[FluffyCat]

I am looking to soundproof (sound reduce) a wall that is currently basic 2x4 framing with one layer of sheetrock and no insulation. The space is a studio I use for metal work. I can hear my neighbor talking, sneezing, coughing and phone ringing so it is about the worst soundproofing as it is. I would like a reasonable reduction to muffle a lot of the noise but 100% is not necessary.


My plans are to caulk and constuction adhesive the wall and attach 1/2 inch plywood with as few screws as possible. Then fill the seams with caulking and also claulk the gap between the sheetrock and floor.


Next, caulk and constuction adhesive the plywood and attach 1/2 inch sheetrock with a few screws. Caulk the floor gaps. The sheet rock would be placed the opposite direction as the plywood so that the seams would not be in the same place.


Any suggestions? How well would this work?

 

[DublinBen]

If you're not planning on using any actual soundproofing materials, your best bet is to create a false wall. You should look at the tutorials over at the Soundproofing Company's website. The construction techniques called 'staggered stud construction' or 'room within a room' are worth a read.


I'm sure those will give you a few things to think about.

 

[FluffyCat]

I have read about adding a full second wall, but that would be beyond what I could do without hiring a contractor. I want to keep the materials at about $200 for a 14 foot wall.


How about green glue?


A problem is that the ceilings are a few feet taller than standard, so it would be much easier to patch up peices of plywood or sheetrock.


I got the idea of using plywood because I stayed at my friends 1920 house which had wood walls instead of sheet rock. It was much harder to hear someone across the house even when yelling. They said it was due to the wood walls. I figured that the sound would be dampened by the caulking a little, then it would have to travel though 2 layers of differnent materials.


I am allowed to make noise in the space, but I just want some privacy so the nighbor doesnt hear my converations or every time I cough or sneeze.

 

[FluffyCat]

I think I'm going to go with green glue and another layer of drywall due to ease of installation and their data.


Another issue is the floor. The floors are all plywood, so the same piece of plywood is going from my neighbors unit to mine with the wall on top of that. I can't put in carpet because I need a hard surface floor. Could a solution be to put another layer of plywood over the existing plywood with green glue sandwiched between? It can't be much taller due to the doors.

 

[plasmawoman]

Guys, my question is slightly different but along the same lines. We are building a HT in our new house (we are at the framing stage - getting near to being done). After a lot of research, I have decided to soundproof using green glue between two layers of drywall (I saw a pretty convincing video on YouTube of how well it works - and drywall is cheap cheap cheap right now!)

My question is - the HT is upstairs (in Houston, there are no basements), and one wall is the outside wall, and another wall is to the attic area. So I really only need "soundproofing" in the usual sense on two interior walls and the floor.


But if I soundproof only part of the theater and not the rest, will I regret it from an acoustic perspective?


Sorry if this has been asked before - my contractor just asked me this and wants an answer in a few days - and it can take a lot of time to read all the AVS posts from the last 5 years.

Thanks for your help!

 

[3fingerbrown]

Fluffycat-


Ådding plywood and another layer of drywall will give you some additional mass on the wall, but you will likely be disappointed with the results unless you are expecting only a small improvement.


Green glue and drywall adds damping and will be better- adding two additional layers of drywall with GG in between would be better still.


Best would be to remove the existing layer of drywall, build a staggered stud construction with insulation and two layers of drywall and GG in between.


It all depends on what your budget and time will allow.

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...roofing_walls/

 

[hardmoneylender]

Construction adhesive attached to drywall will not offer a secured hold for your ply. There is a high risk that the adhesive will just delaminate the paper from the board if you apply any force to the plywood. The adhesive is surface attached to the paper and the paper does not resist shear forces (pulling straight out from the wall or side to side) well. So I would say this is poor structurally.


Accoustically, I know that adding mass helps. In fact if you watch the Triad pix on the facebook site, they used plywood from a company called quiet wood or maybe that's the name of the product for sound isolation.


Any suggestions? How well would this work?[/quote]

 

[Remax]



Quote:
Originally Posted by plasmawoman /forum/post/18225345


Guys, my question is slightly different but along the same lines. We are building a HT in our new house (we are at the framing stage - getting near to being done). After a lot of research, I have decided to soundproof using green glue between two layers of drywall (I saw a pretty convincing video on YouTube of how well it works - and drywall is cheap cheap cheap right now!)

My question is - the HT is upstairs (in Houston, there are no basements), and one wall is the outside wall, and another wall is to the attic area. So I really only need "soundproofing" in the usual sense on two interior walls and the floor.


But if I soundproof only part of the theater and not the rest, will I regret it from an acoustic perspective?


Sorry if this has been asked before - my contractor just asked me this and wants an answer in a few days - and it can take a lot of time to read all the AVS posts from the last 5 years.

Thanks for your help!

I think you would be better off starting your own thread rather than using someone else's to ask your question.

 

[FluffyCat]



Quote:
Originally Posted by 3fingerbrown /forum/post/18225581


Fluffycat-


Ådding plywood and another layer of drywall will give you some additional mass on the wall, but you will likely be disappointed with the results unless you are expecting only a small improvement.


Green glue and drywall adds damping and will be better- adding two additional layers of drywall with GG in between would be better still.


