Underlays

Is there such a thing as soundproof carpeting (or underlay)?

I'm carpeting a baby's room with a tenant who lives underneath and want to sound proof the floor as much as possible so as not to wake them up when the baby cries. I want to soundproof it and I'm getting different answers from different people. I wanted to see what was out there in terms of soundproof flooring.

Public Comments

1. call your local carpet dealer they will have the info you can use several types of materials to do this with, but be careful choosing because of your babies health some underlinings are full of chemicals
2. Most anything can be accomplished dependant upon how much its worth to you . You can check this web site, or just do a web search for 'Flooring, acoustical, sound deadening'. http://www.soundprooffoam.com/soundproofing.html
3. I am a superintendent for a remodeler. We have had great success with a product called homosote found here: http://www.homasote.com/ You may have to make some adjustments to the base and/or door height because this will increase the height of the carpet by at least a half inch depending on which board you use, but this will definitely kill the sound. It comes in sheets as small as 4x4 up to 4x10, is easy to cut, doesn't cause a huge mess, is easy to install and doesn't require any special tools.
4. Sound waves are generated by vibration. Noise transfers through building elements by vibration. You can try and absorb the sound of a baby crying or you can try and isolate the structure so that it doesnt transfer. There are a miriad of sound absorbing underlays available for use on the floor.. (the carpet itself is actually a reasonable insulator) but this won't stop it from transferring down any shared wall structure. That is, you will never really solve the problem completely. You can mask the sound of baby crying by increasing the normal background noise - keep a radio on ... they will get used to it .... but that's pretty radical... and cruel. To help attenuate the high pitched frquencies of a baby crying you need an underlay a high density.