Noisy neighbours

[theskit]

I have a ground floor flat in a victorian terrace, the house directly next door is rented and all noise from their kitchen and sitting/living room travels through the adjoining wall, we can hear the neighbours talk/play music etc...

I am planning on renovating soon, i.e. moving the kitchen to back of the property, new bathroom etc.. whilst I have the opportunity I would like to insulate the adjoining wall with acoustic material.

Is this best approach, I guess I would lose some space on my side of the property, any particular recommended material ?

 

[jeds]

100mm timber or metal stud wall. Leave a 20mm gap between the new studwork and the existing wall - i.e. not touching. Fill the new wall with dense mineral wool - that's dense acoustic wool, not the ordinary loft insulation stuff. Fix resilient channels to your new stud wall at 400 centres and then finish with 2 layers of 15mm bdcheck board with staggered joints. I would also seal the edges with acoustic mastic sealant.

This is the standard spec for upgrading existing walls in conversions. Add it up and you lose about 150mm of space. You could use 75mm stud but the overall effectiveness will be slightly less. (though still pretty good)