials determines the type of residential building. Building materials themselves have a greater or lesser ability to transmit sounds from one room to another. It depends on their thickness, porosity, integrity of the internal space.
• Provide good insulation concrete floor slabs in a house that was built in compliance with all standards. The thickness of the concrete floor in it is large enough to dampen acoustic and shock vibrations as much as possible.
• Lucky residents of brick houses. This material is full-bodied and dense, successfully drowning out sounds and noises without additional effort.
• Panel and monolithic-frame houses are already a problem. Often they are assembled hastily, in violation of SNiP.

As a result, the thickness of the overlap is only half the norm, therefore, it allows any sounds to pass through, and gaps remain between the structural elements - a direct path for structural noise.

• Monolithic frame houses in terms of insulation, they are bad because they are a one-piece structure. Impact noises are perfectly distributed along the ceilings. If repairs are started on the first floor, residents will know about it at least until the third.
• Ceiling height also matters. The greater the distance from the floor to the ceiling, the worse the air vibrations are extinguished. An apartment with high ceilings has good acoustics, so if the neighbors below listen to music or swear, the sounds penetrate through the floor to the neighbors from above. In this case, impact noises have a greater effect in the opposite direction.
• From the height of the room depends on the permissible thickness of the insulating layer. If the ceiling height in the apartment is 270 cm or more, you can safely mount a layer 10–20 cm thick. No one will start to rest their head on the ceiling and feel uncomfortable because the room has become crowded. But for apartments with a ceiling height of less than 270 cm, a loss of 15 cm can become critical.
• Sex is not the only way through which extraneous sounds penetrate the apartment. With a pronounced problem with extraneous sounds, only a floor screed will not be able to correct the situation. Yes, it will become a little quieter, but sounds and noises will still penetrate through other paths. Additional measures are needed.

Purpose

Speaking of noisy neighbors, do not forget that your own apartment also has enough sources of sounds and noises that can annoy residents of nearby apartments. If the problem of poor insulation in the house is relevant, then it is relevant for everyone. Therefore, the purpose of sound and noise insulation is not only to increase your own level of comfort, but also to minimize discomfort for neighbors below.

Indirectly, this is all the same concern for one's peace of mind - there will be no reason for a conflict with neighbors if children like to play with a dog in the apartment, someone practices musical instruments, and library silence is not maintained at all.

Other reasons:

• The noise level will be lower.
• Insulating materials level the subfloor. It is more convenient to mount the finish coating on a flat base.
• A common option for sound and noise insulation of the floor is a screed. Any of its types (dry, semi-dry and wet) is suitable for mounting a floor heating system in it. Thus, it turns out to solve two problems at once: drown out excess noise and insulate the floor.
• A room with good sound absorption complies with building codes.

This raises the apartment in the sale price.

• Expanding freedom of action in your own apartment. Impact noise is perfectly absorbed and attenuated when the insulating materials are in the same room as the source of the noise.

Regulatory requirements

About building codes and requirements (SNiP) has already been said more than once. However, not everyone knows what they regulate and why they are needed. Sometimes the sound insulation in the house is so poor that it seems that the developers of residential buildings are also unaware of the appointment of SNiP. And they are necessary to ensure that housing was safe and comfortable. In terms of soundproofing, this is noise protection.

The set of rules governing the activities of developers establishes a conditional “norm” for noise and the maximum allowable indicators.

Mandatory requirements for the design, construction and operation of residential (and not only) premises are developed on the basis of GOSTs. The regulation contains many paragraphs and subparagraphs, of which For the owner of the apartment, only three are important:

• Permissible noise level. It is understood as a level that does not cause anxiety among the residents of the apartment, does not have a physical impact on the state of the body and its functional systems, including auditory analyzers. It is considered acceptable throughout the day.
• Maximum allowable level. Unfortunately, marginal is not the same as "non-irritating". This is a level that during working hours (until 22:00) does not cause diseases and health problems in others. Downstairs neighbors have the right to knock with a hammer at certain times of the day. This will have to be put up with.
• Impact and airborne sound insulation. SNiP divides them into two separate categories, but without a specialist it is difficult to understand the indicators and formulas. The only important thing is that according to the norms, the permissible noise level in the daytime is 39-49 dB, at night 30-35.

