I have ripped off the drywall to my master bedroom. Of the four walls, three share the outside of the house and the fourth shares a wall with my great room / movie room. The old drywall had wall paper directly on the wall boards with no prime in between so it is easier just to rip off and redo. During the redo stage, I am planning on using insulation sonobatts in between the walls. However, I don't think this will be enough to keep it quiet in the bedroom when the wife goes to bed early. We are also planning on placing a crib in this room for the baby to sleep while we still entertain in the great room, so sound proofing is a necessity.

I am not considering green glue / double drywall, stagger studs or an extra wall due to space constraints. What other options are out there that you guys have used that are reasonable and work fairly well. Note the Studs are wood.

I have read about the asphalt type matting that can be applied under the drywall, would this suffice and if so where is a good place to get it.

I am considering a MDF type heavier door with a gasket around the door and blocking at the bottom.

I am also looking at something under the carpet to aid in sound blocking from below the floor.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am not considering green glue / double drywall, stagger studs or an extra wall due to space constraints. What other options are out there that you guys have used that are reasonable and work fairly well. Note the Studs are wood.



Your not doing double drywall due to space?????? it is only an 1/2" or 5/8 thick. We did the double drywall and green glue in our bedroom and it was the best thing we did. Very quite.

We also added a solid core hall door and a second soundproof laminated glass sliding glass door and replaced the original sliding glass door with a laminated dual pain fiberglass sliding door from Milgard.

But dollar for dollar the double drywall and green glue was one of the best things we did. We used 5/8" for the first layer and 1/2" for the second layer. You do not even notice the space difference.

When you walk into the bedroom you notice something is different, then you realize how quite it is.

Since you knocked the old drywall out, I'd do insulation in the studs and double drywall, and if you have a few bucks extra some green glue inbetween the drywall. I can't attest to green glue because I was too stubborn to use it. I would imagine it makes a substantial difference though based on everyone's reviews.

But double drywall does definitely help. And like GPowers said it takes up 1" more each dimension. So if your room is 15x20 with normal drywall, double drywall will be around 14' 11"x 19' 11". You'll never notice an inch.

Some of the more knowledgeable people should chime in soon with what to do with the floor, the door and the hvac - keep the hvac vents in mind as they'll will carry sound easily.

Thanks for the responses guys. The room is 12x15. Where is the best place to find GG. I think that you guys have talked me into it. I am still concerned about the floor as in the future the movie room will be somewhat below the bedroom. I am looking to tackle this now as the basement is only 7.5 feet tall so I am limited down there. Always planning for the future and tackling one project at a time and hopefully doing it right.

The best treatments are done on the noise-producing side of a wall or ceiling.

Use standard R11 or R13 fiberglass. The cheapest you can find.

Strongly consider decoupling the wall framing by converting single stud to staggered. It'll cost you as little as 1/2" and significantly help. Cost is very minimal.

Thanks for the responses guys. The room is 12x15. Where is the best place to find GG......

Start with the website at:

http://www.greengluecompany.com/

good luck

Glad that you are considering green glue now. Originally the things you didn't want to do pretty much eliminated effective options.

I don't think you need to do the double stud, myself. If you do double drywall in the bedroom and the theatre with the green glue, I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the result. Also consider treatements in the theatre side.

As far as the floor, from what I have read there isn't much you can do on the top side. That will come when you start building the theatre downstairs...that is where you could start into the decoupling. No point in going that far right now if you are planning to move it.

Make sure you do the solid core door with a good seal, otherwise the other things are a waste.

Oh, one more thing - while the walls are off make sure that you seal around any electric boxes on either side...big sound leakers.

another GG source: a tad cheaper and Ted hangs out here all the time.

www.soundproofingcompany.com

Thanks for the responses guys, the wheels are certainly turning in the head now. What should I seal the electrical boxes with, just basic caulking or other?

Also, i noted on the greenglue website they also sell some accoustical caulking, in addition to the green glue should i use this to seal off the first and second layer of drywall at the top and bottom? They also sell joist tape, would this help to put on the studs to aid in de-coupling?

I have R11 or R13 sonobatts insulation, got it for free, so that is definitely going in. Thanks again guys. Will take pictures as things progress. FYI, the MFW15 (no problems ever : ), I consider myself lucky) is on the other side of the wall, just trying to tame it a bit.

There will a million such questions. There's a lot to this.You will learn more & faster if you read a few primer articles first. Then you'll find that the process is quite intuitive:

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/library/articles/elements_of_room_construction

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/library/articles/flanking

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/library/articles/room_within_a_room

They sell a putty or a clay type thing for the outlets. You basically cover the back, sides, top and bottom of the box in it, like you were placing a plastic explosive. ;)

Can't remember the name or where it is at...someone else can supply the resource.

for putty pads look at this Putty Pad thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1138660)

here is more info

http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/sealants/putty_pads.asp?gclid=CKqq9ay_-JkCFRlcagodv0nlLQ

here is a sample photo:

http://www.stargateunofficial.com/images/PuttyPad.jpg

Picture borrowed from soundisolationcompany.com

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/media/putty-pads/putty_pad_datasheet.pdf