Internal Sound Insulation- Stud Partition Wall

Mark0

What would people recommend to use for sound insulation of internal stud partition walls(new house build).......was thinking of rockwool........some other stuff called Holzflex(recyled Paper I think). Keen to use something environmentally freindly.

Victor

I would be happy enough with rockwool, and as best I know it's inert so not particularly ungreen.

What sound insualtion values do the two have?

Homer J Simpson

I have a major problem with sound insulation in my apartment. Basically the partition wall between my apartment and the apartment next door provides absolutely no noise insulation at all. Am not DIY orientated at all so I do not know what it is made from however I know it is not made from concrete. Would either of you be able to advise me as to what would be involved to apply soundproofing to this wall? Although I have not helped with your current problem you seem to know more than I do about this issue and may provide advice as to how to tackle this problem. Thanks.

TwoShedsJackson

We have a similar problem in our house - tv, stereo, shouting etc. all coming throught the party wall nice and clear. Am looking at the old wooden battens, pack cavity with rockwool and put two layers of plasterboard over that solution, seems this often gets a 10db or more reduction.

Every 10db off cuts the audible volume in half so if it works this well I will be well pleased.

Mark0

Homer J Simpson wrote:

I have a major problem with sound insulation in my apartment. Basically the partition wall between my apartment and the apartment next door provides absolutely no noise insulation at all. Am not DIY orientated at all so I do not know what it is made from however I know it is not made from concrete. Would either of you be able to advise me as to what would be involved to apply soundproofing to this wall? Although I have not helped with your current problem you seem to know more than I do about this issue and may provide advice as to how to tackle this problem. Thanks.

I am no expert but it seems to me you have two options; either stick sound insulation inside the stud partition wall or stick sound insulation on the outside of the wall.......I am still looking into types of sound insulation(for my new house build)

Mark0

Victor wrote:

I would be happy enough with rockwool, and as best I know it's inert so not particularly ungreen.

What sound insualtion values do the two have?

Thanks Victor.......I got lazy over Christmas and so have done no research into sound values...........I'll look into it.

yop

Rockwool seems to be the boy. I know polypearl were offering a solution as well but I think this may only have been for new builds where they blow insulation into the studs

wideband

Mark0 wrote:

What would people recommend to use for sound insulation of internal stud partition walls(new house build).......was thinking of rockwool........some other stuff called Holzflex(recyled Paper I think). Keen to use something environmentally freindly.

hi

you are right in the option you have there with the rock wool 4 inch is the max you can use for the standard stud whether metal or timber...it is not really possible to beat that option

there are however 3 additions imo to this to make it a little more tight
1 - fix the sole plate of the stud on 3mm regupol (rubber/cork layer) or damtec (cork layer) (2 euro /m approx)

2 - seal the full perimeter of the wall with acoustic mastic (3.50 euro/m approx)

3 - use a double layer of plaster board (9.5 euro/m2 approx)

the above will cost, so you need to choose which option suits

wideband

Homer J Simpson wrote:

I have a major problem with sound insulation in my apartment. Basically the partition wall between my apartment and the apartment next door provides absolutely no noise insulation at all. Am not DIY orientated at all so I do not know what it is made from however I know it is not made from concrete. Would either of you be able to advise me as to what would be involved to apply soundproofing to this wall? Although I have not helped with your current problem you seem to know more than I do about this issue and may provide advice as to how to tackle this problem. Thanks.

hi

Im not sure of your apt construction so here is one option imo for traditional build...
fix 2 x 1" battens to the wall @ 600mm ctrs with rubber or cork behind the battens cut into strips....then fit 1" high density rock board in between (get it from the likes of capco)...slab over and mastic seal all around...keep the boards 2mm say from the ceiling and floor, and skim or tape and joint.....

rooferPete

Hi , No Laughing Please !

A long time ago we insulated a sound studio the "miracle" product used was egg cartons, many of you may never have seen the carton that holds 24 eggs well that was the solution.

It was in a basement with living quarters both sides, the cartons were bonded to the wall and the plaster boards bonded to the cartons, the result was no noise.

