soundproofing for urban people

I notice that someone was searching for info on Wi-Fi signals and QuietRock. My Wi-Fi router is in a room and all four walls are covered with QuietRock. I've had no problems. I use the wireless signal in other rooms and stream music from the QuietRock room to stereo speakers in another room. If anyone finds a data sheet on this, please let me know, and I'll link to it here. Meanwhile, since I can't find any videos to illustrate Wi-Fi and soundproof drywall, here's a quick video from Geek Slant on installing double-drywall with Green Glue to block a neighbor's TV noise.

This video is readily available on YouTube. In my own experience the QuietRock -- on its own, as replacement drywall -- stopped neighbor conversation at normal volumes and muted TV at normal volumes. Even with the best drywall, a loud stereo with lots of bass might produce soft thumps, and direct impact against a neighboring wall (hammering, door slamming, etc.) might still come  through. But the noise is significantly reduced. One thing to consider in some instances: if you only soundproof the wall, but not your ceiling or your floor, some noise might come through in those untreated areas. I agree that most construction -- at least in the USA -- is done cheaply without insulation and by using ordinary gypsum nailed right on the studs. I'm amazed when I see construction sites and see ordinary drywall getting unloaded!

This Matt Risinger video shows the results -- six months later -- of an interior remodeling job. Matt applied soundproofing to a master bedroom that's back-to-back with a bathroom. Result: You can't hear the radio playing in the bathroom, even though it's close to the headboard of the bed on the other side of the wall. NOTE: I think the wall also has insulation and Homasote in it.

You can add mass to your existing walls. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I successfully muted some neighbor noise in my apartment building when I added a second layer of drywall on top of the original 1/2" drywall, with a coating of Green Glue in-between. This produced better results than simply replacing the original wall with QuietRock 525. I made the double-drywall solution even more successful by using QuietRock 510 as the second layer of drywall, with Green Glue in-between the two. Here's a diagram from Trademark Soundproofing  that demonstrates the STC results between different wall assemblies, including those with Green Glue.  Why do I think the Green Glue + layer of QuietRock was better than just replacing the original wall with QuietRock, right on the studs? My theory is that when you add QuietRock directly onto the wood framing, you're still not decoupling it from the structure. And therefore, impact noise and lower frequencies might still come throu

I took a photo recently that shows the cross-section comparison of QuietRock 525 next to QuietRock 510. QuietRock 525 (on the left) is the 5/8" sound-dampening drywall from Quiet Solution, which seems to be partially comprised of concrete. QuietRock 510 (on the right) is the 1/2" sound-dampening drywall from Quiet Solution, and seems to be comprised of two pieces of 1/4" gypsum, fused together with a membrane of other materials in between them. As I stated in my previous post, I think the most effective use of QuietRock products is to glue them with Green Glue on top of another layer of gypsum that's already affixed to the wall studs. Better still, insert insulation between the studs before you put another layer of sheetrock over the existing wall. After a month of curing, I can say that the combination of QuietRock 510 and Green Glue was the most effective of anything I've tried to date.

Two great products work great together. As I've mentioned before, I'm experimenting around with ways to reduce some of the noise problems in my apartment on a tight budget. I think I've found the best combination to date: adding a layer of QuietRock 510 over an existing layer of gypsum drywall with a layer of Green Glue inbetween. This was sort of the best of both worlds: taking a pre-made, sound-dampened drywall and then adding it over a powerful, viscous layer of glue....onto drywall that was already on the wall studs. No demo needed. In this project, I basically added two sound-dampening layers to the original 1950s drywall (one layer in the QuietRock and the other layer created by the Green Glue) to address " flanking noise ": feet, furniture, and shoes pounding on the bare floor of my downstairs neighbors' apartment. The amount of banging, bashing, and foot-stomping sounds coming from their very "wooden" apartment has been severe, and I&

A QuietRock story.... At the end of this post, I'm going to link yet another YouTube video. It's a TV story about some people who tried using QuietRock to replace some of the original walls in their townhome, which was shockingly un-soundproofed, and they were featured on a home-improvement show -- so it's a bit slicker than my own photos. First, here's my own story: I live in a building that was built in the 1950s, and the contractors used the thinnest, cheapest materials with no real soundproofing whatsoever. For example, the building had no insulation in the walls or ceiling, the walls are built of 2x4 studs with a single sheet of 1/2" gypsum nailed on each side, and the floors are merely thin planks of hardwood nailed directly on top of a plywood sheet, which is nailed right on top of the wooden joists. In brief, it seems that I had moved into a wooden tent. As a consequence--if you don't add any kind of soundproofing, noise travels easily from apa

This video (from Hush Soundproofing  in New York) talks about how they soundproof a ceiling.  The original video I inserted in this post in 2009 no longer exists, so I've edited this post to include this clear and helpful explanation from 2021. Their process involves multiple materials and processes for addressing noise. They remove the drywall that's already on the ceiling and spray any gaps they find inside the open cavity to seal them (pipes, etc.). Then they insert two layers of sheetrock between the joists, against the subfloor upstairs, combining it with mass-loaded vinyl (MLV). Like most soundproofing experts these days, they use Roxul Safe 'N Sound insulation and they also use Rockwool Comfort Board. Then they attach a resilient channel to the joists (to keep the new drywall from touching the joists), and attach a layer of drywall to the resilient channel with more MLV.  I would have used QuietRock drywall instead of regular drywall, because it's already dampene

The Knock Test REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG: By knocking on a wall,  you get some idea of how well dampened it might be for certain types of noise...or not. I made a very short video demonstration in my own home to compare the audible differences between making an impact noise on normal, uninsulated gypsum drywall and two alternatives. The first example shows how it sounds to knock on a hollow piece of 1/2" gypsum board. This type of drywall is typical for mid-century American homes.  Then compare it to: 1) a second layer of sheetrock glued on top of the original drywall with Green Glue in between the two layers -- no demolition required. 2) a layer of QuietRock 525 that replaced the existing layer of gypsum -- demolition required. Original 1/2" drywall was removed and fiberglass insulation was added before screwing the new QuietRock into the wall studs. One layer only.  (NOTE from 2023: Now I know better, and I would have decoupled the drywall from the wall studs instead o