Between wall insulation

I live in a 1950's semi which is a solid walled, poured concrete, structure. Whilst the house itself has a wall thickness of nearly 11 inches, there is no cavity to aid noise suppression between myself and my neighbor. I've addressed the downstairs problem by installing drywall noise insulation materials on the between walls, however the upstairs presents me with a challenge. In the main bedroom, which has the between wall expanding from the front of the building to the back, it has large fitted wardrobes across them. As these wardrobes are of excellent quality I don't want to demolish them to install a similar sound insulating barrier as that of downstairs. The only thing in my favor in respect to the upstairs wardrobes is the fact that whoever installed them originally left a 2 inch gap between them and the between wall, with access to that 2 inch gap of about 8 inches from the top of the wardrobes and the ceiling. Now the main reason of my posting. It appears I can fill the space between the wardrobes and wall, but what material can I use to fill this gap and thus provide some degree of sound insulation. I thought of using fiber wool, or even fire resist polystyrene balls in this cavity, but as I will only have one shot at this, without removing the wardrobes to remove any installed materials, I would welcome any suggestions from this forum on what I should use for maximum sound suppression?

Kindest regards, John

You have my deepest sympathy John, as I too suffered the inconsiderate neighbour noise of the variety that makes you want to kill someone.
Anyway, (scared myself then!) Your wall behind the robes is a good 'un.
I'd probably go for something that will at least fill evenly for you. The 8 inch access isn't ideal, but at least you have it. True it's a one shot mission, and you won't know if you used the best thing even once it's done. One things for sure though, it can only help.

The only true cure for this problem is to have like minded neighbours (like me ) or a detached house.
Inconsiderate neighbours, you can't live with 'em, and you can't kill 'em......

Cheers Anton, your reply is well received. Detached house, not unless I get the Lottery tomorrow. I'm retired now and whilst I enjoy music of ALL tastes I detest the Bass BOOM, BOOM of inconsiderate neighbours. I was a guitar player in the bands of the 60's and my gear gave a good 'kick' to an audience in a hall, but the shear power of home equipment these days amazes me and far surpasses my equip of yester-year.

Kindest regards from John

PS. Maybe I've got an ACE up my sleeve, I could maybe reform a band and use my living room or bedroom as a rehearsal studio. Afterall, whats good for the goose is good for the gander !!

......Yehhhhhhhhh

Insulation is available in a granular form which you can practically pour out of bags. I don't know what it is called these days, it used to be called micafil.

I was in b&q recently and they were doing a demo of a similar material which was made(I think) of waste paper or tyres, it is worth asking them.

The above are mainly heat insulation but would probably help with sound.

If you have a trade insulation supplier such as Sheffield Insulations near you, they would give you some advice. They will also be cheaper.

I would definately go for the granular type, as you could easily shovel it in the top and it will fill every gap.

Hope this helps

We too had the nosiy neighbour issue, they purchased a new dvd player and surround sound system. Every saturday we got to hear (and feel) the lastest movie tracks.

Filling the cavity with insulation is not going to reduce the noise a large amount. The only real means of reducing the noise is to build a stud wall against the party wall using resiliant bars or similar technology.

See here

Also dont forget that a large aount of noise is transmitted through the roof void and timbers. There isn't much you can do about that.

We moved to a detached property, probably just as cheap as good soundproofing

Two issues that spring to mind:

1) Make sure that any gaps at the bottom and sides are blocked (so your insulation doesn't fall out everywhere!)

2) After installing the insulation, block the 2" gap at the top with a board or something. Otherwise you may have a danger of airborne fibres or a gust of wind sucking fibres and dust out from behind and depositing it on your duvet!

Good luck, let us all know how it turns out! My ex lived in a 1940s terrace and had neighbours who kept very strange hours and liked to slam doors shut, they had a teenage son who would listen to the same song for a whole afternoon!

You could always cut through their electricity supply cable

Hello to everyone,

Thanks for all your suggestions, I intend to follow each avenue of thought.
Yeh, even cutting their electricity cable.
Sheffield Insulation is about an hours drive from me but I'll ring them after the UK Bank Holiday Weekend and ask their advice too. Maybe they'll have a local distributor where I can examine their products and talk one to one with an advisor. I must say I'm pleased with all your replys and hopefully I will be able to offer others help when I've achieved my goal.

Thanks again,

John in Rochdale

John....Sheffield Insulations have a big depot in Trafford Park Mc/r, not to far from you really, 0161-876-4776. I can give you the address and directions if you need it, I live in Sale just down the road. They are 1/2 a mile from the Trafford Centre. I am sure they have a depot near the A627M in rochdale.

In my case, I just ended up waiting for the cretins to move out.
We now have new neighbours who I've chatted with, and expressed my dislike of boom boom music, although obviously I related it to the previous tenents. The newbies seem to be of a like mind, and have (just tthe one) a new born, so who knows, it could spell a few years of relative peace and quiet for us..............

.........but of course the newborn will get older, then she'll have boyfriends round, there'll be smoking, and swearing in the back garden......then parties to celebrate birthdays....and new stereos for presents...and...and....

Hope they don't decide to buy a loud, constantly barking dog to fill the years before the 'new born' has enough antisocial fire power.

Any type of insulation you can pour into this gap will probably have negligable effect on reducing sound transmission.The two best ways to reduce sound transmission are to apply a very dense sound absorbant material or create an air space with no contact with the wall, it is surprising how much sound can be transmitted through just a few screws.
I would suggest maybe fitting resillient bars and plasterboard to the inside of the wardrobe if you can bear to lose the depth in the wardrobe try http://www.soundservice.co.uk/ I am a builder and use them all the time they will advise you as to the best way forward.