DIY Network

Floating Floor Find out how to enhance the sound in your home theater. From "Home Theater" episode DHTW-103

Figure A

In the first segment the walls and ceiling for the home theater went up, and in this segment host Corey Greenberg and engineer Mark Midyett explain why it's important for you to consider having a floating floor installed to enhance the sound quality of your theater.

There are many advantages to floating the floor in your home theater. The first is that your floating floor (figure A) will act as a bass absorber covering the entire bottom of the room. One of the other good reasons is if you set the subwoofers on this floating floor, the rumble from them will translate through the floor, the sofa and into your body -- totally enhancing your home-theater experience.

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	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E
	Figure F

Installing a Floating Floor

• The first step in building the floating floor is to put a 1" foam spacer against the wall (figure B), much like a baseboard, to keep the floor from touching the side walls. You don't want the floor and walls to touch for the same reason you didn't want the walls and ceiling to touch--it help absorb sound and lets the floor move up and down just like the ceiling.

• Next, the flooring is covered with specialized sound insulation (figure C), which is specifically engineered to add sound absorption to concrete floors.

  Note: The floating floor system is made up of small low-density fiberglass isolation pads (figure D) spaced 12" apart that support the plywood, and they're also designed to support other weight such as furniture and floor traffic.

• Once the fiberglass is in place it's time to install "two" layers of plywood on the floor--again using the same methods that was utilized on the walls and ceiling to make sure the seams on the second layer don't match the first (figure E).

  Q: With two layers of plywood is there any problem with creaking?

  A: No. With this particular installation the two layers will be glued and screwed together to avoid any creaking. Using two layers of plywood on the floor in addition to the fiberglass base will help increase the sound absorption.

FYI--For this DIY project specialty sound products are being utilized, but there are less expensive ways to create floating floors to enhance the acoustics of your home theater. One way is to buy vibration-insulation pads at your supply store. They are normally used for HVAC systems. You lay them out in 16" spacing grids. Then you take 2 x 4's and lay them across in rows. Now you have a space in-between the 2 x 4's that you fill with standard batt insulation (figure F). And when you lay the plywood you want to make sure to glue and screw the plywood together to prevent any creaking sounds when you walk across the floor.

In the next segment Corey and Mark show you how to keep sound from leaking through your doors, and they talk about the best lighting for your home theater.

RESOURCES :

Don Fillers & Assoc.
Website: www.dfasolutions.com

McDougall Bros. Construction, Inc.
Website: www.mcdougallbros.com

Middle Atlantic Products, Inc.
Website: www.middleatlantic.com

Terratex Fabrics
Website: www.terratex.com

Absolute Sound, Inc.
Website: www.absolutesound.com

Kinetics Noise Control
Website: www.kineticsnoise.com

GUESTS :

Mark Midyett
Engineer/Designer
Don Fillers & Assoc.
1003 North Broadway St.
Knoxville, TN 37917
Phone: 865-523-4470
Website: www.dfasolutions.com

Ted Hollander
Home Theater Designer
Phone: 407-629-0230
Website: www.absolutesound.com