# Will Roxul Safe N Sound make a difference ?



## Italbro

Hi everyone,

I am finishing my basement and 1 of the room will be my own personnal HT (HD Projector, 120 inch Screen, Onkyo 708, 5.1 speaker system (not purchased yet). 

Since my ceiling is not yet completed, i was thinking of putting Roxul Safe N Sound on my ceilling. Since they are 3 inch thick, i was thinking of putting 2 layers. 

My concern is as follow. Since my basement is not that big, I will leave everything open, my HT Room wont be closed, no doors. Will the ROxul make any difference ? Is it worthed to spend 300$ for this ? 

Thanks for the advise.

Regards,


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## lsiberian

Italbro said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am finishing my basement and 1 of the room will be my own personnal HT (HD Projector, 120 inch Screen, Onkyo 708, 5.1 speaker system (not purchased yet).
> 
> Since my ceiling is not yet completed, i was thinking of putting Roxul Safe N Sound on my ceilling. Since they are 3 inch thick, i was thinking of putting 2 layers.
> 
> My concern is as follow. Since my basement is not that big, I will leave everything open, my HT Room wont be closed, no doors. Will the ROxul make any difference ? Is it worthed to spend 300$ for this ?
> 
> Thanks for the advise.
> 
> Regards,


300 dollars sounds too high. Safe N Sound is the same thing as Mineral Wool insulation. I'd just get R19 and roll it with the paper toward the room on the ceiling you would get the same effect for far cheaper.


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## bpape

Agreed. The difference between Safe N Sound and standard fluffy insulation isn't that much honestly. Save your money for more important things.

On another topic - are you sure you want to leave the theater open? If you want to post a quick sketch with some dimensions, we'd be happy to take a look.

Bryan


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## MatrixDweller

Safe n Sound in my area is pretty close to the same price as regular insulation. It might be about 10% higher. I believe the difference between the Safe n Sound and regular Roxul is just that the former has been tested and rated for sound suppression.

As far as making a difference. It will deaden the sound transmission between the floors within your room. Sound will still flank through your open doors. I guess it depends on the floor plan above your theater and if you want to deaden the sound from above. Part of the goal of soundproofing is to stop noise from getting in to your theater.

If you can afford it, I would do it. you may add doors later on or finish the rest of your basement. It's a lot harder to retro-fit after the drywall is up on the ceiling. Even one layer of insulation will help.


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## Italbro

My issue is that my basement is not huge....so if i close it, it will look small...and my Wife (yes my wife :rant dont want to go there and nothing I can say will convince her. 

That being said, the kitchen will be upstairs so sound might not disturb but i still want to find a way to reduce it.

You guys really think that if I dont close it, it will make a really difference ? 

Ill try and make a sketch (pretty basic) and post it here.

Thank you everyone for your help.


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## MatrixDweller

Most of us here have to deal with the WAF so we feel your pain.

Do you plan on drywalling the ceiling and walls or having a drop ceiling?


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## Italbro

Walls are already drywalled...and yes I will drywall the ceiling soon.


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## bpape

If you're going to drywall the ceiling, then yes - leaving it open vs closing it will have a huge impact.

Bryan


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## Italbro

Thanks bpape. That being said, with putting roxul and closing with gypse, sound will go up from the section after. Is that correct ?

If so, will it till reduce the sound ? How much? 40-50% ?

Thanks!


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## bpape

Insulation and drywall will be pretty effective. Assigning a hard percentage is pretty tough to do. If you fir the drywall off the joists a bit, you're looking at being able to get around a 50db reduction or potentially a little more. That's an overall number though and it's different at different frequencies. The bass is the hardest to stop and the firring will help with that.

Also, to be clear, my post above was referring to walling off the theater rather than leaving everything open. Sound travels everywhere. Doesn't do much good to close off most areas and isolate them if you have big 'holes' in the room for sound to escape.

Bryan


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## dbollman

I have a very similar plan to yours I've completed the first layer of royal and must say I quite happy with it. Having our master bedroom above the home theater room has made this one of the most valuable upgrades to the home theater as it allows me to watch at something close to a reasonable volume when they (wife and child) are sleeping. It is quite a bit denser than the pink stuff I'm not sure that I'd believe the pink would do as well. It is also rated for a crazy temperature level so you can push it right against the duct work without fear. In fact that is one of the Trickest parts of my install is I have the 2 main heating duct lines with multiple openings running along the ceiling in home theater room and then I think 3 exit points for heating into the room above.
I took special care to place insulation both a I've and below the lines that ran into the bedroom and the sound went from being easily pin pointable as coming up from the vents to not being able to pinpoint the vents and it being noticably quieter. 
I will add that this is the type of job that the first 80% gets you 50% of the way there and the last 20% gets you the other 50%. What I mean by this is the first 80% was sticking up 80% of the material into the easy 16 inch spaced joists and runing the dual layers around the vent lines. That resulted in about 1/2 the sound drop I saw. The other 50 % drop was from finishing the piddly work of doing the many many cuts to finish fixing it into all the special non standard places. One of the most key ones that you must be sure to get is the holes that are along the side wall above the drywall and below where the roxal layer ends between the floor joists. For me the royal touched the vapor barrier and I stopped there initially. After doing some more sound testing I discovered that it was almost as good as having an open hole because the only thing stopping the sound from coming up that path was the vapor barrier and a piece of drywall in the master bedroom both which provide little protection. K cut out 16' by 4' depending and put it up against the vapor barrier so it would touch the top royal layer and the top of the drywall below.

Anyways I'll finish with the key points that I found
* get a sound source and test with it to ensure you're results are what you want need them to be (by far the most important) a potable radio would work as when you seal it youre done...
* use royal it's quality stuff built fir the job and use a mask it's kind of visions stuff to breath in
* sondproof everywhere and use 2 layers and test after each layer I'm only done the first but I think I'd pay an extra 150 for another 4-5 db to take it from quiet to less quiet plus going back to add is Notable more expensive
* use the drywall disconnection runs you can buy for sound proofing don't screw the drywall right to the joists that will defeat some of your sound proofing efforts
* good luck pay attention to detail and test and refine

Dave


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## dbollman

iPod was about to die I missed some of it's spell correction errors. 'royal' should read roxal the others i apologies for.


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## Italbro

Here is the plan of my basement as requested.


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