A high-quality floor covering can isolate 50–55 dB of sound. The screams of an adult or the cry of a baby is 70–75 dB. Accordingly, additional protection is needed. On average, soundproofing materials make it possible to drown out 20-30 dB of noise with proper installation.

Also in the SNiP, the requirements for interfloor ceilings are fixed:

• The absence of rigid connections between the floor and the supporting structures of the building. That is, the screed should be floating, without sound bridges.
• The base of the floor made of concrete or wood is separated from the walls along the contour to a width of 1–2 cm.

This gap should be filled with materials that do not conduct sound well: wood fiber, foamed polyurethane foam, mineral wool and others.

• The plinth should not be a connecting link between the floor and the wall. It is attached either to the base of the wall or only to the base of the floor.
• A monolithic (wet) screed is mounted on a waterproofing layer.
• Plate materials are laid closely, without gaps at the joints.
• In the absence of a margin for soundproofing the floor (an air gap between the screed and the coating), foam-based materials should be used. This applies to soft coatings in the form of linoleum and carpet. Their base should not be fibrous.
• Interfloor ceilings between residential and noisy premises are separated by a thick monolithic structure with sound insulation of 57–62 dB.

Modern materials

Soundproofing materials can be conditionally divided into obsolete and new. The conditionality of such a classification is explained by the fact that many of the old materials are considered traditional, a kind of classic, and they continue to be used, despite the fact that alternative options have appeared.

Sawdust, foam rubber and polystyrene have finally become obsolete. However, their modified versions are viable. They cope with the task when the house already has good sound insulation, and it only needs to be strengthened. It is easy for non-professionals to work with these materials, and their cost is several times (sometimes tens of times) less than the cost of innovative materials.

cotton wool

This, of course, is not about medical soft cotton wool, but about fibrous materials from raw materials of mineral origin. These include mineral and basalt wool, glass wool. The materials differ from each other, but these differences are not critical. The advantages and disadvantages of construction wool of different types are identical.

Pros:

• Light weight.
• Additional insulation due to the air between the wool fibers.
• Universal material for any surfaces.
• Does not accumulate dust.
• Does not burn.

Minuses:

• The material is primarily heat-insulating, and only secondly - sound-proofing.
• A layer of at least 10 cm in thickness will be effective.
• It is impossible to deform the plates during the installation process. If you press them tightly against each other until creases appear, the cotton wool loses its qualities.
• May shrink or deform due to mechanical stress on the floor.
• Afraid of moisture.

Styrofoam

This is what the foam "evolved" into. Its performance has improved markedly with the change in production technology, however, it is still not good enough.

Pros:

• Resistance to moisture, dust, activity of living organisms.
• The cellular structure of the material hides noise well.
• Long service life.

Minuses:

• Fragility. Lightweight cellular boards are much better suited for soundproofing a ceiling than a floor that is regularly subjected to point force loads when walking.
• Loss of 10-15 cm from the height of the ceiling. A thinner layer will not be effective.

Cork panels

This sheet material is made from cork oak wood. It is also used in the manufacture of corks for wine bottles. Wood veneer or small chips are used, which are pressed and glued at high temperatures into solid sheets. Veneer is more expensive, crumb is cheaper.

Manufacturers guarantee noise reduction by 20-30 dB, which is not entirely true. Yes, such indicators will take place. At the neighbors. Cork flooring protects against impact noise, so those who live on the floor below will be content with silence. In the apartment above, where the cork is on the floor, it will still be perfectly audible how happy the neighbors are if they start discussing it out loud.

Pros:

• Ease.
• Strength.
• Small thickness.
• Easy to cut and install.
• Doesn't absorb moisture well.
• Shredded sheets are cheap.

Among the obvious disadvantages, only one can be distinguished - a minimum of efficiency in the fight against extraneous sounds. Innovative materials for mounting the leveling screed are designed to solve this problem.

Acoustic foam

It has nothing to do with soft, loose yellowish dust collectors that are used to stuff furniture. Acoustic foam rubber is a slab material for professional sound insulation. Its scope is recording studios, cinemas, public places.

Advantages:

• High efficiency.
• Little weight.
• Elasticity.
• Self-adhesive base.
• It is easy to cut into fragments of the desired size and shape.
• Does not accumulate dust.
• Biostable.

Disadvantages:

• Embossed surface.
• High price.
• It burns and contains toxins that are released during combustion.

