Acoustic insulation & vapour barriers

Lorraine77

Hi there, I'm looking to insulate a party wall against a noisy neighbour. The existing wall is cavity block with an inch of plasterboard & skim coat. It's under the bathroom. There was some black mould when we removed cabinets which has been cleaned and a half square metre of plaster removed. I've only owned the house a few years so i'm assuming there was a leak from the bathroom in the past.

Mustwall 33B seems to be the best bet for acoustic insulation on an internal wall but has no vapour barrier.

When the wall is ready it'll become the kitchen with kitchen units top and bottom.

I was planning to just fix the existing plaster, tank it all then apply the acoustic plasterboard. Possibly tank again!

Is there something else I could/should be doing?

Lorraine

Lorraine77

I should probably add we recently did up the bathroom, fixed seals, new tiles etc. Lots of broken seals but Found no actual leaks so we're assuming broken seals on the bath/shower caused the moisture buildup on the wall downstairs since we can't find any existing leaks.

Markcheese

Are you worried about the neighbour hearing you cooking on the kitchen or about you hearing them,

As far as I know you putting up soundproofing will benefit your neighbour more , what I'd be concerned about is once you've put up the sound proofing youre then going to have to drill through it to put up kitchen units , ( might not be an issue if it's voices ,

I've seen a bitumen based sound proofing membrane that you install under the plaster board , but I've no idea how you attach it to a wall,

Lorraine77

The neighbour is very noisy. The mustwall is a rubber based soundproofing layer followed by 2 layers of plasterboard. I believe it works both ways I terms of acoustics. It didn't provide a vapour barrier though.

I hadn't considered the technicalities of hanging kitchen presses! I should probably look into that. Thanks for that.

Lorraine77

Are you thinking that drilling through the acoustic barrier will ruin it's performance?

Markcheese

Well the fixings themselves more than the drilling.. but yeah ..

I thought the rubber was best used sandwiched between 2 layers of board ?

( Although you'll need to screw through it anyway to hang it .. )

Lorraine77

There's a rubber layer then board already attached. When you're mounting them you put them onto plasterboard then put another layer of plasterboard on top.

Would you know about the vapour barrier issue? Do you think I can just use tanking?