soundproofing for urban people

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&

Drop ceilings without demo This video, made by a guy in Greece, shows another interesting approach to the drop ceiling that doesn't seem to involve demolishing the original ceiling. The materials he's using might be slightly different than what you can buy in the USA, but the principle is the same: creating a flexible suspension that keeps the ceiling from being attached directly to the wood joists. The more traditional RC-channel ceiling is detailed here in this PDF from Acoustic Sciences Corporation , which involves attaching metal, flexible RC channels on top of -- and perpendicular to --the wood ceiling joists. It involves: Removing the existing ceiling material in order to access the area Adding sound-dampening materials Attaching the channels across the joists Adding drywall to the channels.  This PDF is a good resource for how to properly attach RC channels, but I notice that in its supply list, it doesn't include some of the newer, superior materi

Time-lapse vocal recording booth builds The original video I posted here back in 2009 is now gone. But I found a few more time-lapse videos of vocal booth builds that you might enjoy and learn from. From Chad Edwards :   On this video from SkyAcreRandomEtc , you'll see that they decoupled their floor with rubber as one of the first steps (it goes by really fast):      RobScallion2 shows a time lapse of him building a prefab vocal booth. But if you're a voiceover artist and you just want to put it together like IKEA furniture...

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 U.K. promotional video for a soundproofing company shows samples of some of their soundproofing products, which are similar to those in the USA. They also talk about some of their methodologies, though not in detail.  But just looking at the products might give you some ideas. Note the example of the sheds near the end. It would have been nice to know what they used in the "60% soundproofed" shed (it looked like mass-loaded vinyl and a Homasote-like product), as well as the "100%" !!

If you've read a lot of materials online already about what products to use in your own home – and horror stories about things that go wrong – then you probably already know some of the "solutions" that aren't effective. But I'll list a few of them here anyway. And while you're at it, here's an article on costly soundproofing mistakes that you might want to read, too. What DOESN'T prevent outside noise from coming into your home (especially an apartment): 1) Carpets and rugs as the only solution . This adds some sound absorption in your own home (for example, it reduces the "echo" effect in a room) and absorbs some impact from shoes, feet, and furniture. I'm not saying you shouldn't use carpets: you should, especially as a consideration to your upstairs or downstairs neighbors. But carpeting alone will not undo some of the sound transmission in the framing of your home. Here's a quick overview from The Soundproofing