Soundproof membranes

An acoustic membrane is a thin but strong and heavy substrate that is made up of polymers, fibers and binders.

Advantages:

• Small thickness and high density.
• Easily cut into pieces.
• Elastic and flexible.
• On a self-adhesive basis.
• Suitable for use on vertical and horizontal surfaces, as a floating screed base, dry and prefabricated.
• At the same time it is thermally insulating.
• Gives good results.
• Durable.

Disadvantages:

• Expensive.
• Do not install on uneven subfloor surfaces. First it will have to be leveled with plaster.

The disadvantages of membranes are insignificant, so they are gradually becoming leaders among soundproofing materials. You can already find products from many European and domestic manufacturers on the market: Texound, Trocellen Acoustic, Maxforte, Phonestar, Soundguard, Index and others.

To reduce the cost of construction, you can combine foam rubber and membranes with budget, but less effective materials. These are products designed primarily for heat and secondly for sound insulation: cork, drywall, mineral wool, OSB and chipboard, polystyrene foam. Auxiliary means: acoustic sealant for sealing cracks and joints, damper tape.

Device

There are several ways to soundproof a floor. Choosing the most suitable one depends on many factors. This is the height of the ceiling, which allows or does not allow to raise the floor by a dozen or two centimeters, and the condition of the floors (can withstand a heavy load or not), the urgency of the issue and its financial side.

Common ways:

floating screed

It is poured or covered over heat-insulating and sound-proofing material. The base of the floor does not touch the ceiling and walls, and ceases to be a conductor for sounds and noises from the lower floor. Consists of the following elements:

• Soundproof base. It can be both sound membranes and lighter and more affordable materials: cork, plywood, mineral wool, polyurethane foam.
• Damper tape. It is necessary so that there is a gap between the screed and the wall, and no sound bridge is formed.
• Leveling mix. It is dry and semi-dry.

It is made on the basis of concrete, cement, gypsum, synthetic fiber fibers.

• Waterproofing. It is necessary so that the liquid mixture does not fall on soundproofing materials, otherwise a sound bridge is formed.
• Reinforcing mesh. Protects the screed from cracking when its thickness is more than 4 cm.
• Foam materials for a layer between the finish coat and the screed. Additional soundproofing.

The advantage of a floating screed is that it makes it possible to build up the most dense and thick protective layer. It absorbs about 30 dB. This is more than enough for an effective result. Such a screed will last for decades.

This method also has disadvantages: it takes a long time (the screed dries for 30 days), expensive, laborious, the total weight of the structure gives a large load on the floor, and the height raises the floor by 5–15 cm. If the installation is wrong, all efforts will go down the drain. Dismantling a monolithic floating screed is a long, dusty and expensive procedure. And extremely noisy.

It is relevant to use a floating concrete screed when the floors are in excellent condition, and they can be given a large additional load. Also, the method is suitable for uneven subfloor with height differences and apartments, where, in addition to sound insulation, it is necessary to equip a warm floor.

"Dry" screed

"Dry" is called a screed, the installation of which excludes the use of a liquid solution. By its design, it resembles a layer-by-layer alternation of a monolithic screed, as it is a kind of floating:

• vapor barrier. This is a thin film that is needed to protect against condensation.
• Edge tape. It prevents the appearance of sound bridges and restrains the pressure of the screed on the walls. If it is not there, cracks may appear on the surface of the walls. This will only exacerbate the noise problem.
• Dry backfill. This is a material that is poured to a height of 5-15 cm, forming a noise-absorbing cushion, on which a leveling layer in the form of plates is laid. Backfill is based on sand, concrete, slag. Lightweight and porous expanded clay, perlite and vermiculite are popular.
• Leveling layer. These are sheets or slabs of light but durable material, which are mounted in 2 layers, creating a perfectly flat subfloor surface.
• Mastic or glue, self-tapping screws. They are needed to bond two leveling layers together.
• Waterproofing. PVC film that protects the hydrophobic backfill and sheets from moisture.

Dry filling has many advantages: cheap materials, quick and easy installation (maximum a week), relatively low weight does not give a large load on the floors. The process can be interrupted as there are no quick hardening materials.

Suitable for use in any floor condition, even if it is very uneven.

