Sound-proofing

hueygeorge

Hi All
Can anyone give me some advice on how I can sound-proof my home? I live in a council house and have lovely neighbours but the walls are like paper!! My neighbours have three kids under the age of three and I have one under the age of three - you can imagine that sometimes we sound like a zoo!! I am not complaining as such as the noise is just general family noise - kids playing etc, but the walls are that thin that if I don't have the TV on then I can hear them talking!!! I would like to do something about this as I do like peace and quiet, and so wanted to check out sound-proofing etc.
I hope I don't come across as someone who is whingeing because I'm not, and I could never ask them to 'keep the noise down' as its not loud music, banging etc, its just that we obviously have really thin walls. I don't want to know what menu they are discussing for tea, today when my little one was at my parents, it was fish n chips v curry!! Obviously it works both ways as well and I don't really want them to hear me talking - help!!
Thanks all - the miserable cow!! :rotfl:

motch

A similar situation to me, although i'm looking to reduce the drum and base disco music coming through my party wall. It's only once in a while and they're pretty decent neighbours but i'd like to reduce the noise as much as possible in our bedrooms which adjoin there's.

Soundboarding sounds pretty good, it only reduces the wall by an inch or so. Not that cheap though. search on google for soundproofing party wall and quite a few links come up. Another way is to have a partition wall with sound proofing insulation in between it all. Trouble here is you lose several inches off your room.

How big are your walls, how big are your rooms, how many walls are you looking to soundproof?

There could also be sound coming through the ceilings and floorboards as well, so this would need to be looked at.

Anyone else have some ideas? as i'm looking to soundproof a couple of walls soon.

diable

Main question, how much do you want to spend?

motch

diable wrote: »

Main question, how much do you want to spend?

For me personally i'm looking to get a decent job done, and reduce the sound a fair bit. I will be incorporating some sliding door wardrobes, perhaps this will help a little with the soundproofing (hopefully reduce it anyway).

Price wise? I'd happily spend £300-£500 on one room if it done a good job, for the soundproofing materials. The room in question is approx 2.44m wide by 2.37m high. Would not like to lose too much depth of room. I've heard you can get 25mm-30mm soundboards that seem effective. Perhaps this slightly off the party wall, and then some sliding fitted wardrobes.

I-Want-To-Move

I know this doesn't answer your question but I know how you feel.
I was really happy when i heard about sound proofing walls then realised that the walls that needed doing had internal doors right up against them and it would cost a fortune to start messing about with them. Would be interested to hear how you get on.

jimi_man

motch wrote: »

A similar situation to me, although i'm looking to reduce the drum and base disco music coming through my party wall. It's only once in a while and they're pretty decent neighbours but i'd like to reduce the noise as much as possible in our bedrooms which adjoin there's.

Soundboarding sounds pretty good, it only reduces the wall by an inch or so. Not that cheap though. search on google for soundproofing party wall and quite a few links come up. Another way is to have a partition wall with sound proofing insulation in between it all. Trouble here is you lose several inches off your room.

How big are your walls, how big are your rooms, how many walls are you looking to soundproof?

There could also be sound coming through the ceilings and floorboards as well, so this would need to be looked at.

Anyone else have some ideas? as i'm looking to soundproof a couple of walls soon.

Soundproofing is very expensive unfortunately, certainly if you want a reasonable job. Getting rid of high frequencies is relatively straightforward - they are highly directional and soundboarding such as you mention would certainly reduce them. These would probably work with the OPs problem too, or certainly reduce them.

However the low frequencies, drum and bass that you refer to, are much more problematic. Bass frequencies are non directional and as such they tend to emanate through floors, ceilings, so eradicating them completely usually involves some sort of 'room within a room' scenario - usually out of the question for most homes being more suited to recording studios.

In terms of soundproofing, a rough rule of thumb is that to half the amount of sound you need to double the mass of the wall, though that becomes less and less effective the lower the frequency of the sound.

You could look at http://www.soundstop.co.uk/ . I have no idea what they are like, never used them but they do the soundboards you mention.

Alternatively, for a DIY approach it's worth having a quick read of http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/articles/soundproofing.html

Its primarily directed at home sound recording studios, however it provides a good explanation into the theory and some of the problems, as well as giving reasonably cheap suggestions as to how to go about putting it into practice.

In all honesty it's not a cheap solution and also rather drastic to start ripping up your house. I would be inclined to try and appeal to them to change their music tastes/not play it so loud/play it when you're out/use headphones etc etc etc.

I-Want-To-Move

Doesn't sound a good idea if you live in a small house like me - the rooms are not big enough to lose any of their size.

motch

jimi_man wrote: »

Soundproofing is very expensive unfortunately, certainly if you want a reasonable job. Getting rid of high frequencies is relatively straightforward - they are highly directional and soundboarding such as you mention would certainly reduce them. These would probably work with the OPs problem too, or certainly reduce them.

However the low frequencies, drum and bass that you refer to, are much more problematic. Bass frequencies are non directional and as such they tend to emanate through floors, ceilings, so eradicating them completely usually involves some sort of 'room within a room' scenario - usually out of the question for most homes being more suited to recording studios.

In terms of soundproofing, a rough rule of thumb is that to half the amount of sound you need to double the mass of the wall, though that becomes less and less effective the lower the frequency of the sound.

You could look at http://www.soundstop.co.uk/ . I have no idea what they are like, never used them but they do the soundboards you mention.

Alternatively, for a DIY approach it's worth having a quick read of http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/articles/soundproofing.html

Its primarily directed at home sound recording studios, however it provides a good explanation into the theory and some of the problems, as well as giving reasonably cheap suggestions as to how to go about putting it into practice.

In all honesty it's not a cheap solution and also rather drastic to start ripping up your house. I would be inclined to try and appeal to them to change their music tastes/not play it so loud/play it when you're out/use headphones etc etc etc.

yes had a bit of a read, cheers. For me I could effectively attempt to soundproof our 2nd bedroom primarily, and also add in some sliding wardrobe doors on that party wall.

So i'm thinking an inch or so of soundboard, (perhaps an extra 2-4mm of rubber matting between party wall and soundboard). Then i'm thinking about a wall to wall and floor to ceiling book/dvd case approx 20cm's depth, then wardrobe area in front of that approx 50-60cm depth full of clothing stuff, then fitted sliding doors.

I'm wondering if having a mini studwall/gap might be a little extra effective? thinking some sort of soundproof strips say 2inch wide by 1/2 inch deep (trying to preserve as much room width as possible) before fixing the soundproof board onto it possibly.

So i'd be hoping the full bookcase and full wardrobe, and sliding doors will add a little extra to the soundproofing (?) Not quite sure if having a full bookcase would be practical behind the clothes,could store a heck of a lot of books/dvds behind it though.:)

The wall is approx 2.44m wide and 2.35m high from memory.
Could soundboard out the depth of the wardrobe on the floor and ceiling about an inch or so perhaps, and the walls - all inside the wardrobe.

To be honest they don't have that many party nights, but a couple have been when we could of done without it.

I think the flats are actually fairly well soundproofed, would this make it harder to get significant improvements from v loud steroes?

suppose I could buy them some acoustic mats for their stereo for christmas :-)