I have finally reached the drywall phase of my room, and we put up a couple sheets on the ceiling with the help of some friends who do construction for a living that wanted to give us some tips.

The room has been absolutely dead quiet so far, it has R13 insulation in all 4 walls & the ceiling, with linacoustic wrapped around the ductwork. The floor is poured concrete with dricore on top. It is a relatively small room, 15'5" x 19'6" with an uneven back wall.

What I noticed is that if I clap underneath the 2 sheets of installed drywall, I am hearing an incredibly loud ringing sound, which I am assuming is just flutter echo.

I do plan on putting heavy open cell foam padding & heavy carpet on the floor. Will this eliminate the problem? or is there something else that I should be doing before completing the drywall since I am just getting started?


Btw, I am only planning on drywalling the ceiling and top 4 feet of the side walls and rear wall. The bottom 4 feet of all walls will be linacoustic on top of the existing R13 and framing, and the front wall will be all linacoustic.

If anyone has had a similar experience and has any advice I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

What you experienced sounds normal. My empty drywalled room sounds like hell. I expect that to change once the carpet and other treatments get put in.

Agreed my room with the first layer of drywall complete sounds terrible with echoes and ringing i think this will all disappear when the carpet and room treatments are in

Frank

Yep - drywall + no carpet and furnishings = nasty. Don't worry, it goes away once you have carpet, furnishings, and treatments. Now, as to if your treatments are enough, you won't know until they are in there and you can measure (or just hear).

As stated, what you have is normal.

But I question why you are not drywalling the entire walls and then put the linacoustic on top of the drywall? Do you have a situation where you don't care how much sound gets in or out of the room?

Thanks, all. I was able to push a couch under the offending drywall panels and try the clap test again and it was completely gone. I just wanted to make sure there wasnt something that would be necessary to do before I put up all the drywall.


As for only drywalling the top half, I really dont have to worry about sound coming in or out of the room too much. Some of you may find this funny, but I am living in a townhouse and not concerning myself with sound control.

I have an end unit, and the theater is on the first floor. We have poured concrete walls separating the units on the first floor, plus the entryway/stairs are between the room and the next unit. From the 2nd floor up there is a heavy double fire/soundwall, then 2x4 studs, then drywall on each side. I have never once heard anything through the walls, even when the college kids were having a party with 40+ people screaming.

I just figured that putting an 1-2 inches of linacoustic directly on top of the studs/R13, would create some really good absorption. I also live alone, so there is no one else to worry about bothering with noise inside the unit.

[QUOTE=bigtourist;14438257What I noticed is that if I clap underneath the 2 sheets of installed drywall, I am hearing an incredibly loud ringing sound, which I am assuming is just flutter echo.[/QUOTE]

Parallel hard surfaces = nasty flutter echo. The other guys are right...carpet will eliminate it for the most part.

Frank

I do plan on putting heavy open cell foam padding & heavy carpet on the floor. Will this eliminate the problem?

Yes, but only at high frequencies. A better approach is absorber panels on the ceiling. The thicker the panels, the lower in frequency they'll absorb to. Two inches is generally considered a good minimum thickness.

--Ethan