Acoustiblok experience or alternative?

Dennis did not say it fails to blocks sound - he just said you can spend less on greenglue and extra drywall and block more sound for less money.


If you are space constrained to the point that the thickness difference between drywall and MLV cost a lot of money in wasted space - then by all means use the thinner stuff. Usually HT's are not costly per quarter inch of wasted space....unless your wife plans to divorce you for loosing an inch of room. That could get costly if she gets half the finished HT.



BTW stay off sites that think foam is soundproofing material. soundproofing is impossible - as the very STC/TL numbers they promote will tell you can get a reduction in transmitted sound - but you cannot make something "soundproof" - and it is certainly never going to happen with foam. Sites like that wish to part your wallet from your common sense by babbling technical sounding terms to make you think they have done their research.


AcousticBlock has the TL curves of itself - but what they are not telling you is what alternative assemblies are just as effective or better. What they are telling you is your wall is better if you use it - what they are not telling - is the stuff better than using drywall instead of the MLV?. Ask yourself why that is?

Thanks Ted. I perused that site last night. What I was concerned about initially was the foot traffic through the kitchen and out the back door finding its way down through the ceiling into my space as I listen. I was not concerned about me polluting the kitchen with sound.


So now I think what you are saying is if the walls pass sound out to the concrete and it passes up and over and drops back down onto my ceiling tile then I've lost the battle? Still a little foreign to me how the sound I generate will negatively impact me in the same room.


I am attaching the upper portions of the walls to the concrete with angle brackets and not attaching to the joists above to keep them detached. What's the best way to "plug" that leak? Insulation?


My paradigm was that if I seal that off then I still have sound coming down from above and I was looking to create as many barriers as practical over my drop ceiling and then add some added mass by putting in ceiling tiles that were 3/8" drywall. So I had envisioned 8" insulation in the ceiling joists, some barrier like MLV, airspace, then drop ceiling with some mass to it.

PAD,


Just re-read your original post. This dropped ceiling you're discussing... This is planned to be 2x2 or 2x4 panels in a suspended track? If this is the case, this will always be the primary source of sound transmission. Such a system realistically can't be sealed well, and has so little mass.


Can you consider placing double drywall on the ceiling? That's a very significant start. If you're primary concern is isolating footfal noise from above, you might consider damping that subfloor above. You can achieve good results by adding GG + drywall to the underside of the floor. Do this from below, between the joists.


Add fiberglass insulation between the joists. The Kinetics or PAC clips with hat channel + double drywall and GG complete the ceiling picture.


Footfall noise is a real bear to deal with.