Sound proofing my living room

[CaptainJack406]

Hello everyone,

Sorry, it's a bit of a long one. I live in a mid-terraced, 1970's built ex-council house with timber framework construction. The ground floor of the house has bricks outside with plasterboard on the inside, while the first floor has some weird plastic cladding on the outside with plasterboard on the inside. Separation between neighbours, I believe, is just a stud wall.

I would like to eliminate the following noise:

1) Neighbours' kid playing with a tennis ball, bouncing on their laminate flooring and against the wall, with me on the other side of it (impact noise? - I don't really hear people talking/music unless it's very loud).

2) Outside noise, such as football kicking.

My first goal is to sound proof the party wall. Since I have laminate flooring in the living room, I guess I would need to lift some panels before doing anything. I've been looking on various sites and it seems that I would need to:

a) Build a stud wall frame using some 2x4s attaching to the floor boards under the laminate, side walls and ceiling, leaving a 1 inch gap from the existing wall.

b) Put some sound deadening/absorbing material between joists - which? There seems to be so many? Will acoustic wool be OK? It's reasonably priced.. or would I be better off with some proper acoustic quilt type thing? These are expensive though...

c) Get some resilient bars and attach the plasterboard onto this.

d?) If I was to attach another plasterboard, what kind of membrane can I put in between? Not too sure about this...

e) Need to move the radiator that's on this wall, but I'll worry about that later...

Would this work OK?

Also, it might be wise to sound proof the floor but I am not sure how, since it's mainly impact/resonant noise. I don't think there's any layer between the floorboards and the laminate at the moment, so I was thinking of ripping the laminate out and putting a carpet on top of some sound proof underlay. Will this stop this kind of noise? Or would a new wall, as above, be sufficient?

I am not quite sure how to sound proof the outside noise, due to the fact that I have a very large sliding glass door leading onto the patio, which is probably the main source of noise seepage. Is there an "acoustic glass" I can replace the existing double glazing with? Probably the best bet would be to put another sliding door inside (there's space for this) but I guess this not very cost effective. Any ideas on this?

Thanks
Alex

 

[Alarm]

Move

its easier and cheaper

 

[CaptainJack406]

I knew there would be an answer like that.... not an option.

 

[CaptainJack406]

So, no intelligent answers?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

So, no intelligent answers?

Several thousand actually: //search.diynot.com/forum_sear...tbytime=0&author=&search=Search+Forum&stype=0

Or did you not bother using the search?

Its a shame hardly anyone ever seems to bother to post back the results after attempts though.

 

[CaptainJack406]

Thanks.

I have actually read a lot of these threads and my plan was collated from a number of them

Just seems that there are a lot of options and it does get a little confusing. End results are really what I am after but, like you say, noone posts back with results.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes that is a problem and why I never usually bother answering any sound insulation threads anymore (except this one). Given that adding sound insulation is so subjective and individual there is no one answer fits all and there is a whole host of products out there with costs ranging from ££'s to ££££'s and claims they will do this or that. Its very easy for manufacturers to claim something that can never be proven!

Essentially though IMO I would largely concur with your line of thought, you need to be adding a separate stud wall but with lightweight metal studs fixed top and bottom only with an air gap between itself and the existing wall filled with some sound insulation like http://www.knaufinsulation.co.uk/products/glass_mineral_wool_rolls/acoustic_rolls.aspx it should be readily available from proper builders merchants or they may stock an equivalent product (rather than the likes of B&Q etc) (probably a bit more pricey than normal loft insulation but worth it in my opinion) and a few staggered layers of heavy plasterboard on the room side on resilient bars and well sealed with acoustic sealant around any penetrations/perimeters. You may need some chicken wire or similar to hold the insulation in the studs. With that philosophy you will have something that will work (albeit subjectively) and is relatively easy/inexpensive to do. Naturally meticulous attention to standard of workmanship will pay dividend's.

 

[CaptainJack406]

Many thanks, Freddy!

Any thoughts on floor sound insulation or one thing at a time and see if the wall makes a difference first?

 

[SammyInnit]

A friend of mine had his semi detached house done by a 'professional' team, and to stop vibration through the floor, they literally removed 6" of the joists from the partition wall and replaced them with some anti-vibe make up piece. How it retained structural soundness I don't know, but it cost him a fortune and it will still never 100% stop vibe transferred noise.

Working on site though - recently at a performing arts university building, I saw a lot of different things being used to prevent noise transfer. When it came to flooring, it was a 6" suspended floor, made up of special acoustic rubber blocks - costing £7 at 2"x2"x2", two layers of 3/4" ply, 3 layers of British Gypsum Sound Bloc Plaster board. Totaling around £20,000 for a 6m2 room inc. labour. Not cheap.