[Anim]

Why don't they ever put the living room on the detached side

what's next best, cellar or attic conversion?

(Thinking loud base here)

Anim

[johnelf]

My thoughts,

This would lead to having a large outside wall, therefore increase heating costs. I would imagine most halls and stairs are not as warm as lounges.

John

[Anim]

Good observation, limits choice for the AV types though :D

Thinking out aloud...

Would base travel more from a cellar than an attic/loft conversion. I imagine a cellar would be more sound proof as all the earth would absorb the sound but not sure if vibrations in the ceiling would be more noisier to a neighbour.

It would be easier to sound proof a ceiling rather than floors and walls of an attic....

Then theres the garage conversion but that's a last resort as the space could be used for all the AV boxes :D

[Pecker]

I've just moved into a new build house.

The main soundproofing provided by the holuse build itself is that we have a double-skinned breeze-block wall between us and next door.

As raf as I am aware these breeze blocks stop at the ceiling of the top floor, and don't go up to the roof, so an attic conversion would be a nightmare to soundproof.

Cellars are easier - usually because next-door will almost certainly not go in their cellar all that often.

Steve W

[Anim]

Originally Posted by Pecker

I've just moved into a new build house.

The main soundproofing provided by the holuse build itself is that we have a double-skinned breeze-block wall between us and next door.

Sounds interesting, I wonder to what level that proofs it. Are you the type to test it with your new neighbour to find the max volume?

Anim

[Pecker]

Well, I've had my cinema room on pretty loud, and no complaints yet.

Indeed, the real problem for the soundproofing is within our house.

Obviously, in front of the breeze block is another 'skin', a plasterboard wall.

The sound from the cinema room runs through this, and then spreads right along that side of the house.

The cinema is on the top floor of three, but you can quite clearly hear dialogue in the kitchen.

Steve W

[Anim]

Originally Posted by Pecker

Well, I've had my cinema room on pretty loud, and no complaints yet.

Indeed, the real problem for the soundproofing is within our house.

Obviously, in front of the breeze block is another 'skin', a plasterboard wall.

The sound from the cinema room runs through this, and then spreads right along that side of the house.

The cinema is on the top floor of three, but you can quite clearly hear dialogue in the kitchen.

Steve W

Forgive me if you know this....

The smoother the surface the more focused the reflection (bounce, echo etc) you will get whereas rough surfaces will reflect the sound (Lambert style) all over the place which can also degrade the effect.

Rough surfaces usually absorb more sound too due to the microscopic holes in the material, this traps sound waves as they bounce about inside these holes and for every bounce they lose some of their energy until they dissipate.

The same rule applies to light as they are both waveforms

so....

Why not cut away the plasterboard near the floor (couple of inches) and line the hole with some kind of sound absorbing strip, that should greatly reduce sound transmission through the house. There was a post about some sound proofing material on here not long back.

Anim

[Pecker]

Cheers.

I would do but it's a pretty big job (and I'm rubbish at DIY), and it's not really necessary as it's not really a problem.

We only noticed when someone went downstairs for a beer and told us not to bother pausing the film.

In short, when we're watching a film in the cinema room, everyone in the house is in there.

But thanks for the tip.

Steve W

[Anim]

Originally Posted by Pecker

We only noticed when someone went downstairs for a beer and told us not to bother pausing the film.

[KelvinS1965]

Originally Posted by Anim

Why don't they ever put the living room on the detached side

My sister's semi has the living room on the detached side, I believe most of the houses on her estate have this arrangement. I noticed it straight away, because the foot print of her house was the same as my last house, but mine had the living room across the back of the house side to side with the neighbours. Even low level (to my ears anyway ) music and DVDs used to result in the old chap next door knocking on my door and asking me to turn it down.

Thankfully I have now moved to a detached house, which unfortunatley was cheap because it needed loads of work...which I'm still getting through.

Maybe this need should be highlighted to builders as more and more people get home cinema systems?

[dapex]

simple, buy a detached house??

I have to say on think that has made me think is the way houses are going back to flats (sorry apartments) and 3 story townhouse are back in fashion, my kids will probably never have the luxury of having a detahced house and not having to worry about the neighbours...

[Pecker]

On our estate (a new one) we went for a 3 storey, 4 bedroom townhouse.

We were offered a 4 bedroom, 2 storey detatched house for the same price, but turned it down - all the roioms were far smaller.

Also, the gap between almost all the townhouses on the estate and their neighbours is only around 2 meters - not a massive amount bigger than the gap between our 2 breeze block walls.

Steve W

[Mr_Sukebe]

I'm in the process of moving myself. Found that the road near us has roughly a ratio of 1 in 3 where the lounge is on the "outside".
In the end we've ended up with a semi with the lounge across the whole of the back of the house, so we'll need to be more careful about how we deal with things.

A few further thoughts:
- Given the option of a basement or an attic, I'd go for the basement
- The worst part of the audio frequency for travel is the bass area. Many UK rooms have big issues with "bass humps" as a result of room nodes resulting in resonant frequencies. In our present flat, it's at 40hz. In an AV system, going with sub that can tailor it's frequency curve would be well worth doing. I'm presently using a Behringer 2496DEQ with my stereo. Another option would be bass traps.
- If you do have noise problems, adding in a new acoustically dead wall might well be worth investigating. I don't know how much they cost, but could be a lot cheaper than having altercations with your neighbour.

[RichKS]

Another point:

Most people sleep upstairs.

That means the cellar is further from a sleeping ear than an attic. Personally, I don't mind a little noise bleedover from my neighbours during the daytime, it only irritates me after about 10.30pm and before 7am. Your attic is likely to be right next to someone's bedroom.

[KelvinS1965]

Originally Posted by dapex

simple, buy a detached house??

Yes, in an ideal world and we would all buy £20,000 PJs, etc. Although I did manage to buy a detached house, there were still compromises: It isn't in the 'best' area of town, it needed a lot of work..DIY in my case and it takes more to heat and has a higher council tax bill. Plus I had to increase my mortgage...I too worry that my kids will have to get 5,6 or 7 times their income on a mortgage just to buy a small flat when they grow up.

If semis and terraced houses were designed with a bit of thought to noise transmittion especially from living rooms, then we could all enjoy a late night film without feeling the need to grab the remote everytime an explosion or such occurs in the film.