Home Theater

redhouse

I was wondering has anyone ever done any testing to see if having a HT and having a powerful sub like my Servo 15, will or has ever damaged a house. My Theater sit's in a basement finished with the sound proof walls, the floor is concrete with padding and carpet, the walls are concrete with insullation and soundblocker covered with drywall. I have had a few drywall pop's in differnt places in the house the house is new, 3 years old. The resaon I am asking this is, my wife asked if the sub could cause this and I said no but really I didn't know. For those of you who don't know a drywall pop is when the screw pop's back out and cause's a bubble in the spot were the screw is and will sooner or later pop out all the way. Thanks Redhouse

VR3

A subwoofer over time, anything good will damage a house over time. It will loosen every nail and board in your walls, attic, and foundation. Before long maybe after 200 years of continuous shaking your house could and probally will colaspe.....

Thats IF you had a subwoofer in a corner of each room, playing at the same volume NON stop, probally over 100db per subwoofer continuously.....

redhouse

Smart ****, I was **** being surious the only reason I asked was I spent a lot of money on this house and I don't want to **** it up. I just wanted to know has anyone ever givin any thought to the long time effects if any, from sound waves shaking things up.

VR3

*LONG TIME Effects* --- I just told you!!

My room, when I first got into audio didnt rattle, now it shifts - the wall actually moves about 1/16 an inch on heavy bass tracks, it has its own waves. THE HOUSE will SUFFER foundation/floor/wall/ceiling DAMAGE......But nothing you should be concerned about

faster100

Originally posted by redhouse
Smart ****, I was **** being surious

I doubt anything you need to worry about, long term or short.. if you have a 3 year old house and its popping drywall (the term you used) I would look into something other then a sub for the damage..

Dr.spec on here mentioned cracking some plaster or drywall but that is in extreme cases and i would think is not effecting the structual soundness of the house... unless like sid said " if you had subs in every room maybe"

VR3

Faster,
As we know - Bass frequencies travel far, and stay strong for a long time. Have you ever pondered to turn off your speakers and listen to *just* your subwoofer? The speakers in themself actually hige the shaking/shifting/rattling of your house. Unless your house is full of concrete......a good subwoofer will bounce your floor, shake the nails out of the joyces below you, and will overall loosen every nail in the floor. The floor then connects to the walls, where the subwoofer also sends frequencies, the frequencies then rattle the sheatrock and the studs behind them. In doing this causes the 2 or so nails holding the walls to the ceiling truces/dead wood to start to loosen and sometimes can actually over a long period of time rattle up a little bit out of their original place. This is probally looking at an occasional 10hz, with 20hz thrown in. At over 140db. To do some major damage, you would probally have to play 120db of bass for 20 years.....at a min.

You can crack plaster with extreme bass, but a framing part of a house can be easily rattled and damaged from its original state. Infact, like my room the room actually soon causes its own sound, its own wave of frequencies. The house can EASILY be damaged, but not to the human eye, maybe the ear.

redhouse

Wow Sid, sounds like you know what you are talking about. Being a teen with a good sound system, I remember the days living at home and rocking out so **** loud the people down the block could hear it. So I can amagin how many walls are cracked and how much your room is feeling the pain. Anyway thanks for getting back on this. Ok now any thought's from anyone on how to weakin or stop the effects of bass on the house.

mccarts747

Maybe this will help. I've watched my fair share of This Old House and other shows...and I just purchased my own (approx 100 yrs old) I've also done a fair amount of reading of some legitamate home improvement resources. That's as far as my qualifications go so, take it for what it is but... here's my thought
It my understanding that with new houses there is an initial settling period in the first couple years where you'll see the type of thing you are talking about. (drywall screws popping). so that doesn't sound too uncommon. However, if there is more than a few and in concentrated areas you may want to have someone take a look. Also, if your house is modular or stick built may have some bearing on what's happening. What kind I don't know but, something to think about.

