Ok this is driving my parents nuts. Washer on the second floor, the vibration is felt and heard in the kitchen below. They do not want to move it to the basement, we have put rubber mats, we had a carpenter build a box and we placed it on that with rubber mats, we have extended the legs on the machines, then another carpenter that my father works with came and took a look and he is still unsure. Hopefully one of you hold the solution to this problem! The photo with the kitchen in view, the top of the picture you can see through the banisters the doorway into the bathroom that the washer and dryer are in. Thanks everyone!!!
Mikeinboston
Washer vibration
Ok this is driving my parents nuts. Washer on the second floor, the vibration is felt and heard in the kitchen below. They do not want to move it to the basement, we have put rubber mats, we had a carpenter build a box and we placed it on that with rubber mats, we have extended the legs on the machines, then another carpenter that my father works with came and took a look and he is still unsure. Hopefully one of you hold the solution to this problem! The photo with the kitchen in view, the top of the picture you can see through the banisters the doorway into the bathroom that the washer and dryer are in. Thanks everyone!!!
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I'm just taking a stab at a fix, although I'd imagine the deck underneath wouldn't help at all...If not, make it worse.
Anyhow, you might try something with more cushion. Maybe some cork board under feet or foam of some sort.
I personally think they are in a bad place to begin with and would also try and see if the washer is faulty.
Anyhow, you might try something with more cushion. Maybe some cork board under feet or foam of some sort.
I personally think they are in a bad place to begin with and would also try and see if the washer is faulty.
1) Make sure the shipping retainers were removed
2) Make sure it is not touching anything besides the floor
3) Make sure it's level
4) Have a service call to make sure it's balancing correctly. Some washers won't balance on all size of loads.
5) The more flex in whatever it's on, the more vibration you'll get. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like it's in an alcove / closet type of area. If that's the case, try putting a double layer or 3/4" Advantech across the entire floor, and screw it down about every 6 inches. Besides stiffening the floor, this will help pick up some of the wall mass to help keep the vibration down.
6) If that doesn't work, go with Bob's 500 lb slab plan.
2) Make sure it is not touching anything besides the floor
3) Make sure it's level
4) Have a service call to make sure it's balancing correctly. Some washers won't balance on all size of loads.
5) The more flex in whatever it's on, the more vibration you'll get. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like it's in an alcove / closet type of area. If that's the case, try putting a double layer or 3/4" Advantech across the entire floor, and screw it down about every 6 inches. Besides stiffening the floor, this will help pick up some of the wall mass to help keep the vibration down.
6) If that doesn't work, go with Bob's 500 lb slab plan.
Its always had this issue since we moved in, back in 2007...this is now the 3rd washer installed and still the same problem =/ ...i know its been leveled, we have had sears out here to look at it..but ill tell them about these ideas and see what we comes from it...thank you all for your time!
When we build boxes around sub-woofers to stop vibration up on the stages, we fill the box with sand.
¾" ply
6" sand
¾" ply
½" durock (optional if we have room)
Might work for you to fill that box with sand.
¾" ply
6" sand
¾" ply
½" durock (optional if we have room)
Might work for you to fill that box with sand.
My first thought was to do what CARPSFO said and do a huge mass of conc. as a platform, but Frank Castles sand filled box sounds even better. The sand will add the needed mass, & act as a damper at the same time.
Joe
Joe
Just my thoughts -
The sandbox idea sounds like a good one. Maybe even layer some rubber or cork every 2-3" to help isolate vibration.
HOWEVER - It doesn't matter what you do (short of an extensive/expensive sound-proofing), you're still going to hear and feel the washer because of where it's placed. It's right over your head. No amount of anything will make it quiet. IMO, either move it or get used to it.
The sandbox idea sounds like a good one. Maybe even layer some rubber or cork every 2-3" to help isolate vibration.
HOWEVER - It doesn't matter what you do (short of an extensive/expensive sound-proofing), you're still going to hear and feel the washer because of where it's placed. It's right over your head. No amount of anything will make it quiet. IMO, either move it or get used to it.
I'll point out that a washer on a 1800 RPM spin cycle is putting out a 30 Hz vibration. That will resonate with a room dimension of roughly 1080/2*30= 18', which is within common room dimensions. Resonant frequencies of an actual room are more complicated, the equation for calculating them is shown under "Closed Rectangular Box here":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_resonance
Actual room acoustics are complicated enough they have to be measured, but clapping your hands or clicking a clicker can tell you a lot if you have good ears.
