Noisy Baseboard

[Nick_]

I'm looking to see if anybody has any suggestions:

My baseboard is 12mm Ply on a 2x2 frame bolted to the walls of my office and set at a height of 4ft so it's high enough to be above my desk and PC monitors. My track is laid directly onto the ply and will eventually be fully ballasted. The end result is  that it is quite noisy, the ply acting like a sound board I suspect. I don't want to lift the track to add underlay, I don't like the foam and from what I've read once you add ballast to cork you pretty much remove its sound damping properties anyway.

Have any of you guys got any suggestions for damping material, and where I could get it from, that I could attach to the underside between the frames to reduce the noise levels?

Nick

[Chrissaf]

Current building regulations require floors between flats (apartments) to have sound proofing. Maybe some research into the products that are used for this might yield some results.

[2e0dtoeric]

Don't use expanded polystyrene stick-on tiles, they are a fire hazard! They burn readily, give off a toxic gas, and are hard to extinguish!

I don't know what they cost, (probably prohibitive!) but have a look at the sound-absorbing tiles they use in recording studios.

[david_denham]

I am very far from being any sort of expert on this or any train subject  please excuse my ignorance on this. But how about using neoprene sheet on top of the baseboard then with the cork on top of that. I don't know if this has been tried or not. If it has and does not work then please disregard this post

[2e0dtoeric]

I doubt that would work, David, as it would make the track-bed too soft!

[david_denham]

I doubt that would work, David, as it would make the track-bed too soft!

Cool i am to new to this

[walkingthedog]

Might sound daft but I think I'd use egg trays. They would easily glue beneath the board, weigh nothing, cut easily, cost very little. You'd need something under them to make an egg tray sandwich. 

[WilliamDavid]

My first attempt was very noisy ( the mainline locos didn't help)

I started again by using the foam track beds. The space between the tracks were filled with the foam underlay you put under wooden laminated flooring to stop the ballast reaching the baseboard, and so running became very quiet.

 

[RDS]

... I think I'd use egg trays ... 

 

What a fascinating suggestion.

[Nick_]

 Thanks for the suggestions guys

 

@David_denham, thanks for your idea, but I am explictly looking for something to go under the baseboard because the tracks are already layed and some of the scenary built and I don't want to demolish everything and start again.

[walkingthedog]

They use egg boxes to soundproof and de-echo small recording studios, no I don't mean Abbey Road. 

[Rog RJ]

There are lots of sound deadening materials available if you have a search on eBay.  Often used for car and van interiors.  No idea how good any of them are though.  Just search for sound deadening.

[walkingthedog]

You can get twenty 30 egg trays for £4 on fleabay. 

[david_denham]

 Thanks for the suggestions guys

 

@David_denham, thanks for your idea, but I am explictly looking for something to go under the baseboard because the tracks are already layed and some of the scenary built and I don't want to demolish everything and start again.

No probs Nick 

[Howbi]

@Nick_.......Firstly can I expose the myth that egg boxes have any value in sound attenuation, they are as much use as a sheet of cardboard........... I was a studio designer for 20 yrs and 'eggbox' was not in the vocabulary.... Your problem, as you have noticed, is the resonance in the plywood made worse by the fact that it is not fixed to solid surfaces all round it's perimeter............To deaden this type of sound would need a baseboard of greater mass which in your design is inconceivable.........the problem is that any material dense enough to have any value is going to add weight to your structure, such as thick carpet for example.   HB

[walkingthedog]

Howbiman I have used egg trays, that's why I suggested them. When my layout was in the loft the rumbling annoyed the kids ensconced in their bedrooms. Several layers of egg trays muffled the sound. Didn't kill the sound completely but definitely decreased it. 

 

Might have been nice if you'd said to me what the heck are you talking about WTD before telling Nick my suggestion was a myth. 

[2e0dtoeric]

Perhaps the egg-boxes work better without the eggs in them?  :-)

[walkingthedog]

You could be white 2e0. Sorry bad yoke. 

[Howbi]

@WTD..........sorry, WTD, but I responded to your earlier comment that egg boxes were used in Studios as if they are a credible solution and that prompted my reply having been involved professionally..........if you found that several layers had some beneficial effect in your particular circumstances then it is, of course, useful information for others to consider and we can only benefit from your experience.  HB.

[walkingthedog]

When I said studio I really meant bedroom. My mate lined his room with hundreds and hundreds of egg trays years ago. It did stop some of the sound of his guitar escaping through the walls bust mostly made the sound completely dead In the room, no sound rebounding around the room. Horrible. 

[Buz]

Hi

Is the layout bolted to the wall or bolted to shelf brackets mounted on the wall. 

It is possible that the wall is acting as a sound box turning the vibrations into somthing louder and unpleasant.

a half inch strip of high density foam the full depth of the layout between the layout and the wall will help

As the foam will act like the hand on drum skin and reduce the vibrations and noise. this is only possible if the layout is on wall brackets where the board fixing can be changed and the brackets can stop the foam falling out.

regards John