Light, but porous layers in the construction due to the large thickness and air gaps provide high-quality insulation. The structure is easy to dismantle. The disadvantages of dry backfill are that it shrinks over time. The floor may become uneven if the backfill layer was not dense enough. The materials themselves are afraid of water.

Dry backfill for soundproofing in a private house is relevant. For a wooden floor in a country cottage, wet screed technology is not applicable. The tree actively absorbs moisture and begins to rot, and if you do not make a screed, the problem of creaking floors will appear over time. A dense and porous expanded clay screed solves both problems.

Prefabricated or leveling

A feature of this type of design is that it does not imply liquid and bulk components. Protection against extraneous sounds is provided by the layering of rolled, sheet or plate materials. Vapor barrier and waterproofing are used. Along the edge of the room you need to put a damper tape.

Advantages of a combined screed: quick do-it-yourself installation, the ability to combine sound-reflecting and sound-absorbing layers, the minimum thickness of materials with high density (optimal for apartments with low ceilings), sound absorption plus or minus 30 dB. Dismantling and partial replacement of fragments is possible. The coating makes the base of the subfloor smooth and comfortable for final finishing.

Disadvantages: The subfloor must be clean, dry and even. The method is effective but expensive. It is impossible to combine it with a warm floor. The method is relevant for apartments with thin, but even floors that cannot withstand a concrete screed.

self-leveling floor

An innovative method, the main purpose of which is to level the floor surface. It does not provide high-quality sound insulation, but enhances it. Most budget materials can be used as the first layer: cork, drywall, cotton wool, polyurethane foam and others.

The device of a self-leveling floor with sound insulation is slightly different from the classic screed:

• Vapor barrier layer, which also serves as a waterproofing if the mixture leaks. The sheets are overlapped by 15–20 cm, the edge is brought to the wall.
• Glue along the edge damper tape. The purpose of use is the same as with any other screed. Plus, the tape holds the vapor barrier.
• Layer insulation in sheet or slab format.

Mounted without gaps, voids can be filled with acoustic sealant.

• Waterproofing. The self-leveling floor is a very liquid mixture with self-leveling technology. It can leak to the bottom layer and form a sound bridge.
• 1-2 layers self-leveling compound.

The advantage is that working with the solution is easy even for a non-professional. The mixture is leveled under the force of its own weight. And also it can have decorative additives and be both a rough and finishing floor. This is a perfectly even surface on which you can mount soft linoleum, laminate, parquet, and tiles. The thickness of the layers is 1–5 cm. The disadvantage of the mixture is the high price. The thicker the layer, the more expensive the filling.

Mounting diagrams

Practice shows that the use of only one material is less effective than their combination. They often combine a cement screed with light-weight and cheap bases, mount membranes on a self-leveling mixture, close the screed from above, or layer prefabricated materials of different thickness, density and weight. Depending on the required thickness of the soundproofing layer, one of 5 effective schemes is selected.

Scheme No. 1: with an acoustic membrane base

It is mounted in layers:

1. Soundproofing membrane (Teksound, Trocellen Acoustic or another manufacturer).
2. Damper tape along the edge of the wall for the entire height of the screed.
3. Cement strainer. Its height must be at least 30 mm, otherwise the solution will crack when dried. If the height of the screed is more than 4-5 cm, an additional layer appears - a reinforcing mesh.
4. Sheets of chipboard, plywood or veneer cork.
5. Floor finishing.

Scheme No. 2: with an additional layer of basalt cardboard

It is actually the same soundproofing "pie", but the very first layer is laid with basalt cardboard, and not with an acoustic membrane. This is an additional protection that is required in difficult cases.

It is important to mount the "pie" so that the screed does not touch the wall. The edging tape can be glued in 2 layers.

Scheme No. 3: based on a cement screed

The mix of layers inside the acoustic “pie” makes it possible to dismantle and reassemble the structure in the future, and the cement screed will remain intact. The option is suitable for solving problems with an uneven subfloor.

It also fits in layers:

1. Waterproofing.
2. Edging tape, wide and dense.
3. Cement based screed.
4. reinforcing layer.
5. acoustic membrane.
6. Lightweight and thick material based on wood fiber.
7. Floor finishing.

