I"m getting ready to do the floors in my new studio and have been searching on here for hours and not finding exactly the info I"m looking for.
The live room will be on the main street level floor(it's on a busy street) there is a basement below that will only be used for storage.
Right now I have floor joists(2x10's if I recall correctly)12" on center with a steel beam running down the center in the basement. Then a layer of 3/4" tounge and groove subfloor(in most areas, 1 layer of 3/4 plywood in the patched areas) and then a layer of maple flooring in really rough shape with alot of holes and several large areas totally missing and patched.
What I would like to do is something I have seen here but kind of backwards. I have seen layers of 5/8 screwed to the bottom of the subfloor from the basement. Is there anything preventing me from reversing this and laying a layer on directly on top of the maple, then floating 2x4's on 1/2" neoprene , 3" Roxul(2.5pcf) in between the studs with a layer of plywood and then a final layer of prefinished 3/4" real wood flooring on top of that?
I was figuring putting the drywall on top would save about 2 weeks work, I could lay a layer on top in a day(live room is 1000 sq. ft), to do the under side, it would probably take a helper about 2 weeks of 8 hr. days to accomplish. My only concern is the drywall deteriorating for some reason. I suppose I could put a layer of masonite or 1/4 lauan plywood directly over it to stop that if need be.
Also can someone recomend a place to purchase the 1/2 Neoprene. I"m located in chicago if that helps.
Floating floor question
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Twist Turner
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:34 am
- Location: chicago
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knightfly
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6976
- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
- Location: West Coast, USA
Welcome to the board -
No reason that won't work - only problem is you do NOT want any voids in the floor, in either the under leaf or the floated one - your badly damaged original floor could be leveled with gypsum joint compound before adding a layer of gypsum (I'd use the "greenboard" version of gypsum, made for bathrooms, etc, since this is a floor and possible wetting may happen from mopping, etc) - then, I'd put a solid layer of MDF or OSB on top of the gypsum. Finally, your pucks, lined up with joists and spaced about every 4 feet or so along the new floated joists, and as heavy a top floor leaf as you can afford (sometimes 3/4 ply, plastic, and 2-3" of concrete is cheaper mass than heavy flooring plies) -
Be sure to include 2-3 PCF insulation in the floor cavities to damp the upper floated leaf, or you'll get ringing. Especially if you go with a concrete floated slab, be sure and use a homosote perimeter board first to keep the concrete from bridging over to wall structure.
IF you can, get EPDM instead of neoprene - about 2-1/2 TIMES the longevity (10 years vs. 25) It's also available in the 60 duro hardness typically used for this.
Bryan Giles lives relatively near you; maybe he's got a source for the EPDM?
Hope that helped... Steve
No reason that won't work - only problem is you do NOT want any voids in the floor, in either the under leaf or the floated one - your badly damaged original floor could be leveled with gypsum joint compound before adding a layer of gypsum (I'd use the "greenboard" version of gypsum, made for bathrooms, etc, since this is a floor and possible wetting may happen from mopping, etc) - then, I'd put a solid layer of MDF or OSB on top of the gypsum. Finally, your pucks, lined up with joists and spaced about every 4 feet or so along the new floated joists, and as heavy a top floor leaf as you can afford (sometimes 3/4 ply, plastic, and 2-3" of concrete is cheaper mass than heavy flooring plies) -
Be sure to include 2-3 PCF insulation in the floor cavities to damp the upper floated leaf, or you'll get ringing. Especially if you go with a concrete floated slab, be sure and use a homosote perimeter board first to keep the concrete from bridging over to wall structure.
IF you can, get EPDM instead of neoprene - about 2-1/2 TIMES the longevity (10 years vs. 25) It's also available in the 60 duro hardness typically used for this.
Bryan Giles lives relatively near you; maybe he's got a source for the EPDM?
Hope that helped... Steve
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Twist Turner
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:34 am
- Location: chicago
Thanks for the tips. I haven't calculated if it will hold the load yet, but the joists are 12" on center not 16(same in the ceiling) and I do have the steel beam running down the center so from brick wall to brick wall there's a 9' span at best. I just finished taking off a layer of ceramic tile which was on a masonite underlayment and set in 1/2" of mortar, no signs of any stress from all that(and it weighted several tons).
If I determine I"m getting no noise from the street transfered directly to the floor, I may just lay 2 layers of 5/8" on top and a layer or 3/4" plywood then flooring and forget about floating it.
Luckily I remodeled apts on the side for the last 35 years so construction really isn't a problem for me. I feel sorry for the guys who have never done this before who are trying to build, not to mention the expense of buying all the tools. This is studio #2 for me so I"ve learned from previous errors and it's going pretty smoothly.
BTW- the baby power trick(in another thread) while putting in rock wool really works, I was hardly itching at all. Now if I people would quit calling the cell phone when my hands are full of acoustical caulk I"d have it made!
If I determine I"m getting no noise from the street transfered directly to the floor, I may just lay 2 layers of 5/8" on top and a layer or 3/4" plywood then flooring and forget about floating it.
Luckily I remodeled apts on the side for the last 35 years so construction really isn't a problem for me. I feel sorry for the guys who have never done this before who are trying to build, not to mention the expense of buying all the tools. This is studio #2 for me so I"ve learned from previous errors and it's going pretty smoothly.
BTW- the baby power trick(in another thread) while putting in rock wool really works, I was hardly itching at all. Now if I people would quit calling the cell phone when my hands are full of acoustical caulk I"d have it made!