Floor system resonant frequencies aren't as easy to calculate - I'd only trust a modeling program or field measurements, but here's a ball park calculation:
"
For design purposes, the natural floor frequency (fn in Hz) can be estimated using a simple formula,
fn (Hz) =18 D(mm)
where D is the total deflection of the floor structure due to the weight supported by all its members (joists, girders and columns). For example, if the floor deflects 9 mm, the natural frequency is 6 Hz. To get a natural frequency of 9 Hz, the floor must deflect only 4 mm, which is practically impossible for floors supported on very long members to achieve. (See References 2 – 4 for methods of calculating natural frequency and floor acceleration.)
"
From: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ctu-sc/ctu_sc_n22
Floor systems that would resonate with the 20-30 Hz dryer vibration would have to have deflections from their material weight in the 1-2 mm range, which matches up with my not running into any that I know of.
There's the mechanical / acoustical side. The general strategy pretty much has to be decreasing the vibration induced deflection of the floor system at the washer. There are very few general ways that can be done. One of the problems with deflection is simply that the feet usually don't sit right on top of floor joists, so there is a lot of deflection of the floor just from that. That's one of the reasons screwing a couple of sheets of Advantec down, and screwing it all into the joists can make a significant improvement sometimes. Also, the more the floor deflects, the worse the washer balancing mechanism works, usually. A concrete slab has always been my "when all else fails" approach, but I'll try a sand box and see how it does next time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_resonance
Actual room acoustics are complicated enough they have to be measured, but clapping your hands or clicking a clicker can tell you a lot if you have good ears.
Floor system resonant frequencies aren't as easy to calculate - I'd only trust a modeling program or field measurements, but here's a ball park calculation:
"
For design purposes, the natural floor frequency (fn in Hz) can be estimated using a simple formula,
fn (Hz) =18 D(mm)
where D is the total deflection of the floor structure due to the weight supported by all its members (joists, girders and columns). For example, if the floor deflects 9 mm, the natural frequency is 6 Hz. To get a natural frequency of 9 Hz, the floor must deflect only 4 mm, which is practically impossible for floors supported on very long members to achieve. (See References 2 – 4 for methods of calculating natural frequency and floor acceleration.)
"
From: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ctu-sc/ctu_sc_n22
Floor systems that would resonate with the 20-30 Hz dryer vibration would have to have deflections from their material weight in the 1-2 mm range, which matches up with my not running into any that I know of.
There's the mechanical / acoustical side. The general strategy pretty much has to be decreasing the vibration induced deflection of the floor system at the washer. There are very few general ways that can be done. One of the problems with deflection is simply that the feet usually don't sit right on top of floor joists, so there is a lot of deflection of the floor just from that. That's one of the reasons screwing a couple of sheets of Advantec down, and screwing it all into the joists can make a significant improvement sometimes. Also, the more the floor deflects, the worse the washer balancing mechanism works, usually. A concrete slab has always been my "when all else fails" approach, but I'll try a sand box and see how it does next time.
It seems to me that building the platform near FULL WIDTH of the room would help with floor deflection dramatically, make reaching the dryer easier at the same time, & make for much better asthetics. Going full width + sand would also add more mass, resulting in more wave absorption.
As far as why adding mass is beneficial, just think in terms of the washer oscillating the floor. The heavier the base, the harder it will be to accelerate it to make it oscillate. It's the same principal as why heavier cars ride smoother when you hit a bump. The heavy car analogy is more complicated than that, as it's actually the ratio of sprung to unsprung weight, but it makes it easier to visualize.
The main floor oscillation causes the sound wave, the added mass & bigger platform, and isolation reduces the oscillation.
Add mass, & isolate platform from main floor as much as possible.
As far as why adding mass is beneficial, just think in terms of the washer oscillating the floor. The heavier the base, the harder it will be to accelerate it to make it oscillate. It's the same principal as why heavier cars ride smoother when you hit a bump. The heavy car analogy is more complicated than that, as it's actually the ratio of sprung to unsprung weight, but it makes it easier to visualize.
The main floor oscillation causes the sound wave, the added mass & bigger platform, and isolation reduces the oscillation.
Add mass, & isolate platform from main floor as much as possible.
Same problem here , they spin so fast and vibrate so much sounds like a freight train . I tried several things mentioned here but none worked that good . Fast forward , had spray foam being done in basement so i made a box out of 2'' rigid foam and sprayed the inside void with 6'' of foam . Then I covered with rubber floor mats used in gyms to keep it all together . I can still here it but almost no vibration . Also on second floor above my kitchen .
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