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2 questions;We have a long divider wall that stops several feet short of the cathedral ceiling.It’s super noisy between the 2 rooms.What can I do?Also,how best to soundproof between floors?It’s just plywood and carpet now,I intend to drywall ceiling below.Thank you. John O
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There are bunch of threads on this topic from last year.
One "offical" way of doing it is to create a space of dead air, between two layers of drywall, firing out the outer layer. There are also some dedicated fiberglass products (like insulation) that I see a lot of guys using. My best luck has come with using a masonite like product, that comes in fairly delicate 1/2" sheets. It is nasty to put up, has a lot of fibers, and itches, but just install a nailer along side of a stud or joist made of 1x stock, and tack the stuff to it.
I did a drywall fir out once, and really couldn't tell much difference. I would just put up a double layer of rock, and do the masonite thing.
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I don't advise dead air spaces, sound travels through air! I just went through a similar dilemma on this board a few months ago (I wanted to soundproof the party wall of my duplex. Someone out there sent me a great URL on sound but I lost it. Fiberglass bats worked great, and I know there is a fiberglass board made for just those purposes.
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Between floors you will need to isolate materials as sound travels easier when materials are in contact with each other. I'd use metal ceiling battens to the joist. Battens with a neoprene isolator that is purpose designed for such situations. ( Do you have Rondo products there. They should be able to help.) Also use soundproofing wool in your cavities.
As far as walls go.. at present we are building apartments with a combined fire wall and sound proofed. These walls are a double stud arrangement with wool between, sheeted with 6mm FC and 13mm Firecheck over that. This gives an STC rating of 55.
Mark
*As for sounddeadening between floors, fibreglass insulation seems to do a pretty good job. Not perfect but certainly acceptable in most domestic applications.As for the space between the divider wall and the cathedral ceiling. Just how noisy is it? Really, really noisy? Then maybe you want to extend the wall to the ceiling and fill with fibreglass throughout. If not so noisy or if that would ruin the design of the house maybe ask a local type to do an acoustic analysis on the house. Pretty commonly done on music studios, auditoriums etc. A few panels placed in the right places does wonders.
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You may want to check out Owens Corning home page for sound proofing suggestions. They suggest that the most effective way to reduce sound through walls is Double studs walls side by side that do not touch each other, with fiberglas batts between studs.
If thickness of this wall construction is too much, your next best bet is to use single wall construction, with metal resilient channel attached perpendicular to studs, with drywall over this and again fiberglas insulation between studs. Remember sound waves travel using vibratory energy. The trick is to soak up this energy. The resilient steel channel serves to do this very well.
Remember that the thicker the drywall, the better the sound reduction. 5/8 is much better than 1/2. A friend of mine did his front wall (facing street) with double layers of 5/8. He says there was a dramatic reduction in noise.
Very important is to seal all openings in walls (electrical outlets, HVAC grilles, etc.with some kind of sealant around the holes so sound waves can't escape through the holes.
There are also some interesting sites you can find with a search on the web using "sound abatement" as the search string.
Good luck,
robbwilson
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I have tried this on a partition wall in an office i built and it should work just as effectively on a ceiling. i would insulate the joist space with un-face sound batts, then apply 1/2'' sound board to the joist.then install resilient channel on 24'' or 16'' centers and then screw the drywall to the rc channel. good luck.
Bob
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Egg cartons make an excellent sound barrier.
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Egg cartons will make a great sound absorber, because they kind of capture the sound waves inside the little egg cavities (think about shining a flash light into your head light - unless you get the angle or the focal point just right, very little of it will reflect directly back out at you as brightly as you shone it in. Not a perfect analogy, because of the pillow-optics in the glass, now bust that glass out and you will really see what I mean).
But (being pedantic about the terminology), they don't make a very good sound barrier because they are thin walled and not very dense.
A recording studio will have all of the following to sound-proof the walls:
-Absorber (soft material, preferably with pockets like egg cartons or lots of pointy, little pyramids).
-Deadener behind the absorber (thick, heavy material like 2x 5/8" drywall).
-Isolator (bridging to underlaying building materials to prevent physical noise transfer, like the metal channels mentioned in postings above).
Each of these elements works to defeat (attenuate) a different part of the 'noise' spectrum. As a result, if you have a particular type of problem you will find that some work better for you than the others:
Absorber - really only works to stop high frequency noise generated inside the room ('stops the echo').
Deadener - good for mid range frequency noises and effective against noise going 'both ways' thru the wall.
The more mass the better, for this.
Isolator - good for low frequency noise generated outside the room from entering it (trucks rumbling by, etc). Note that to perfectly isolate outside noises, the room ought to be suspended in space. Difficult to achieve.
I sympathise with you about the open wall above (cathedral ceiling). I lived in a place like this and HATED it for noise and lack of basic privacy. If you have a pretty 'live' room (lots of hard, reflecting surfaces like wood floors, few wall coverings,etc., you will benefit from adding absorbers (carpet, hanging decorative rugs on the walls and putting some strategically placed absorbing material on the ceiling). This can be tricky, time consuming and seem totally worthless until you get it JUST RIGHT (performance hall builders spend fortunes on computer simulations to get these things just so). If you get it right the results might suprise you.
I agree with you to close up that hole (architects design stuff to look good, but does that mean it will be good to live with?)
Good Luck!
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2 questions;We have a long divider wall that stops several feet short of the cathedral ceiling.It's super noisy between the 2 rooms.What can I do?Also,how best to soundproof between floors?It's just plywood and carpet now,I intend to drywall ceiling below.Thank you. John O