As for the sub causing it. couldn't rule it out although you did mention you sound proofed so that should afford some protection.
I do know this, I have a small sub and it can rattle the floor and windows so logic tells me the bigger the sub the more...well, you get it.... I think over time it can cause cosmetic damage but, as for affecting the structural integrity of your house, my guess is probably not. things would prob just get a bit more creaky. Think of a house near a rail station.... the constant rattle from that bigger than any sub i can think of would seem to do more damage and there are many near me that haven't fallen to the ground for over a 100 years.

no solutions i guess but, a couple thoughts anyway

mccarts747

how to weaken it...build a room inside your room,effectively double walling with sound proofin between that. probably an expensive suggestion but there it is...

jdhdiggs

I agree with Mccarts, most likely it is a combination of forces from the house settling in unless it was built straight onto bedrock. Do your concrete walls go all the way to the next floor? Check those for some tiny cracks which would mean it's your house settling causing the popped joints.

Try some drywall screws if it keeps happenening.

I can't image that your subwoofer is causing this in this short of time.

Dr. Spec

The worst I have done so far is split drywall seams and backed out a few drywall screws.

I have also creased the screen on my HDTV and knocked things off shelves and walls, but that really doesn't qualify as structural damage.

Your room sounds strong built, and I doubt you could actually threaten the structural integrity of the house itself to the point nails backed out of wood or joists or studs shifted.

Nice sub BTW.

Doc

burdette

All the damage you've described, and worse, happens in new homes WITHOUT a subwoofer. I was at a friend's house just a few weeks ago (it is a few years old) and they have popped nails up high at the peak of a vaulted ceiling, and they don't have a HT beyond a TV and DVD player.

So, in terms of probability and statistics and a control group and all that, there isn't any way you can attribute it to the sub at this point. Also, houses can get a MUCH worse shaking when a large truck goes by than anything a sub is going to do.

Our house has plaster walls and we had a few cracks when we bought it, LONG before I added a sub.

You can get popped nails (shiners) when the house settles. Also, frankly, it depends on the quality of the build... and that doesn't even necessarily depend on the price you paid. If the sheetrock wasn't pressed tightly enough to the studs when it was nailed, that will exacerbate the problem. If you're in a subdivision all built by the same builder, similar styles, etc, you could check with some of the neighbors. For just these reasons, I used drywall screws rather than nails when I refinished our basement.

I think you can confidently tell your wife that "this sort of thing can and does happen with new homes." Probability is on your side that it isn't the sub, certainly not ONLY the sub. Tell her you talked to some professionals and they assured you. You don't have to say what TYPE of professional. However, I do moderate a home improvement forum.

Here is a link on repair.
http://www.lhj.com/bhg/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/step-by-step/data/hie_1191.xml

VR3

Originally posted by mccarts747
Also, if your house is modular or stick built may have some bearing on what's happening. What kind I don't know but, something to think about.

A Modular house is built like total junk, the interrior walls are stacked studs, a modular house will rattle like crazy. Stick built houses (depending on the builder) - are the best built houses. When we build the walls of the house, we brace studs all throughout the inside walls. (We take a saw and put slots throughout the studs and then take a 1x4 across the studs to brace it.) We use 2 nails per stud, a stud every 16 inches plus 1. This is the basic thing, most builders however will skip corners, and put 1 nail per stud (which is bad, because then you can actually turn the stud WITH your hand...just imagine that rattle.

A modular house though is like a lego playset, the interrior walls (if im not mistaken) are 3 feet studs stacked in a box like gigantic legos, with minor bracing if any at all to keep it from colasping. They do it very cheaply, something along that fashion. If you ever get bored, run full speed into one of the walls....if you can run through it I wouldnt be surprised.

The only way to make your house rattleproof is to brace all studs together, where they can not shift side to side (which I would do it where you put 1x4's running Xed across the studs. Glue each end of the stud, put them in place, 2 nails per stud, double insulating on the outside and inside walls. Use sound dampening sheatrock and paint. It might also be a good idea to double layer your floor . Glue the floor joyces to the outer rim of the house, with many nails (6+ per joyce)

There are many ways to sound/rattleproof a house, however its easier to do it in the building stages than the already built stage.

And by the way, a subwoofer can and will shake your house apart...... (over a long period of time of course )

I cant really respond to what burdette said above, because we have not had that problem with any of our houses. When my Dad left his house he said they had to go up in the attic to renail every stud because they all had come loose. My room did not rattle at all at first, 2 years later is actually shifts.

Tour2ma

rh,

I'd say since you are seeing it all over the house, it's settling. But I can see it in your HT room due to SPL as your drywall will flex.