Scheme number 4: on a dry screed

Suitable for cases where you need to do soundproofing, but there is no desire to mess with the solution and wait 3 weeks for it to dry completely. The alternation of the layers of the "dry acoustic cake" may vary. For a dry screed with expanded clay backfill, a vapor barrier is needed, for a more modern vibration-damping material - no. Consider a more modern version:

1. Primer. It is needed for good adhesion of the granulated shumoplast with walls and floors.
2. Noiselayer. This is a vibration-damping base (absorbs impact noise up to 32 dB), so it is not necessary to glue the walls with edge tape. You can do it for insurance, but it's not necessary. The noise layer is lined so that it also goes on the walls, above the level of the final coating. The layer height is 5–20 cm.
3. Reinforcing mesh.
4. GVL sheets for leveling the surface. Laid in two layers. Between themselves, the layers are glued with mastic and fixed with self-tapping screws;
5. Seal the seams with putty.
6. Flooring.

Scheme number 5: soundproofing on the logs

Logs are wooden beams that line the width of the room from wall to wall so that they serve as a frame for filling the gaps with slab material like mineral wool.

Screed device on the logs:

1. Acoustic membrane layer. Under the logs it can be laid in a double layer.
2. Logs 50 x 50. They are attached to the wall with vibration damping supports.
3. The internal space is filled with mineral wool flush with the lags.
4. The edge of the wall is glued with an edge tape to a height slightly greater than the height of the finish.
5. First layer of plywood. Gaps are filled with acoustic sealant.
6. The second layer of plywood is laid apart - the seams should not match. Filling gaps with sealant.
7. Finishing.

Required Tools

A complete list of tools for mounting an acoustic pie on the floor depends on the choice of technology and materials. So, for pouring the screed, you will need special equipment and beacons, and for mounting on logs - just a screwdriver.

Since modern materials greatly simplify the installation process, consider a list of tools for working with the latest generation of materials for the installation of dry and prefabricated screeds.

First of all, you will need cleaning equipment: a vacuum cleaner, a broom, a dustpan, garbage bags, gloves.

In the next step, a tape measure, drawing tools, and a building level will come in handy to evenly mark the lines for the edge tape.

Then, you need tools for cutting materials into the desired segments. A sharp knife or scissors will cope with the membrane, and with the edge tape, and with the hydro- and vapor barrier film.

For some types of dry screed, you will need a beacon: a wooden profile and guides to level the backfill layer. To install the leveling layer, you need self-tapping screws, a screwdriver, mastic or glue, acoustic or silicone sealant. You may need a grinder saw to carefully saw the plywood into fragments.

How to do it yourself?

Installing an acoustic pie on the floor in an apartment or house does not require special skills. This statement is true for many soundproofing laying schemes. The exception is the pouring of the screed. It is better to entrust it to professionals. Working with modern materials is simple, and the installation steps can be called universal: preparation, installation of layers, final finishing.

First stage: preparatory work

It includes all settlement work and foundation preparation.

Calculations are carried out in several steps:

1. Calculation of the level of sound and noise insulation in the room before installation. This is necessary to determine how much you need to "build up" the floor to a comfortable level of insulation.
2. Calculation of the required level of sound insulation in dB and the permissible load on the floors.
3. Selection of materials and calculation of their quantity for the entire floor surface area. It is necessary to purchase them with a small margin of 5-10%.

Immediately before installation work begins, the floor surface must be cleaned of construction debris and dust. If the height differences are not more than 3-5 cm, you can lay the materials immediately, and if the differences are from 5 cm or more, you need to level the floor with plaster or a thin layer of cement.

In some cases, for example, when working with shumoplast, it is necessary to prime the floor surface.

Second stage: laying materials in layers

1. The foundation. If the materials are slab or roll (except for membranes), a vapor barrier is required under them. This is a thin PVC film, which is overlapped by 15–20 cm and glued with construction tape at the joints. It protects materials from condensation due to overheating from below. If these are vibration damping materials, a primer is needed instead of a vapor barrier.
2. Installation of edge tape along the edge of the walls.
3. Soundproofing. Membrane, sheets or backfill.
4. reinforcing layer. For shumoplast and cement, this is a steel mesh, for sheet materials - a layer of plywood.
5. Leveling layer. This is a durable and smooth material: plywood or GVL.

It can be single, but it is more efficient to make a double one.

The third stage: laying the decorative coating

Each type of finish has its own rules and installation steps. The most popular options are laminate, linoleum, tile or self-leveling floor.

