Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Solidity of project homes 2May 14, 2012 7:42 pm Hearing people walking upstairs is common. The floor is attached to the top of the joists and the ceiling is attached under them. Try a battened ceiling ( expensive) or bulk insulation (inexpensive) @builderforlife Building inspector and passionate about construction When you need an expert to take a look. Re: Solidity of project homes 3May 27, 2012 8:35 pm Good topic Forg! I'm very interested in hearing what other people have to say about this too. It's something that I've been thinking about on-and-off for a while, but have never read or heard anything definitive. To me the ultimate 'solidity' would be double brick construction with concrete slab on the upper floor, but of course that's not within everyone's budget. So assuming we're stuck with the inherent limitations of brick veneer construction with wooden upper floor, what are some of the most effective measures in improving the perceived solidity of the house? Some aspects I've thought about: 1. Upper floors A rather subjective thing, but in general, wooden upper floors can feel a bit bouncy, as compared to the solid underfoot feel on a concrete slab. How can you reduce the 'bounciness' of a wooden upper floor? For example, I see some builders advertising 300mm-high floor joists rather than the standard 250mm. Does this have any real practical benefits in this regard? What about the floor joist spacing, is that perhaps more important? With the squeaking - I've been told that this comes from movement in the floorboards, and that that using screws rather than nails to hold down the wooden floorboards might help. This apparently holds the boards down better, and thus prevent the squeaking. 2. Impact noise from walking upstairs As builderforlife stated, this seems to be a common thing with wooden upper floor construction, where people downstairs can easily hear you walking upstairs. My layman's instinct is to use acoustic insulation batts in between the floor joists, plus perhaps acoustic plasterboard in the ground floor ceiling. Would this be effective in reducing the impact noise? Are there any other ways to address this? 2. Airborne noise in between rooms and floors Again, acoustic insulation in the walls and floor space, plus acoustic plasterboard (eg. Soundchek), seem to be the only ways of reducing this. I have no real-world experience of any of the above though, so would be keen to find out whether any of these measures are actually effective. And sorry I've just added more questions than answers, but as I said above, I'm very interested in the subject, and just wanted to elaborate. Really hoping to hear some opinions from people more knowledgeable than myself. Re: Solidity of project homes 4May 28, 2012 11:54 am shakeandbake G A rather subjective thing, but in general, wooden upper floors can feel a bit bouncy, as compared to the solid underfoot feel on a concrete slab. How can you reduce the 'bounciness' of a wooden upper floor? For example, I see some builders advertising 300mm-high floor joists rather than the standard 250mm. Does this have any real practical benefits in this regard? What about the floor joist spacing, is that perhaps more important? For the 20% extra timber you will probably get 40% greater stiffness so that will reduce the bounce. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Solidity of project homes 5May 29, 2012 11:45 am You can also get increased stiffness by fitting the joists closer together. Engineers allow for an acceptable amount of deflection in most elements @builderforlife Building inspector and passionate about construction When you need an expert to take a look. Re: Solidity of project homes 6May 29, 2012 6:47 pm Thanks for the feedback (I feel like I'm hijacking Forg's topic!). A couple of further questions - firstly, would the acoustic plasterboard and insulation in the ceiling help at all with impact noise from upstairs? builderforlife Try a battened ceiling ( expensive) And secondly, what are battened ceilings? I tried doing a search online, but was a bit confused because I have no idea what I'm looking for. Re: Solidity of project homes 7May 31, 2012 5:47 am shakeandbake Thanks for the feedback (I feel like I'm hijacking Forg's topic!). builderforlife Try a battened ceiling ( expensive) And secondly, what are battened ceilings? I tried doing a search online, but was a bit confused because I have no idea what I'm looking for. A ceiling fixed to batterns rather than fixed to the joists this reduces the transmission of noise which with a standard ceiling is direct through the joist to the gyprock ceiling. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Solidity of project homes 8May 31, 2012 8:10 am Battens, a picture tells a thousand words: http://rlay1.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/insulation.html Those metal things are the battens. My place has 400mm floor joists, acoustic installation and battens and it does help minimise the noise from the top floor. Re: Solidity of project homes 9May 31, 2012 11:26 am For even more acoustic treatment those battens can be fixed to the joists above through some sort of noise isolator from crude rubber pads to sophisticated mounting blocks. You are trying to isolate the impact noise which is coming through the floor joists, so try to get something flexible between th ejoists and the ceiling. @builderforlife Building inspector and passionate about construction When you need an expert to take a look. Re: Solidity of project homes 10May 31, 2012 11:39 am Also check out hebel power flooring systems Landscape Design & Construction http://cherub.squarespace.com/ Re: Solidity of project homes 11Jun 04, 2012 9:17 pm Thanks for all the info guys. Just done a bit more reading, and I think I understand this stuff a bit better now. Structure-wise - use of battens or furring channels, plus isolation/resilient mounts, to isolate impact noise through the floor to the room below. (Is there any difference between battens and furring channels?) I'm talking to one of the volume builders at the moment though, and I don't have high hopes that they'll be willing to accommodate these 'structural upgrades'. Will see how I go. I do know they've done acoustic insulation and plasterboard (ie Gyprock Soundchek) before, so will probably have more luck with these 'add ons'. Still haven't been able to get a clear idea though - are these measures going to help address the impact noise at all? Re Hebel Power Flooring - from what I've read/seen, this is still a very niche product within the industry, so for now I think it's probably outside the volume builder's portfolio. Again, thanks for the tips. DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16713 If you need to pay for a project manager you would be well advised to just engage a builder who would take full responsibility for the build. As opposed to you OB where… 5 15083 |