Re: Re: Re: Soundproofing - tips needed


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Posted by Jim Andrada on October 01, 2001 at 16:41:00:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Soundproofing - tips needed posted by Rick Denney on October 01, 2001 at 11:03:52:

Like Rick says, this is not an easy undertaking. My wife (professional pianist) and I looked into having some kind of soundproofing installed in our house. The architect basically told us that retrofitting this into an existing structure would be a) pricey and b) not too successful unless we made a truly huge project out of it.

He said that the extra thick wall with alternating studs (ie no stud contacting both walls) and filled with fiberglass insulation was just a starting point, followed by double layers of wallboard. And if there were a layer of some form of other material in between the layers of wallboard it would be better yet (I think there's a kind of expanded lead sheet used for this)

He also said that we'd have to realize that a very large portion of the sound would be carried through the air ducts and that some kind of mufflers would be required, also water pipes and the metal air ducts themselves presented problems, and that floors and ceilings would be a BIG problem because they'd act as soundboards and couple the in-room vibrations to the airspaces above and below which in turn would couple to the ceilings and floors of adjacent rooms.

He advised going into the attic and at a minimum setting up foam dummy walls above the walls of the room and similar measures in the basement or crawl space. Also, double doors and double windows, well weatherstripped.

A completely isolated structure is the best bet. If you think about doing this when the structure is originally built or are prepared to dish out big bucks, you can be quite successful, anything less will be at best a band-aid.

Anyhow, we just decided to live with things the way thet were When we build our next house (someday???) we'll try to do it right.


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