The modern world is saturated with a variety of different sounds and noises. The constant impact of these irritants on the human body leads to stressful conditions. Only when you come home you can relax, unwind and truly enjoy the silence.

Modern methods of soundproofing will help create the most comfortable living conditions without extraneous noise, both in a private house and in an apartment.

The use of soundproof materials

Almost all materials that are used in construction have the ability to suppress external noise, but quite low. Therefore, it is recommended to use additional materials for sound insulation that can create silence and the most comfortable conditions.

Initially, you should make sure that there are no holes or gaps in the surfaces of the walls, floor and ceiling. A high level of sound insulation of the floor in the apartment can be achieved by increasing its thickness due to multilayer structures.

A competent combination of several types of soundproofing materials will create the maximum effect of protection from extraneous sounds without compromising the structure of the room.

The main types of material and its characteristics

In the modern construction market, you can pick up various types of materials that will help get rid of excess noise. They differ from each other in format, price category and filler.

Some of the most well-known and proven materials for soundproofing the floor presented in the photo, we will consider in more detail.

mineral glass wool

Synthetic fibers, arranged in a chaotic manner, give this material lightness and elasticity. Among its main positive characteristics, high thermal insulation, sound insulation, fireproof properties, long service life, environmental safety, light weight and ease of installation should be noted.

Due to the fact that the material does not cause corrosive processes, it can be laid between metal pipes for insulation or sound insulation. You can lay this material without special skills and knowledge, which makes it even more attractive.

Perhaps the only drawback of this material may be its thickness while saving every centimeter.

Foamed polyethylene

Such material is used, as a rule, as a substrate for floor structures. In its price category, it belongs to fairly inexpensive materials. Installation is very simple.

Its disadvantages include - fragility, since over time it becomes caked, as a result of which its soundproofing abilities deteriorate.

It is also worth noting the lack of moisture resistance when wet - islands of mold can form on the surface, which will negatively affect the body, while being hidden from the eyes.

Cork backing

This material is presented for sale in two options - sheets and rolls. Pressed cork chips are especially known for their long service life.

The main differences include a high level of protection against vibration and noise, as well as resistance to decay processes. When working with such material, the attached recommendations for its installation should be strictly followed.

Rubber-cork backing

Durable and fire-resistant combination material consisting of synthetic rubber and granular cork. It is used as a soundproofing material for various floor coverings.

It is necessary to protect it from moisture and mold formation with the help of vapor barrier materials.

Styrofoam

It is produced in sheets that differ in thickness and density. The main positive characteristics are durability, long service life. The material has almost zero moisture absorption, it can be used in rooms with a high level of humidity.

It has good soundproofing and heat-insulating qualities and is distinguished by its ease of installation.

Soundproofing the floor in the apartment

There are two main options for soundproofing floors: under screed and without screed.

Soundproofing the floor under the screed

The working surface is cleaned, in the presence of defects, partial repairs are made. After that, a layer of prepared soundproofing material is laid, then a layer of waterproofing.

The sheets of the top layer must be overlapped with ledges on the walls by 5-10 cm. The carefully leveled top layer is poured with a concrete screed. After it dries, you can start laying out the main floor covering.

It should be borne in mind that the period of complete drying of the concrete screed will be about 25-30 days.

Floor soundproofing without concrete screed

This option is performed only on the condition that the base of the floor is a high-quality concrete coating. On a previously prepared surface, it is necessary to lay several layers of waterproofing and a layer of elastic gasket. Then lay the panels on the basis of cellulose.

Subtleties of high-quality sound insulation

When organizing soundproofing work, several nuances should be noted in order to avoid unpleasant surprises:

When completely or partially laying communication systems underground, it is necessary to insulate them; for this, it is recommended to use elastic materials.

Skirting boards must be attached to only one of the surfaces to the wall or to the floor, otherwise they can become noise conductors.

It is necessary to purchase building materials only from a trusted seller who can provide a quality certificate for the product. Saving on such materials can adversely affect the health of households.

There are no particular difficulties and big secrets in the processes of laying soundproof materials. Anyone who is familiar with the elementary skills of construction work can do such work on soundproofing the floor with their own hands. A little patience and you can enjoy the long-awaited silence.

Photo soundproofing floor