Whats the best insulation/ sound deadening material

[Hotwire]

I have a partition wall made from 3"x2" studs it previously had rockwool as insulation/soundening, is this the best stuff to use. I ask because i watched a builder across the road converting a garage in to a room and he was using what looked like thick blocks of expanded polystyrene. Would this be any better, i know it would be a lot less itchy .

 

[nstreet]

Accoustic Quilt, or lead

 

[KonradFischer]

will be from solid material, lead would be ok but to expensive and bad what belongs room atmosphere and condensate problem. So solid stones (f.e. brick) and maybe solid wood will bring the best sound comfort.

Otherwise only solid materials can give a real thermal insulation, if this may be important. Look to the figure of our experiment (Lichtenfelser Experiment) where we radiate different insulation materials with an IR red light bulb for 10 min. You can see the rising temperature on the opposite of 4 cm boards - from above fiberglass, polystyrene, foam glass, solid brick, wood fiber board, gypsum card board and solid pinewood.

Result: Only solid materials can stop IR radiation (a electromagnetical wave, you can understand it analog to the sound wave or light), which causes about 99% of thermal losses through walls.

And the problem of normal thermal insulation is that they will suck up and store condensate, mould attack will follow. Here you can find further details:

Thermal Insulation and Mold Attack

 

[Bylough]

Hi Konrad, I am not concerned in this post, but I am so impressed with this excellent scientific explanation, great. I believe it concerns us all in our quest for better insulation, and understanding of same. ( please excuse my 'butting-in' all.)

 

[KonradFischer]

Dear Bylough (is this your name?),
thanks for your friendly comments which I appreciate very much because often such 'errors' in the common sense make some people angry. Since many years I try to 'enlighten' building branche in Germany, there is some strong wind blewing against me as result. But I will go furtherwards and such comments will enforce my weak possibilities.

If you can understand german or use online translators you will find a lot of technical details to this topic also here: Thermal Lightweight Insulation - A Fake? (in german)

 

[bathroomswap]

Since many years...there is some strong wind blewing against me

That'll be the bratwurst you had after the wall came down

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

[KonradFischer]

But its good that we have very good beer in Franken, you should try! So I can gulp thus bratwursts down without coughing.

 

[oilman]

Konrad, your website is so useful (even if the online translators are not) that I would buy a copy of the book you could publish if you chose to do it.

Who else wants one?

 

[Hotwire]

Maybe ive not explained myself to well, im not after anything out of the ordinary. Im just looking for what would be the best everyday stuff to use, should i just buy more rockwool.

 

[oilman]

Seriously, you would be better off with bricks, or high densith cement blocks. Rockwoll will stop (to some extent) echos if it is on the surface of a room, but it's not much good in stud walls, nor is polystyrene.

 

[Hotwire]

Thanks oilman, those bricks and cement blocks sound awful heavy to me, I could just see the joist sagging and groaning under the weight . Seriously though i would just rather put some kind of insulation in the wall rather than nothing. The sound deadening is mainly because the wall devides a bedroom and bathroom. So im just looking for a simple easy to fit type thing prefarebly not anything fibreglass as i itch for days after working with it.

 

[jbonding]

bang in as much rockwool you can fit without popping the screws,double boarding with sound block plaster boards will reduce any noise and if youve got the space maybe another skin of soundblock plasterboard.

 

[joe-90]

The only way to stop sound is to prevent it gettting into the house structure. Once it's in you can't get it out again.

If I were you I'd go for as many layers as possible with air gaps between.
This works is pretty much the same way that a car silencer baffles work.

The big problem is going to be people weeing at night. The sound will go straight into the floor joists and travel into the bedroom.


joe

 

[oilman]

.......
The big problem is going to be people weeing at night. The sound will go straight into the floor joists and travel into the bedroom.

They could turn the light on so they could see where they were pointing

Hotwire, it will be very difficult to stop the noise. One thing to do is to build the stud wall with two sets of verticals, so that you nail one side of boards to one set, and vice versa. Another VERY good way is to not use these drum skins called plasterboard and build a lath and plaster covered wall. They are much less resonant, comparatively dead materials.

 

[Bylough]

Forgive the diversion chaps- (Konrad wrote "Bylough- is that your name?")
No not so- but--
There's an old wooden shack
By lough 'long forgot'
where I dream my dreams
of Do-it-or-Not.
Back on post- It's also important to block the smallest gap, for sound insulation ie cracks under doors, divisions between air gaps should be fully enclosed also I imagine.