Solve foot fall noise and the bass thump from music: the answer here is to use Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) with 1/4" closed cell foam. Pull up your carpet, padding and tack strips. Seal cracks in subfloor with caulking.
Install MLV underlayment foam side down wall to wall, seal field seams with metal tape and caulk the perimeter to the wall under base boards. Remove the decoupling foam from the edges where the barrier and the carpet will go under baseboard heaters and tack strips. The tack strips are nailed through underlayment around perimeter and install your carpet. When moisture is of concern, as in the case of a marine or off road application, closed cell foam can be used. Wall-to-wall carpet is installed directly on top of the barrier (without any additional carpet padding!). Move your furniture back into the space and you are ready to go with your vastly improved noise isolation.
Whispermat™ WM1 is a barrier layer of Whispermat™ cured to a single layer of Hushcloth® acoustical foam. When the Whispermat™ is applied to sheet metal, plastic or wood, the foam is exposed to absorb airborne noise. The barrier then functions to both contain sound by increasing the effective mass to the panel and to damp the structure-borne resonant vibrations.
When the Hushcloth® acoustical foam is applied to the structure, the Whispermat™ barrier is then acoustically decoupled from the panel vibrations which creates a "Double Glazing" effect and dramatically increases the sound transmission insulation.
Key Benefits
• Proprietary manufacturing process ensures permanent bonding between foam and vinyl barrier material
• Available in a wide range of weights, thickness and as sheets or rolls
• Also widely used with 1lb/sqft to 2 lb/sqft barriers as a carpet underlayment to dramatically increase sound isolation from the space below a floor or deck in condominiums, apartments, boats and spaces above media-rooms or home theaters.