To install sound insulation or to not install sound insulation between floors?

[OxFox]

Hi,

Forgive me for jumping straight in with a question (or two), but I have searched for an answer in the forum and can't find anything that quite matches. Apologies if I've missed it/my search terms haven't picked it up.

So...here's the craic:

My wife and I are just about to complete on our first house (woohoo!), a 1930s end of terrace with 2 main bedrooms and a box room all on the first floor. The stairs and upstairs have a horrible white(ish) carpet that is covered in dog hairs and needs to go. Added to this, we're both fans of exposed floorboards, as long as they are done nicely!

Being poor and wanting to make our mark on the house, I'm taking 2 weeks off work to sand the stairs and the upstairs bedrooms/hallway, along with painting the master bedroom and clean/move in. 2 weeks is all I have (about 12 days in total if I add two Sundays in) and then we're off on holiday.

So...the question is, as well as doing everything I have already mentioned, do those of you who have done this before think it would be good to take the opportunity to pull up all the floorboards on the first floor, put some rockwool (RWA45 100mm) in between the joists and rubber strips (3mm?) on the joists, then screw the floorboards back down? Also thinking I might take a few hours to ensure all the pipes are insulated

My wife thinks I'm mental to try and do all of this in the time frame I have, but we have a 1 year old and are hoping to become foster carers in the near future, and having lived in houses with bare floors and no sound insulation, I know how noisy it can be.

My view is, if I'm in there doing all this stuff and I have enough time, then why wouldn't I? We can stretch to the cost of the insulation slabs/netting and rubber strips, and I have quite a few tools so there isn't much outlay there (a decent floor lifting bar maybe), and I'm not a bad DIYer (my shelves all stay up .

We did have a peak under the carpet when visiting and the floorboards (should have said they're pine floorboards) look in pretty good condition, so I'm not too worried about busting a load of boards.

Total area for underfloor insulation and sanding is approximately 32m^2 (more for sanding as the stairs are in addition to this figure)

Should I do it?

If I should, do my plans sound reasonable? Any further recommendations on the above? And can anyone advise on the best type of screw to replace the brads?

Ideally I would like to use some sort of crosshead screw (pozi?) which doesn't need pilot drilling and will just self tap into the joists (though 3mm of rubber)? I have seen other posts on this recommending spax with a torx head, but I'm reluctant as getting them out again might be a bit of a job. I could go flathead but they are a pain in the...to put in. So crosshead is where I end up.
[edit] should have added that we will probably wax the boards rather than varnish, but not 100% on this yet [/edit]

I am also considering replacing all of the skirting board at the same time (if I pull the boards up), but that might really push the wife over the edge....it's just the current skirting is horrible and looks like they've got about 20 year's worth of gloss caked on up on them..

If anyone can give me some guidance on what's worth doing and what isn't, I'd be very grateful.

Cheers

 

[chappers]

your choice really, personally for a single household who run their lives together I wouldn't bother just tell the kids to stop charging about upstairs.
Why not carpet the kids rooms anyway it's probably better if they are going to play on the floor anyway.
Sanded boards will look rubbish fixed down with screws.

 

[tony1851]

You might find your time frame a little too optimistic.

 

[OxFox]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for your response....any reasoning behind this? Have you done something similar?

 

[Doggit]

If you haven't done it before, then you've got no real experience of the job, and life teaches you that things never go to plan.

If you're going to do this, then I'd suggest lifting every 6-8th board, and putting in 170mm of rockwool from eash side. You'll need to cut it into sections to match the width of the joists, but you can then push the sections in under the boards as far as your arms will reach, and with short arms, you may only lift every 5th board. Putting rubber on top of the joists will do little to minimise sound travel, as you haven't got sound proof boards, and 100mm of rockwool won't do much.

There's a trick to get the boards out neatly, but it doesn't alway work. You use a hole punch to push the nails through, and then put a screw in one of the holes at the end, and then lift the boards out with a hammer under the screw head. This minimises any damage to either the board you're lifting, or the surrounding boards. Now, are you going to go to the effort of using the hole punch to knock all the nails a fraction below the surface of the boards, and then fill them with 2 part wood filler before you sand the floorboards, or are you just intending to leave it bare.

You'll find it easier to use a palm sander on the skirting boards, than taking them off, putting new ones on, priming the boards, 2 coats of undercoat, and then 2 coats of topcoat.

Now you can see why Tony feels you're being a little optimistic.