Soundproofing Advice Please

sefw1982

Hi All,

We moved into a 1960s semi last year and naively thought all our worries regarding neighbour noise were over (we previously had very thin plasterboard walls and could hear everything) but we still get a lot of noise coming through our brick party-wall. Our neighbours are not particularly loud, we rarely hear music played, but we are acutely aware that they have bare wooden floors and can often hear their young son charging around or happily whooping and cheering at things. We are pretty sure they can probably hear us quite a lot too so we are keen to get some soundproofing in to make it a bit easier all round. (and so we can watch films in the evening without feeling we need to keep the volume down).

I wondered if anyone on here had had any positive experiences of soundproofing and could perhaps recommend any ways to do it? We are keen to only lose a couple of inches, so those lovely systems that take about 100mm of space are not really suitable. I have seen a few companies offer 50-60mm methods so wondered if anyone has tried these and if they really worked?

It's a case of general every living noise so not really an option to ask to be quiet as they are doing nothing wrong, we'd just like to hear them a bit less and no doubt the feeling is mutual for them and our probable noise too.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

ormus

far cheaper and more cost effective to batten the wall with 2x2 and insert rockwool or similar.
then PB over the top.

see the rockwool site, they make various types inc special acoustic wool.

jc808

ormus wrote: »

far cheaper and more cost effective to batten the wall with 2x2 and insert rockwool or similar.
then PB over the top.

see the rockwool site, they make various types inc special acoustic wool.

do 3x2 (extra strength) then 200mm loft roll squeezed in

job done - should kill most sounds (bar parties and elephant stampedes) dead

jonesjw

The Wickes 30mm high density slab insulation is good for cutting noise down. For best effect, I tend to fit TWO overlapping layers of plasterboard on top, glued together with PVA and just put battens around the edges. The plasterboard may need something to keep it flat whilst the glue goes off.

This would be a rather unconventional solution.

brig001

Do you know how the sound is getting through? One possibility is that the sound is coming through past the joists where they go into the party wall. This could be upstairs, downstairs or both. Do the floorboards run along the party wall? If so, I would take one up first and have a look. Any gaps around the joists will let the sound through, and I would seal these first.

HTH,
Brian.