# Sound isolation in new house



## jarrod1937 (Oct 26, 2008)

I'm about to purchase a new house (my first house actually) and the room where I am considering a home theater has some issues.
First off, the house is a bilevel, and the living room and theater room are only separated by a flight of stairs. The theater room has no door, obviously this is going to lead to some sound leakage into the living room. So i am planning on adding a door to the room. The second thing is there is a slight overhang from the ceiling where one of the main HVAC ducts go through.
My question is two fold. One, is there something special I should do when adding the door? Perhaps a special door or something? Two, won't the HVAC duct cause sound to be more easily carried from the room to the rest of the house? If so, how can i remedy this? And no, moving the duct is not an option 

Edit: Should mention that i know there will be much more work needed to acoustically treat the area, I'm just trying to get the biggest items out of the way first.


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## Kaisergrendel (Jul 19, 2011)

Hey Jarrod, do you have pictures? Would be easier to assess the space


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

I would agree. I kind of need a picture to visualize what's going on with the duct.

As for the door, make sure you use a solid core wood door (not a foam filled one, etc.) You can also do seals around the perimeter and across the bottom. I'd want to see what we can do with the HVAC before determining if the additional money for seals would be money spent or wasted.

Bryan


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## jarrod1937 (Oct 26, 2008)

Kaisergrendel said:


> Hey Jarrod, do you have pictures? Would be easier to assess the space


Sadly I don't have access to the house until closing (which hopefully will be on the 12th), so all I have are pictures from the realty website.
Here are some of the photos.

This is the living room (there's more space to the left), with the stairs to the right that go to the front door and then down stairs to the the hall which leads to the next room.


















Here are some photos of the downstairs room that i'm going to use. In the first and third photo you can see the overhang where the duct is. The room is 25 x 13.5 feet. I wish it was just a bit wider, but it is good enough for my plans.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

If you can't move it, can you build a soffit across there that's insulated to at least give it some length that's isolated? Use flex duct inside?

It's not going to be perfect but will be better.

Bryan


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