How effective is Gyproc Soundbloc 15mm Plasterboard for soundproofing direct on to wall ?

FredTheShed

Looking to block voices coming from next doors bedroom. Room is very small,so can't afford to build a stud wall or use rock wool. Have thought about double boarding using Gyproc Soundbloc 15mm dot & dab and then stagger 2nd layer. According to the website each board weighs 40kg so double boarding would add 80kg+ of mass. Or would it pointless because it's direct to wall and not isolated with air gap ?.

Advice please and many thanks or do you have any other idea's ?

buzcheva

hey
it will make a difference but not sure how effective it will be unless other measures, as you described, are put in place.

I soundproofed the entire party wall of my house when I bought it as I was refurbishing the whole property. I used studs on acoustic isolation strips, ecotherm inuslation and soundbloc. Its made a huge difference but due to the fact i didnt sound proof the joist connections to the wall ( a practically impossible task) sound still gets through.

Sound travels through joists and up through floor boards and up and over walls. Essentially I would save the money for a more robust solution.

If you look at the gypsum website it will have some retro fit links.

regards

GDB2222

FredTheShed wrote: »

Looking to block voices coming from next doors bedroom. Room is very small,so can't afford to build a stud wall or use rock wool. Have thought about double boarding using Gyproc Soundbloc 15mm dot & dab and then stagger 2nd layer. According to the website each board weighs 40kg so double boarding would add 80kg+ of mass. Or would it pointless because it's direct to wall and not isolated with air gap ?.

Advice please and many thanks or do you have any other idea's ?

I don't think the thickness of the air gap is as important as there being one. What would you use to fix it? You might get less noise transmission with a foam adhesive than with something gypsum based. On the other hand, it's a heavy board, so would foam be strong enough?

sugartree

I'd be interested to know how you get on and the results. I was tempted to build a stud wall with sound proofing boards and rock wall insulation but I decided to go through a professional sound proofer using the sound-resisting clips etc for £1.5k and will be starting work in the next couple weeks. I'll post my feedback as a few weeks of (hopefully) sleep-ful bliss (the noise is general day to day noise i.e. TV's, chatter, coughing, rutting etc).

JayMax

I've done exactly this - I double boarded the party wall alcoves with the 15mm Soundbloc and single boarded the chimney breasts with the same. Dot and dabbed and joints filled with AC50.
It made a reasonable difference but has not completely stopped the noise.
I would say about a 50% reduction in noise.
Materials cost about ~£400, and those boards don't half weigh a tonne when you have to move 30 of them (for all 4 rooms in a semi).
I knew it was a cheap attempt but I was taking the walls back to brick during renovations anyway, so the real net cost wasn't too great.
However, in the future I will be looking at professional grade sound proofing.
I think the airgap is important, vibrations will still be transmitted via the dot and dab adhesive.

In short - its a relatively cheap method, and the results are fair to medium.

ChrisParkerJones

I'd echo what some other people have said.

You will get some improvement, maybe 2 - 3 dB, from dot and dabbing plasterboard to your existing wall.

But you could get 10 - 15 dB improvement, from using a stud with a bit of insulation in between. Google 'Gypliner Universal Wall Lining'. I think the studs are around 35mm width, then if you can, 25mm insulation in the void.

You could get closer to 20 dB improvement if you get an independent wall lining, which is where the stud sits a couple of mm away from the wall without screwing into it. Search GypLiner-IWL. I'm sure Knauf or others make something similar, i've no affiliation to anyone, Gypsum are just the biggest.

To give those dB's some context. A 10 dB improvement is subjectively perceived as being half as loud. Hence a 10 - 20 dB improvement rather than 3 dB is very significant.

I've probably got some diagrams lying around if you want to get in touch.

Good luck!
Chris

jamesperrett

Resilient bars may also be useful here as they help decouple the plasterboard layer from the rest of the wall.

RelievedSheff

Sound proofing an existing property is an almost impossible task.

Sound travels through and around all parts of the fabric of the house. If the floor and ceiling joists run into a solid party wall sound will transmit through these as well as through the mass of the party wall.

Paula_Smith

I know it is not suitable in this instance as it would probably take up too much space and be impossible to finish nicely, but -

A cheap soundproofing idea that we used for making a shed into a music room is to make walls out of old firedoors - they are solid and cheap or free if you are lucky.

sugartree

As promised, for the benefit of those already on the thread and those who will search for advice in the future, I am giving my feedback a month on from having soundproofing done in a bedroom to block out noise from the party wall.


Firstly, the noise we experienced were day-to-day noise of coughing, chatting, TV, chargers being plugged in to a socket, wardrobe doors closing and this would be a cycle of noise from 7am until 1pm and a dog yapping from ground floor area of the house not directly connected, which seemed to be more high pitched then anything else. (We have a tunnel between the houses so the noise would only affect upstairs).


It's been effecting my wellbeing for years and although I have more pressing improvements that need to dealt with on a maintenance point of view, I decided my sanity over-ruled. So £1.5k spent for 1 room to be done and I can say......................


It's been worth every penny! I haven't heard anything for a month apart from the dog which seems likes it somewhere in a distant field instead of under my pillow. I've slept well and my anxiety has improved. There are concerns the noise may travel elsewhere into the house like my daughters room or downstairs but so far, so good. I'm glad I went to a professional and plan to do my daughter room in the future.


In terms of the work carried out, an additional wall was built leaving a small gap between that and the party wall, this was also built into the joining walls which were filled with sound proof insulation, the stud wall itself had a couple of layer(s) of sound proofing materials on either side i.e. plasterboard and another type of board, it was packed with soundproof insulation (Rockwool), metal tracking and Genie Clips, with the additional boarding placed, 2 foot of insulation underneath floorboards and nicely plastered to finish. You would never know the room was a foot bigger before or that or was an additional wall. (I'm not in the trade so my knowledge is limited)


If you have the skill to do it yourself then great, I considered it but decided that my skills were inexperienced and would end up costing me more money to rectify any mistakes.

ANDY597

I have to do this for my loft conversion and the building control wanted the following.

Current wall is two brick construction with a cavity between the 2 bricks if that makes sense.

Furher 50mm air gap
Stud
100mm Rockwool rwa45
Vapour membrane
2 layers of 15mm soundbloc staggered

Hope this helps