someone or something to insulate house against noise

jenny-wren

Until someone has lived with a problem with inconsiderate or noisy neighbours you don't understand just how it effects you. We had nightmare neighbours when we moved in, I even refused to unpack and had to be persuaded by my OH. Thankfully, after being plagued with loud music on and off for a few years, they moved. We bought a bottle of champagne for moving day!

The next person was pretty quiet. He sold up and our hearts sank when we saw the next removal van pull up. Then the family from hell moved in.

Council were absolutely useless. Police were sympathetic but couldn't do anything. Neighbours weren't approachable, I did try but their threatening attitude made me realise that the walls would have to be insulated until we could afford to move. There's no such thing as a lie-in at the weekends and being woken as early as 6 by kids shouting and screaming or bouncing each other off the walls at least saves on the electricity an alarm clock would use! Believe me, I have to joke about it because if I didn't they would have driven me insane by now.

Hopefully you can find a solution that works in your home. My brother definately noticed a substantial improvement using Greenglue. He mainly found that he was bothered by a loud TV or raised voices but I think slamming doors were also a problem.

I thought that recently constructed homes had to adhere to certain standards with regard to insulation - you have nothing to lose by checking with the NHBC.

I understand that nothing will ever get rid of the noise completely but surely anything you can do to minimise the stress it puts on your life the better. Insulating a few walls and floors is cheaper than moving!

All the best.

wacko911

I work nights so sleep during the day. I usually find ear plugs work when there is a lot of noise? Hell of a lot cheaper than greenglue.

Colin_Kee

I saw some sort of Noise insulating board at the Self Build show in Kings Hall last year, Sorry don't know the name/brand. they made a little box out of it and turned on a little alarm (Bit like the sound a rape alarm would make) when they out it in the box & closed the lid, you couldn't hear it... I believe you have to put it on the wall, then apply plaster board & then re-skim wall so a bit of work involved.
Will try to find what it was again but may be worth a jolly to this show next time it's on..

rover25

Was just doing some research on who that exhibitior could have been. Would it have been Acara Concepts- Phonewell. Was on their website and it all sounds great. They are in Kings hall again in mid Feb 09.

Marty_J

dmxdave wrote: »

Please someone tell me I am wrong BUT in a semi or any other type of attached property unless noise pollution was a consideration in the design and build stages there is not a lot that can be done with sound transmission through the structure.

This is essentially correct. It might be possible to slightly dampen noise, but properly insulating a room acoustically is very expensive. You basically have to build a room within a room, and if there's any contact between the two, it won't work.

Colin_Kee wrote: »

I saw some sort of Noise insulating board at the Self Build show in Kings Hall last year, Sorry don't know the name/brand. they made a little box out of it and turned on a little alarm (Bit like the sound a rape alarm would make) when they out it in the box & closed the lid, you couldn't hear it... I believe you have to put it on the wall, then apply plaster board & then re-skim wall so a bit of work involved.
Will try to find what it was again but may be worth a jolly to this show next time it's on..

That might work for an alarm in a box, but it doesn't really scale up to something the size of a house. Any dense material will attenuate noise, but in order to do it in a house, you'd have to use it at every point of contact between the two structures, which isn't really practicable.

This article should give an idea of what's involved:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/articles/soundproofing.html

Colin_Kee

Rover25, After reding the article suggested by Marty J, I think you should just move house.... They are cheap as chips at the moment if you're cheaky enough with your offer!!

rover25

It's just a pity I'm in negative equity with my own!

dave_dickinson

Hi
I have had exactly the same problem with neighbour noise and initially could not find a soundproofing material for the wall between the two semi detached houses that did not take around 2 to 3 inches off the room. I found a product called Phonewell which is 15mm thick and comes in 1200mm by 800mm panels that you stick or screw to the wall and then cover with a layer of plasterboard for decorating.
I must say I am very impressed with the results even though I have only done the living room so far. I will now do each room on the party wall as I get round to redecorating.
Nothing is 100% perfect but day to day living noise (TV on or muffled converation ect) is cut out and party type noise is reduced to an acceptable level. Not quite as good as living in a detached but acceptable to me.
This is supplied in Ireland by Acara concepts (http://www.acaraconcepts.com/Phonewell%20technical%20data.html)

and in the UK by Womersleys --this is who I used and they will deliver to the door.
http://www.womersleys.co.uk/acatalog/Building_Products_3_5.html

Hope that helps.

rover25

Hi Dave, Thanks for your reply. I was at the self build show in Belfast the other weekend and seen Phonewell. We will prob go for it but not until after our wedding in July. Every penny being accounted for at the moment! Can you tell me has it cut out any banging doors/cupboard noise or sounds of footfall? Did you go for the resilliant bars upgrade?
Can I also ask was it expensive. Paul from the Phonwell company said about £25 per sq metre and then also the cost for the resilliant bars.
Sorry for all the questions but great to hear from someone who has had it done.

dave_dickinson

Hi Rover
I have so far only used it in the living room and installed it about a year ago myself. It sounds as if it has gone up a bit, as I remember I paid around £28 sterling per 1200 by 800 panel. I did not use the bars as I was trying to minimise the amount of space it took off my living room and I also had a chimney breast to get covered as well and wanted to keep it simple. I imagine though that fixing the bars to the wall and then screwing the phonewell to the bars may be cheaper than the method I used which was to stick the phonewell to the walls with no-nails.I then put a layer of soundblock plasterboard stuck over the top of that and used polycell plaster repair to fill the pasterboard chamfer edge joints, a light sand and a paint and it was an excelent surface for decorating on and only took around inch and a quarter --ish off the room. I wanted to try it out before doing the rest of the house and am just about to the same thing in a bedroom as its time to decorate again.
As I mentioned before its never going to be as good as a detached house but it has made a real difference to both airborne and transmitted noise, I used to be able to hear TV, muffled conversation and doors opening and closing and using the combined plasterboard and phonewell solution it has cut this out almost completely if my room is silent. If I have my TV on fairly low in the evenings I cannot hear anything at all from next door so for day to day living its very good. If they have a party and get out the old karioki I can just hear it muffled through the wall but as this is fairly rare its not so bad. I will be buying some more in a couple of weeks so when I get round to a formal price I will let you know how it works out. I will say one thing though as this is filled with mica sand it plays hell with your jigsaw blades, and if you are going to cut holes in it for wall light cables ect you need to make sure you buy a roll of the sealing tape with it to tape the cut edges and round the insides of any holes.