Mezanine Floor Sound Isolation

I am aware of vibration dampening rubber sheet and machine mounts but can any body tell me if these methods will be successful enough to 'make me a hero' to our office staff.

Machine MOUNTS +

Something more you can do: Bolt a couple of Steel Channels to underside of Plywood Mezz. Floor. Best will be North-South and east-west--I mean Cross Braced.

High Audio Frequency noise will be drastically dulled .

For equipment that would transmit vibration through a floor, density of the floor would a key resistance. A concrete slab on pan decking might be one way to go, if there are advantages to keeping the equipment upstairs.

As with others, I would consider putting the offices and quietest machinery upstairs, with the heavier/noisier items below. If there is piping or ductwork involved, I would try to support from the walls or floor, rather than from the ceiling. This would help in avoiding upward noise transmission.

Thanks for your suggestions, and in fact we are putting the lightest equipment upstairs. It just happens that the lightest equipment is the industrial sewing machines that have a characteristic thumping, not unlike a single cylinder engine.

We cannot go with concrete as the budget is tight. For the same reason we cannot contract a sound and vibration consultancy, hence the appeal to you all.

Once again thanks for your reply.

Jim

Then maybe spring-loaded or pneumatic rubber bladder vibration mounts on the feet of each machine would work. If there are many of them, it will add up to some expense, though. Maybe this could be phased in over time.

Look up Constrained Layer Damping.

Essentially, it is a layer of viscoelastic material sandwiched between two layers of another hard or dense material such as wood.

There is a construction adhesive called Green Glue that is used in the industry here, mostly for walls, but the principle will also apply to floors.

Application is extremely easy. You can use a commercial caulking gun to apply it to the floor, then nail down a second sheet of plywood over the Green Glue as per instructions.

Check to see what is equivalent in your country if Green Glue is not available.

Jim,

you say that you are working for a charity or a charity workshop.

Cannot you get some acoustical assistance locally on a charitable basis?

It ought to be worth a try, even if they cannot afford to provide a full blown survey, analysis and report they might just be able to walk in and say, well if you did "so and so" then that would cut the noise down and you could pay them by in effect a free advertisment " *** Engrs " fixed it for us!

Sign outside, a Banner addition to anything that you ran, .........

I have tried this occasionally when I was trying to run a local organisation on a shoe string!

Just a thought

Sleepy

The OP deserves a GA for working it out for himself and not stubbornly clinging to a solution that would be expensive to implement and probably be less than ideal.

The mezzanine floor is where the offices should be. Lugging machinery, matériel and product up and down stairs would get real boring real quick. Then there's the floor loading to consider....

In these parts, where mezzanine floors proliferate, that is how it is done. You can still have a reception area on the ground floor if that is required with a bulkhead to isolate any noise that might come from "out the back".

G'day Wal,

fortunately the larger industrial shed we will be housed in has its' stores on the mezanine. We will be able to use their stores personel and space for the majority of our materials. Our staff will simply go through a door and carry back a roll of cloth to put on their bench to use 'till it's all gone. Our ground floor machine shop will house both woodworking and steel working m/c as well as the floor area required for the technicians and the wheelchairs they will work on. The chairs will then go upstairs by goods lift to upholstered. The ground floor is almost cramped whilst the mezanine is less than half utilised. More amunition to use to get the boss's office upstairs. As a result of this forum i will suggest placing the sewing machines over the m/c shop and the boss's office over the tech'n area as well as using the suggestions for damping.

Jim

Thanks! Simple, practical and cheap, what more could i ask for.

G A from me.

Jim

Good answer. First time!

I like it.

Welcome to the forum.

Well the obvious one is put the offices upstairs, If this isn't possible what I would do is take up the floor, put as much insulating material as possible between the ceiling underneath & the floor,Then lay foam strips on top of all the joists,(you can buy strips of foam with a self adhesives tape)Then relay the floor, over this I would lay a rubberised sheet flooring, Not only will this help to sound deaden but make a clean safe floor,Then put rubber sound deadening feet under all the feet of the machines, The spray booth could be wall mounted & have an external fan.

Bazzer

We have had pallets come through the loading dock lately with plastic doughnut feet might be a cheap part of your fix

I would actually recommend a poured floor with micro-balls mixed into the concrete. The micro-balls are a poly-styrene type. They help with heat and cut down on transfer of noise. Then cover with floating wood floor or carpet, or tile squares.

Good luck

Sewing machines aren't really that noisy. Ask your machinists to put their ribber slippers under the legs of their sewing machine tables.

You ever stood beside a commercial sewing machine ?

bazzer

Sure have.

Have you ever put your rubber slippers (flip flops/thongs/jandles/Japanese safety boots...) under a machine, with or without your foot still in it, to stop said machine from drumming and rattling?