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April 29, 2009
soundproofing
Hi. Has anyone had success soundproofing a wall to block the noise, specifically bass from music, from noisy neighbors? Who did you use and what materials did they use? Thanks!
Comments
Look at old entries in Forum archives - there are a lot of suggestions about soundproofing.
Posted by: Arkady at April 29, 2009 1:27 PM
Unfortunately bass and sub bass frequency waves are very long and therefore need deep and wide sound traps made of foam making your house several feet less wide. Now your house acts like a resonator much like the body of a guitar. Best to see if you can talk to your neighbor
Posted by: JohnHancock at April 29, 2009 5:01 PM
If this is a rental there is probably no practical solution other than your neighbors cooperation. If they move the speakers away from the wall and get them off the floor, or put a thick rubber isolation pad under them it may help a bit but not a lot. If the construction is very poor, sealing the wall including the outlets, and adding several layers of sheetrock will help some. But be warned, Green Glue and Quietrock are NOT miracle products, especially for heavy bass.
Posted by: edifice rex at April 29, 2009 6:56 PM
try soundsense products....i've spec'd them for residential clients
http://www.soundsense.com/products.asp
Posted by: argentina at April 29, 2009 7:49 PM
We have found Green Glue gives the best bang for the buck in between a layer of 5/8ths and 1/2 " sheetrock. The sound attenuation batts work ok for the high stuff, but are all but useless for bass.
Posted by: bugleg at April 30, 2009 6:31 PM
would help if you clarified exactly what you are talking about - coming from an upstairs or downstairs neighbor, your bass or theirs? Are we talking stereo or cranked 8x10 ampeg bass rig?
if you are trying to deaden a home stereo speaker, try decoupling it (or asking your neighbor to do it on theirs) from the floor. there are many ways to do this (foculpods, spikes, speaker pads, etc). many a mousetrap as far as vibrations.
second, when we are talking about through the wall from the air, usually we are talking density plus airspace. foam will do very little for bass. a recording studio would essentially float a room within a room, a dense wall with airspace between the real wall, or at the very least decoupled with channels to the real wall.
barring that option, adding density / alternating layers and decoupling them may do. as in a layer of sheetrock, plywood, the rubber pad, another sheetrock etc.
so you're basically talking construction of some sort if after decoupling the bass is a problem.
Posted by: invisible at April 30, 2009 7:17 PM
Woo! We built an extra wall for soundproofing using stuff we bought from Isotrax.com. Reduced the sound of the neighbor kids and music, and vice versa for them. You need to build an extra wall with a bit of space to stop the vibrations. Won't eliminate everything, but could make you more sane if the nabe isn't willing to turn down the tunes. What we bought from Isotrax was metal framing with a soundproof pad attached and soundproof sealant. You may be able to achieve similar results using typical materials from a non-specialty source. You will lose two or three inches, due to the thickness of the framing and the sheetrock on top. Bass is tough, tho. Good luck!
Posted by: meerkatz at April 30, 2009 8:58 PM
Many of the above suggestions will have some benefit, and the effective treatments generally address the concepts of decoupling (physical separation between their wall and yours) and adding mass (heavy materials such as wallboard) to the wall. (An unfortunate consequence: effective treatments are usually out of the question in a rental.)
However, the fundamental structure of the building has a tremendous impact on whether any of this will help (and justify the cost and effort). This is especially the case with low-frequency (bass) sounds, which travel freely through all but the heaviest building elements.
If you live in a typical Ft Greene walkup, with wood joists in the floor and ceiling, you could build a four-foot-thick concrete wall between you and your neighbors, and still hear a great deal of the bass that you do now. This is because sound is able to "flank" or circumvent the wall, passing through the light floor and ceiling structures.
Because the floor, ceiling, and building structure must be addressed in addition to the wall, resolving this sort of problem with construction can be onerous. Addressing the source (your neighbor and/or his speakers) will be far more effective.
You should also know that the NYC Building Code requires a minimum standard for sound insulation between dwellings (a rating of STC-50, generally a 4-layer sheetrock wall with insulation). They don't enforce this post-construction (like the DEP does for outdoor noise), but if you had the insulation value documented and it was deficient, it would give you some real teeth to have someone else improve the situation.
Posted by: tekniskakustik at May 1, 2009 10:58 AM
http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/library/articles/elements_of_room_construction
You are up against a lot.
Posted by: Ted White at May 26, 2009 3:26 PM
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