The crack of a whip, the slap of a paddle, the delicious screams of your ever-willing partner, these sounds and more make up the auditory experience of your home dungeon. But what about the neighbors, the police or the kids upstairs? How do you keep all these wonderful noises to yourself? The answer is soundproofing.
Unfortunately, reliable soundproofing is not done cheaply or easily. We have all heard the old wives’ tale about egg cartons on the walls, but this does no more good for soundproofing than putting up an extra layer of wallpaper up. The only good it can do is to refract the sound within the room, and reduce echo a tiny bit.
This leads to an important distinction, that between soundproofing and sound absorption. Soundproofing is stopping the sound from leaving the room. Sound absorption changes the sound within the room. Sound absorption can be done with heavy blankets and carpets, as well as foam on the walls, textured to reflect like an egg carton, or not. You can also build bass traps to help absorb sound. This article, however, is going to focus on keeping the sounds inside your dungeon, instead of reducing them.
There are three keys to soundproofing a wall, floor or ceiling: thickness, dampening and decoupling.
Thickness: the thicker the wall, the more it will slow down the sound waves passing through it. Using two layers of 5/8” drywall will give you a very effective, sound wave stopping wall. But it won’t stop everything.
Dampening is the second important step. Between your layers of drywall, you need something to help dampen the sound wave transmission. A good product for the price is called Green Glue, and a layer of this between your drywall will significantly increase soundproofing.
The next step in dampening is space. The best way to reduce sound transmission is to have two walls between your dungeon and the world, both with double layers of drywall bonded with Green Glue, and a decent amount of air space between them. You can put insulation in this space, but be careful not to pack it tightly or you will just turn the space into a transmitter all over again. Rock wool, cotton batting or cellulose insulation are good options.
The last key is decoupling. This means not having a solid structure connecting the two walls together. Sound transfers directly through solid structures like studs. There are several ways to do this. One is by alternating your studs for the two sides of the double wall, off-setting them from each other so that there is not a solid line through the wall. Another way to do this, though less effective, is to use resilient clips or channels to attach the drywall to the studs.
Let us not forget that if you have windows in your dungeon, they need special attention as well. Windows can be soundproofed with some of the same principles. A dual paned window will do you no good, but adding a second window inside the first will. It also helps if you split the sill between them to decouple it. Another option is wall plugs, but you must have a nearly perfect fit for it to do any good at all.
Any openings in the walls, such as outlets, vents and doors need special attention, too. Outlets and other such openings can be sealed with acoustic caulking. Vents can be temporarily covered with heavy rubber mats, such as welcome mats for low frequency noise blocking, and pillows to catch the higher frequencies. For doors, the best bet is a vacuum sealed door, but for most of us, this is not practical. Instead, a heavy steel door with insulation inside, or a thick wooden door is your best bet. Use weather stripping to seal the openings around the door as tightly as possible.
Now, if this all sounds expensive, it is. Truly soundproofing a room basically requires building a room within a room, so that there is enough space for thickness, dampening and decoupling. So, what else can you do?
Play quietly. Use a ball gag. Tell your bottom to be quiet. Play music to mask the noises. Move to the country where there is no one to hear you. Or go out and meet your neighbors. Maybe they are kinky, too, or maybe they will be a little more understanding about noise if you are friendly.
For further reading:
http://www.soundproofing101.com/
http://www.soundproofing.com/
http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/
