soundproofing for urban people

A decoupled ceiling might eliminate most of the noise between floors, but not all of it.   If you're thinking of decoupling a ceiling in your home or apartment, you might not eliminate all the noise between two floors. This doesn't mean that it's not worth doing. It means that resolving noise issues in your home might be an iterative process. Because after you address one noise source, you might discover another one. Noise paths A noise path is how a noise enters another space. For example, this could be through the air or through a thin wall, through the joists and studs in a building frame, through a wall outlet, or through a vent. You might soundproof one noise source only to realize afterwards that there were other points of entry for that noise. So if you're thinking about removing your existing ceiling and decoupling it with soundproofing materials, keep in mind that some types of noise might be coming from different sources via different paths. You might reduce o

When noise becomes a low frequency vibration... I made this short video with my mobile phone to show how an airborne noise (the buzz from my mobile phone when it's set to "vibrate") becomes a loud, intrusive noise when it makes direct contact with a wood surface. This is the same way that simple impact noises like walking, opening and closing doors and drawers, or even the bass from your stereo or home theatre system can go into the walls and transmit to your neighbors or to other rooms in your home. I placed different materials underneath the phone while it was buzzing on top of the wood table. You can hear how each of them (even the thin sheet of cork) make a difference in reducing the noise transmission through the wood. One point: while I was recording this, I noticed that QuietRock (being the "hardest" of the surfaces) still transmitted a tiny bit of vibration to the wood beneath it, while at the same time dampening the buzz. That's an example of

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 demonstrates how effectively Green Glue dampens sound between two glued ceramic tiles. It's a much better demo than the one I made, and it really shows you how a few tubes of this simple dampening glue, placed between two hard surfaces, prevents a lot of vibration and noise from passing through. You really don't have to hire a construction crew to solve a lot of these problems anymore. These innovative products really do work. If you're not good with drywall, just hire someone who knows how to work with sheetrock -- but you might not need to tear off your existing wall. Several people have asked me lately how to add soundproofing to their apartment on a small budget. Gluing another piece of sheetrock onto their existing wall might do it -- but you must use Green Glue (not any kind of glue)!  

Notes on Noise: THIS PAGE IS FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG (it was originally published in a different blog in 2009-2009): I live in a fairly dense urban area. So it's more common than not to have shared walls, ceilings, and floors with your neighbors. But most of the old construction in my city is made from wood: wood framing, hardwood floors, and hollow walls--and everything is nailed on top of the joists or directly onto the studs. The result? All your neighbor has to do is walk back and forth, talk, or open and close doors and drawers, and it ricochets through the building into your apartment. So, I've spent a lot of time trying to find affordable ways to alleviate the noise. This is easier to do if you have a lot of money, or if your neighbors are amenable...and I had little money and my neighbors were not. I'm going to share some resources and some things I've learned about the products on the market today (2009) that can help alleviate some of these noise problems. If yo