Todays solution lies in the Rock Wool range of products, a good source for information is a company called ATIL in Dublin, I think they have a web site, another is REP they have a web site I'm not sure if it's .ie or .com.

Noise is one of the most difficult problems to insulate against without the proper advice.

Mark0

Thanks for the advice........going to go with Rock Wool...........we will put plywood and plasterboard onto the wall and plaster finish. I think this will be good enough to prevent too much sound coming through the walls.

kida

Hi All
We are thinking of sound poofing one wall in our house (typical Dublin Semi-d). Our neighbours aren't noisy apart from the odd humungous sneeze or if there is "a friend to stay". Does anybody have any idea how much it would cost to do this ie would it be cheaper to buy a detached house!!

TwoShedsJackson

kida wrote:

Hi All
We are thinking of sound poofing one wall in our house

I have a guy doing it at the moment, doing the living room and bedroom wall for 1100 Euro, including plastering afterwards. Compare this to the soundproofing company who wanted 2400 for the same job and weren't including the plastering.

kida

TwoSheds,
What area are you in? If Dublin and you think he might be interested in more work can you PM me his contact details.

cheers

TwoShedsJackson

Yeah I'm in Dublin - he's coming back tomorrow to finish the job so I will mention it to him and PM you his details if he's interested.

antoinolachtnai

All this is good advice, and will help to stop higher-frequency sounds coming through. It's harder to stop low-frequency sounds though.

The thing to think about is how separate you can make the rooms from each other. Ideally, you would completely separate the rooms from one another, so that the rooms didn't touch one another in any way. Unless you live in geostationary orbit, however, this is unlikely to be a practical option, so you have to comprimise somewhere.

One other thing is to use some sort of sound-absorbent 'clip' to separate the two sides of the wall. This effectively means that you have two walls, almost completely separate from each other, instead of one.

Another poor-man's solution for a new build that I have seen suggested (in a book called 'Space Craft' by Rick Ball, I think) is to cut a slit in the middle of the stud along its length. This reduces the area of the stud that is available for sound transmision without weakening it too much.

On my own account, my parents wanted to insulate a wall for sound, and we did it with 1-inch studs, polystyrene and plasterboard. It certainly keeps the sound out.

I don't know about the relative efficacy of polystyrene and rockwool. Rockwool is what you generally hear recommended, mind you. It is certainly more convenient for fitting between floorboards. My feeling is that polystyrene will give you greater insulation per inch of thickness, but I don't know if this is actually the case. It probably isn't with the more modern, more dense materials.

If you do put polystyrene in a wall, you need to consider is the possibility that polystyrene can react with the insulation on electrical cables, so some sort of sheathing may be required. (You would need to check on this with manufacturers, I have only read this in one source.)

Another thing that sometimes happens in old houses is that the sound travels through the fireplaces, where the wall is often thinner.

If you are having a serious problem in a recently built apartment, you should consider getting the wall tested. If the sound insulation isn't up to the building standards, the builder will have to come back and repair it to bring it up to spec.

RooferPete: was the plasterboard actually hanging on the egg cartons, or were there studs as well!?

rooferPete

Hi Antoin,

We are going back in the time capsule now as far as I remember the product used would have been an early (very expensive) version of Gunaprene.

Thinking about it the project would have been as near to the inside of a flush door as could be found.

I recall the pre-construction arguments between the Architect and the Sound Engineer
the Architect wanted to stud outside the cartons, the Engineer said he was losing space but more important would be creating a "Drum Space" where any noise could vibrate and amplify.

An important subject that is being raised here seems to be getting lost in the noise issue.

Back in the days when Dublin had Building Bye Laws the inspectors would never accept anything between two buildings like a pair of semi detached houses that was less than a 250 mm solid wall for fire reasons.

Even extensions being built where a neighbour might join on to the side wall had to be the old 4" solid blocks laid flat, the only way to have a cavity wall was to stay inside the boundary wall or fence.

I for one can not understand how stud partitions qualify as acceptable dividing walls between seperate properties.