blown in cellulose around shower
I have new construction. I hate fiberglass and am planning to use cellulose.
My question. There is a wall between the master bath and the bedroom. I want to sound insulate the wall and prefere not to use fiberglass. The shower is roughed in on the other side of the wall. If I use cellulose, I willl be blowing and dense packing cellulose around the one piece shower.
The plumber said you don’t attach drywall on the side of the wall with the shower so cellulose would pack in on the shower
Any thoughts anybody?????????
Replies
I think I'd try to use something between the enclosure and the cellulose, to prevent wicking of moisture into the cellulose (in case of a minor leak).
But otherwise blown cellulose is a good choice for sound dampening.
we've got dens-pak cellulose against a 4' shower on an outside wall
there the delta -T might be 90 ( 0 deg outside & 90 deg. in the shower
on a soundproof wall the delta -T would be closer to 20 deg
thanks, in a couple of weeks we'll give it a try.
For soundproofing, or at least reduction of sound transmittance, I have had far more success either thickening the wall with an extra layer of gyprock, or first mounting RC channel to the studs before laying on one thickness of rock, than with insulation. I've done all three.
Mass makes for reducing sound transmittance, and decoupling layers of material with a resilient interlayer does the same.
Think about this: the glass windows of airport concourses, with jet engines whining right outside and everybody out there wearing earmuffs, blocks all that sound because it is laminated glass, with a resilient inner layer between the two thicknesses of glass.
A solid wood door of the same thickness as a foam-core steel faced door, has a considerably higher sound transmission coefficient (the higher the quieter), because it has more mass.
Your cellulose won't do as much for you as you might think.
Three factors are involved in sound deadening: Isolation, mass, and damping. The cellulose adds significant mass and damping, though it costs a small amount off isolation. Which factors are most significant depends on both the nature of the sound and the configuration of the wall.
Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle. --Mahatma Gandhi
I had a similiar situation. Acrylic tub/shower one piece unit, 5'x32" with the long way on the shared wall with a bedroom. I added some 2x4 on their flat wide edge to that wall to gain some extra thickness. I staggered the added 2x4's from the existing 2x4 wall to lessen sound transmission. In between the 2x4's I had horizontal blocking for stiffness. The wall does not deflect.
For insulation around the tub, I stuffed ROXUL rock wool batts. Also used the rock wool in all partition walls. Excellent for sound deadening.
Because the acrylic shower/tub's back wall is kinda indented (especially around the tub portion) and the added 2x4's I was able to have two layers of the 3 1/2" rock wool batts.
There is no sound detected from the shower head water drumming on the tub. There's more sound that comes from under the bedroom door gap.