Best would be to remove the existing layer of drywall, build a staggered stud construction with insulation and two layers of drywall and GG in between.


It all depends on what your budget and time will allow.

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...roofing_walls/

Thank you for the link. It was very helpful. Also the stc rating site is good too http://www.stcratings.com/assemblies.html


It looks like a 2x4 stud wall with no insulation would have a rating of 34. With green glue and drywall on top it would go up to 52, which is pretty significant.

 

[3fingerbrown]



Quote:
Originally Posted by FluffyCat /forum/post/18228761


Thank you for the link. It was very helpful. Also the stc rating site is good too http://www.stcratings.com/assemblies.html


It looks like a 2x4 stud wall with no insulation would have a rating of 34. With green glue and drywall on top it would go up to 52, which is pretty significant.

Best would be to remove the existing layer of drywall and do staggered stud construction like this:

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/..._construction/


But if you aren't going to be able to do that, and just want to add a layer of drywall, you could make a small hole in the top of the joist cavity, blow in insulation, and patch it before you add the second layer. Others may have thoughts on this idea.

 

[FluffyCat]

I think what I will do for now (this week) is only add the green glue and drywall. Later on if I want more soundproofing I will have someone build a second wall with insulation about an inch away from the existing wall. Luckily I don't have any electrical outlets to deal with on that wall and there are no flooring materials to remove.

 

[Ted White]



Quote:
Originally Posted by FluffyCat /forum/post/18229134



Later on if I want more soundproofing I will have someone build a second wall with insulation about an inch away from the existing wall.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, this would create a triple leaf

 

[FluffyCat]

From wikipedia:

STC rating: 50 Very loud sounds such as musical instruments or a stereo can be faintly heard; 99% of population not annoyed.


From http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...roofing_walls/


Green glue and a second layer of sheetrock on a non insulated 2x4 stud wall on one side would have a stc rating of 52.


It sounds too good to be true. Maybe this is IF all other things are ideal such as floors.


I think I should still green glue and add another layer of plywood to the floor or else the sound will travel along the floor to the next unit. That may be better than doing the second wall in the future. Plus adding the green glue and second layer of plywood to the floor is a much easier job than adding a whole new wall.


I found a link that explains how having two subfloors with green glue sandwiched would be the best solution for impact noise through floors. I assume it would help for voices as well. http://www.greengluecompany.com/unde...mpactNoise.php

 

[FluffyCat]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted White /forum/post/18229225


Unless I'm misunderstanding, this would create a triple leaf

Yes, it looks like you are correct:
http://www.greengluecompany.com/unde...TripleLeaf.php


I'd be better off adding an additional layer of green glue and sheetrock if the first was not enough, rather than building a second wall after doing the green glue.


The tripple leaf (by not removing the drywall first to make a double wall), would lessen the airspace, which is bad. You would be better off with one larger airspace than two smaller.

 

[Ted White]

 http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...e_leaf_effect/


A bit more on the topic in the above link.


Also you should be aware of this: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/...cles/flanking/

 

[FluffyCat]

I got 6 tubes of green glue and the sheetrock. I'm going to install it tonight. It will be almost two tubes of green glue per piece of sheetrock. It's only a 13foot wall.


The walls are so bad that can feel the vibration from speech next door with my hand and when the neighbors door is closed I can feel the sheetrock flex.


I'm debating about what to do about the floor. There is a plywood floor that goes through all the units, so some sound is coming in through the floor. I was thinking of getting some 1/4 inch hardwood plywood and sandwich some green glue between that and the existing plywood floor. Then later, maybe put in some engeneered floating hardwood over some thin foam underlayment.

 

[Ted White]

I would do the wall first, let it dry for 2 weeks at least and then assess the success. You may not think so now, but that loose wall may very well help you. That seems like an awful lot of flex, and in the sound isolation arena we like flex a lot.


Take care to seal the wall to the other two walls and ceiling. Also along the floor. Seal junction boxes if you can.

 

[FluffyCat]

I ended up doing the gg and drywall on the 15th. So far I can't tell how well it's worked. I don't hear the neighbor, but she may not have been there when I was in my unit. Normally I would have heard her talking on the phone or something by now. I only used about 1.5 tubes per sheet. It seems like there was a lot of coverage just from that.


Has anyone had any experience with floating engineered hardwood and basic foam underlayment, to say if that helps? The floors are plywood which span through the units uninturrupted I believe.

 

[Ted White]



Quote:
Originally Posted by FluffyCat /forum/post/18330527


I ended up doing the gg and drywall on the 15th. So far I can't tell how well it's worked.

Kep in mind that the product needs to dry before the polymers link together and damping can occur.

Quote:
Originally Posted by FluffyCat /forum/post/18330527


Has anyone had any experience with floating engineered hardwood and basic foam underlayment, to say if that helps? The floors are plywood which span through the units uninturrupted I believe.

Having the floors in common is a problem, as you've identified already. To be clear, you're looking to reduce noise from a neighbor next door, correct?

 

[FluffyCat]

First, I'm looking to not bother my neighbors when I use tools and for them not to be able listen to my converations. Then, the lesser concern is to not be bothered by their noise. I make louder noise than they do, but not often.