R/E/P Community
R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => Acoustics in Motion => Topic started by: sprouseod on October 10, 2006, 11:23:59 AM
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Hello, What other materials are useful in floating a floor such as auralex U-boats? I am beginning a project where I want to create an isolation room mostly for drums and loud amps. The room is about 12'x15' and 11 feet tall.
Thanks
Richard
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There are other manufacturers out there for these systems, like:
http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/rimwood.html
but I think the cleanest, most cost efficient way would be the u-boats. You really can't beat the price and the simplicity of the construction.
my2cents
peace
Gil
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if you goto a rubber manufacturer- you can probably get neoprene pucks for cheaper.
isnt there a problem with the longevity of the U-boats?
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Guys... the deal with floating floors is simply:
Your low frequency cutoff is a function of the amount of deflection your get out of your isolator and it's durometer rating (roughly stiffness)..
I see this problem with the "U Boats" all the time and I don't really care for them... You HAVE TO CALCULATE HOW MUCH WEIGHT YOU WILL BE PUTTING ON YOUR ISOLATORS, and then you can size them (rate them) based on load. We use Mason Industries stuff a lot.. Either Super W Pads (better when stacked 2 high, as you double the deflection) or ND Mounts or EAFM neoprene mounts... All of these products come rated in Durometer and Load capacity and the data sheets also show the Natural Freq (resonant freq) vs. deflection curve... This is what floating rooms is all about. It involves engineering and it really needs to be engineered by someone who knows what they're doing otherwise, I will almost guarantee you are wasting time and money trying to float a floor... If you don't engineer for a sufficient amount of deflection without over deflecting the material, then it just doesn't work, period!! We usually shoot for approx 1/4" min amount of deflection with Neoprene isolators...
Stating the (possibly) obvious: the load in the center of floors is less than around the perimeter assuming you build a "proper" floated room where the walls (and ceiling) rest on the perimeter of the floated floor system...All the live and dead load factors have to considered when sizing and selecting the isolators as well as determining their spacing, etc.
The Kinetics KIP Pad and Roll-Out systems are also popular and the good folks at Vibration Products will help you with engineering, basically adding some additional isolators around the perimeter, but this system is really made for one of two types of floors only.. either concrete slabs on wood forms (heavy) or multiple layer wood floor sandwich systems (what I call "dance floors" as they are good at lowering impact noise, but not much else)...
I could go on and on, but at some point I need to get paid!! LOL.. THe long and short of it is, study the literature from Mason Industries.. They explain the whole she-bang... They also make the best high end floor system IMHO: the FS and FSN Jackup slab systems. We use these on all of our high end jobs and when installed with care and good practice are un-beatable... So, there you have it.. Don't go with U boats and do some studying and you too can figure our how to do a nice wood framed floated floor with EAFM isolators!!
This is where to get started: http://209.200.80.33/html/architect_engin_index.htm
and http://www.mason-ind.com/HTML/index.html
whew.. I went off there, didn't I???