Insulation query

aliasojo

I've been putting this...http://www.wickes.co.uk/Heavy-Density-Insulation/invt/161189

....in my bathroom walls.

As our basin, wc and cabinets are now to be going on the wall between my bedroom and the bathroom, I wanted some heavy duty slab insulation to help try to cut down any noise transference. Noise is a bit of a problem at the moment as OH works shifts and he hears us in the bathroom through the wall. (The wall was hollow before, no insulation in there at all.)

As the wall cavity is 100mm and the slabs are 30m thick, I've triple layered them. I was also going to do this on the outside wall but more to help stop heat loss there, rather than sound transference.

OH is moaning about the cost of the insulation but I'm of the mind the insulation is just as important as the finish and it's worth spending money on. He reckons one layer would suffice, I think more is more efficient.

We also have condensation problems in the loft so a good layer of insulation above the bathroom ceiling will help stop the rise of warm air (along with a good extractor naturally).

So question is, is there ever 'overkill' when it comes to stud wall insulation or is it a case of as much and as good as you can get/afford?

brig001

Sorry, not answering your question, but we found that sound gets under stud walling quite well, so we pulled the carpet back and sealed the skirting to the floorboards with mastic. Decorators caulk or silicone would do.

Answering your question, there is always diminishing returns with insulation whether it is for sound or heat, but in the loft, it is cheap enough to pile it high unless you use it for storage.

HTH,
Bri.

aliasojo

Thanks brig. I already have a fire and acoustic sealant which I used in my kitchen last year. It was used at the plasterboard joins before taping and filling, and also round the top/bottom/edges. I'll be using this again in the bathroom before the skirting etc goes on.

We had noisy neighbours and I rebuilt the stud wall on our side using plank and soundbloc boards. OH thought what I was doing then was overkill but you can't hear a thing when you're in our kitchen now. (The livingroom will be getting done too at some point but he doesn't know that yet ).

The loft is floored and used for storage so I'll just put up what I can between underside of floor and bathroom ceiling.

mcm72

i am a bakery engineer and our average size oven only has around 100mm of insulation on the sides, these ovens can operate between 300-400 deg c. and are only warm to the touch at the sides. so 30mm will be fine for exterior walls. you can definatly overkill. 6inch of ins. in the loft is adequate too. don't listen to salesmen

aliasojo

The point of the slab insulation wasn't really for it's thermal properties, it was heavy density stuff got for it's acoustic properties. The roll type insulation is more geared for heat loss rather than sound transference. That would be fine for the ceiling etc but my objective for the (internal) wall insulation was two-fold, heat loss AND sound.

OH's pov was that one layer would do the job, my pov was that a triple layer would do a better job. (Re: Sound as well as heat loss).

mighty_mondo

you are correct aliasojo, the acoustic insulation is a great idea in your bathroom walls (ive done the same thing for the similar reasons - our bed is against the bathroom wall and you could hear any bathroom 'noises' lol) and the more the merrier if you can afford it, ive put 2 layers of 30mm acoustic slab inside our 70mm partitions and the sound has dramatically reduced so it was money well spent

before if someone had a shower it sounded like a tropical rainstorm while lying in bed :-)

aliasojo

Thank you. Nice to hear from someone else who has done similar and has had positive results..