soundproofing sheetrock walls
my bedroom wall is on the other side of my neighbor’s living room. though a new construction condo, the noise travels real easily through the sheetrock. i heard there is a product where you can punch tiny holesin the sheeetrock and spray in an insulating foam. can anyone give me more details on price, name…
my bedroom wall is on the other side of my neighbor’s living room. though a new construction condo, the noise travels real easily through the sheetrock. i heard there is a product where you can punch tiny holesin the sheeetrock and spray in an insulating foam. can anyone give me more details on price, name of the product, where i can purchase online and how easy it is to do it yourself?
The foam option you may consider is http://www.tigerfoam.com They sell a slow rise, low cavity fill formula. If your wall is 3/8” sheetrock, then it is said to not damage the sheetrock. You gain R24 insulation,the foam adds mass and so must attenuate some noise. It will not dampen noise that vibrates through the studs, but as it adheres to the sheetrock it may inhibit the drum effect mentioned by another commenter.
I can totally sympathize – just moved into a newly renovated coop in a pre-war 60 unit building. Gorgeous drywall construction with insulation and homasote board behind the drywall. We can still hear the bass line of our neighbor’s stereo and the muffled speech of the television. Unfortunately, drywall vibrates like a drum if exposed to low enough frequencies. Like you, I wanted so badly believe that there was a quick fix — through hours of research and email consultations, I’ve come to discover that there are no simple solutions to problem. But thank you to the earlier poster for the sound absorbing carpet idea — I kept feeling like the floorboards amplify the sound – now I don’t feel so crazy — Better Carpet Warehouse, here I come!
I also do a lot of soundproofing. Many of the comments below are correct.
Mass and standoff are the best methods. Greenglue, a relatively new product, appears to be an efficient way to provide both on existing walls. Installation instructions and technical support are available at http://www.greenglue.com.
Rubber isolators and furring, or resilient channel will also work. Each system takes away a certain amount of space from your room. Greenglue recommends using both an isolating framing and two layers of mass (sheetrock) so you’d be giving up 3″ or so to use it.
Mass loaded vinyl (MLV) is probably what was referred by the person with the sound studio suggestion, but that has been proven to be most effective only if it can lay into the void of a stud wall so you would have to tear off the existing sheetrock to use it.
I can only imagine that whoever thought pumping foam would be thinking about expanding foam, but that would expand in all directions and would invade your neighbor’s apartment, with ensuing lawsuits.
If you’re serious about the noise you would be best to consider reworking the wall.
Some sound studios have used a thin rubber sheeting that you can apply to your existing sheetrock and then apply an additional layer of sheetrock over the rubber. The rubber will absorb the soundwaves and deaden them.
It’s very effective…and not too expensive.
Some noise comes through the floors too, if you have wood floors. We found it helped a little to put in wall-to-wall carpet with a sound-absorbing pad underneath (Better Carpet Warehouse on Atlantic carries the stuff – they did our carpets) in one room, and in another room a large area rug cut to fit wall to wall but not installed, laid on top of the sound-absorbing pad. Something about it makes the noise from next door a little less sharp and jarring. You may not be able to block all noise but if you can get it to blend into the general ambient noise of the apartment at least, then that’s more tolerable.
The two concepts behind soundproofing are mass and standoff.
Another layer of sheetrock would make a difference–it would add mass.
A floating wall that is in no way fastened to the party wall (greenglue is good for this, they also sell special hardware that only attatches itself to the furring strips) and is then covered in sheetrock is going to be much better.
Basically, every single thing (including pipes, nails and screws in the walls, joists, columns) that you and the neighbors share conducts sound. You want to get rid of that sharing.
Foam squirted into your wall will do you no good.
the quietrock comes highly recommended, but it can be very expensive (tho the cheapest stuff like make is ‘only’ $50 per panel). there’s also green glue, which you put between two layers of drywall and this helps dampen the sound. even adding another layerof drywall to the existing walls will help (adds mass) but reportedly this glue stuff really makes a difference. check out greengluecompany.com, they have tons of info on their site. the stuff isn’t super cheap, but it’s still probably the simplest way to make a serious difference.
it sounds like someone did a very cheap job. ive been doing quite a bit of soundproofing work lately (one situation was a lot like yours, but in an old building), and ive learned that the trick is mass. i dont know anything about the foam you mentioned, but it sounds a little questionable. theres insulation (not the common pink or yellow stuff) that works pretty well for filling walls, but thats before they are covered. you probably dont want to tear down the walls in your new condo. i havent yet found a product that actually works the way one would think it should, and that includes the top-grade quietrock that costs about $140 a sheet. everybody says its great, the company “guarantees” it. its too bad you dont find out its not so great till the job is done. i think if you want to sound proof, youve got to fill and thicken the walls. but maybe the spray stuff is worth trying.
it sounds like someone did a very cheap job. ive been doing quite a bit of soundproofing work lately (one situation was a lot like yours, but in an old building), and ive learned that the trick is mass. i dont know anything about the foam you mentioned, but it sounds a little questionable. theres insulation (not the common pink or yellow stuff) that works pretty well for filling walls, but thats before they are covered. you probably dont want to tear down the walls in your new condo. i havent yet found a product that actually works the way one would think it should, and that includes the top-grade quietrock that costs about $140 a sheet. everybody says its great, the company “guarantees” it. its too bad you dont find out its not so great till the job is done. i think if you want to sound proof, youve got to fill and thicken the walls. but maybe the spray stuff is worth trying.