Best wall to deaden sound

Glass wool insulation bats, with drywall over.

Steve Rayner.

I was a contractor, and faced exactly this problem for a client. The client wanted an effective but inexpensive solution that didn't take a lot of interior space. My solution was the following, which the client found satisfactory:

1) I first sealed the old wall to avoid any air exchange that would transmit sound. I also went into the shopside ceiling and heavily blocked and sealed the space between joists.

2) Then I built a new studwall by turning the studs sideways and using a 2x2 for sill and plate. I firmly attached this to floor and ceiling, but floated it away from the old wall by about 1/2" without attachment. I filled this new wall space with thin unbacked insulation until it was well-packed.

3) To the new wall, I glued and screwed 2 layers of 5/8" gypsum wallboard without furring strips between.

The result was inexpensive and was very effective. No structural modifications were necessary, and the loss of floorspace in the shop was only ~3.25"

Post-script: The client had bolted his mill and lathe to the floor, but found that he had to put them on laminated wood platforms overlaying rubber pads to avoid sound transmission directly through the concrete floor to the rest of the house.

Hi Toolie,

I get the general context of your suggestion, but what exactly is 'resilient channel'? Is that a generic term, or is it a specific product? What's it made of? etc, etc.

Thanks,

Roger

Toolie002 wrote:

Thanks Tom

Tom Wait wrote:

Just don't forget that if your hot water heater is gas, you need sufficient make-up air for combustion (louvers, louvered door, large gap at floor.) Just a reminder.

Jim

|On 15-Sep-2003, Jeff Wisnia wrote: | |> Years ago, when we built an anechoic chamber for testing acoustic stuff in we |> used alternating stud walls with a lead curtain "woven" through them. | |I remember seeing a demonstration of the effectiveness of this many years ago. |I keep wondering if there's another good substitute that is perceived safer. |Aluminum foil is too light. Steel too stiff and springy (you don't want it to vibrate). |Lead was perfect in that it was heavy and really damped out vibration since it |wasn't very elastic. | |Metal coated with plastic? Like old toothpaste tubes (aluminum, not the |lead ones). That would seem about right. Does such a thing exist?

Depleted uranium. Should be some one the Middle East surplus market by now. Rex in Fort Worth

I hear that this stuff works well, although I've only seen it used once and have never personally installed it. Certainly it would improve on the process I suggested.

Roy Smith wrote: Have you actually tried this? I'd be worried that the sheetrock wasn't strong enough to support the pressure of the sand pushing out from the inside of the wall. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Actually, I have not. And I considered your concern, so I did the following calculation: Dry sand weights about 100 lb/cu ft, which calculates out to about .7 psi per foot of depth, or about 5 1/2 psi for an eight-foot high wall. That doesn't seem like a lot to me-- since the saving to be had by using sand are considerable, compared to all the other ideas suggested, I have two ideas. Nail sheetrock to two 2x4's to make a simulated wall section 16" on centers. Stand it up and pour it full of sand. See what happens. If you want to reduce the bursting tendency of sand, you could mix a little Portland cement and water with it--not to make real mortar--just to make it set up to a crusty concoction, that would hold up its own weight. Then, pour the walls in stages, allowing the stuff to set between pours, so you never have the full hydrostatic pressure of eight feet of sand against the sheet rock. This wall would behave the same as a "tilt-up," and would not burst.

I figure that a 10 foot wall would need about one yard of sand. Think of the savings, compared to staggered studs, lead sheeting, or special spacers, etc., plus all the labor to build these systems.

jim sehr scribed in :

egg cartons do not make any difference to sound transmission, they're not heavy enough. at best they will absorb a little high frequency.

to stop sound going from one place to another, you need a combination of absorbsion and reflection. first layer absorbs as much as it can, next layer reflects the rest (brick wall is good). if the sound can vibrate the reflective layer, you will hear the soudn on theother side.

egg cartons cannot do any of this. forget em

do a Google search for things like 'drum shield' 'drum gobo' 'band practice noise absorbtion' etc

swarf, steam and wind

-- David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\

\ / ASCII Ribbon campaign against HTML E-Mail > - - - - - - -> X If you receive email saying "Send this to everyone you know," / \ PLEASE pretend you don't know me.

Umm, that's 792 pounds per square foot at the bottom of the wall. That sounds like a LOT to me. 957 pounds of pull-away force for every foot of attachment where the drywall is fastened to the studs of a normal 16" on center wall. Even if you fastened it strongly enough to the studs, that kind of pull might even split the studs lengthways.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

The F.C.2 is the one you want.

-- --Pete "Peter W. Meek"

Not to mention what putting a wet mixture against the backside of the sheetrock could get you into...Shoosh!

Me thinks this isn't your finest hour Leo. (Ducking...)

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

It isn't. ;-) Replace the sheetrock with 1/2" plywood then top the ply with sheetrock. As others have mentioned doors are a bigger problem.

Tim Douglass

mounting for the wall.

(thats about an

Scott,

The z channel and double drywall (with insulation between house and garage) will work to cut down the airborn sound transmission but since the garage and house share the same slab the vibration induced sound will still be transmitted. The air space between the two layers of drywall is the main source of the sound absorption. Remember though that you will need to seal up all air leaks between the two rooms; every single one, no exceptions. You may also need to install a different door between the house and garage. If you want to reduce the vibration induced sound you will need to decouple the slab in the garage from the house. You can do that by cutting out a small stip of the slab (say an inch wide) and fill it with rubber. If you don't want to do that then consider using vibration isolation mounts between your machines and the floor; you will still have the same anchorage properties but you'll effectively isolate the machine from the concrete slab.

Hi,

- Sorry didn't get the top of thread post.

- I built houses in my younger/dumber days, in the early 1970's. Bathrooms we insulated the walls all around with Corning fiberglass, 6 inches thick. Ceilings we also insulated with glass wool, then Armstrong acoustical ceiling tile.

- I'm sure there is higher tech stuff around by now, but that's how we did it. Our customers were the Borch Belt crowd up around Monticello, NY and those housewives are FUSSY women!!

- Daubie =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

1. Doubled drywall.
2. Plywood. Thanks for the opinions.

Hee hee. The women I know who have an exaggerated sense of privacy, turn on the water when they go in there to pee!

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DAUBIE1

Homasote is pretty much the standard sound absorber for construction purposes. It must be used in a dry location however. Heh, no problem here, less than 4" of rain this year.