Soundproofing a Residential Wall

[john12ax7]

Details : 11'x13' rectangular room in a residential building. Only 1 wall is shared with neighbor, the other 3 walls, floor and ceiling not shared.

Goal : Being able to listen to music, play / record acoustic guitar at 2am, levels 70-80 dBc.

I realize true soundproofing requires mass, decoupling, room in a room, etc. That is not an option here.

How much practical isolation could I achieve by fortifying the one shared wall? And what would be the best way to do that? It's a rental so nothing permanent. Considering making the entire wall a 1-2' deep absorber, or some sort of very deep gobo type structure that fits in snug but doesn't touch.

 

[zamproject]

Hey John

Considering the informations you give (renting etc...) you'll better first try to figure out what is the room next to yours used for by the neighbour. Bedroom/kitchen/....
Because if it's -sensitive- like a bedroom, you'll probably invest to much for a (non permanent) solution that probably will wake up your neighbour anyway
There is no need for many dB over ambient noise to be perceived as disturbance in a quiet residential at 2am

Cheers
Zam

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Details : 11'x13' rectangular room in a residential building. Only 1 wall is shared with neighbor, the other 3 walls, floor and ceiling not shared.

Goal : Being able to listen to music, play / record acoustic guitar at 2am, levels 70-80 dBc.

I realize true soundproofing requires mass, decoupling, room in a room, etc. That is not an option here.

How much practical isolation could I achieve by fortifying the one shared wall? And what would be the best way to do that? It's a rental so nothing permanent. Considering making the entire wall a 1-2' deep absorber, or some sort of very deep gobo type structure that fits in snug but doesn't touch.

Absorption is not the answer here.

Sound can travel from one space to another via many mechanisms

- acoustic leakage (through AC vents for example, leaky door seals, open crawl spaces)
- acoustic re-radiation (your wall/ceiling acts like a drum head catching energy and passing sound to the next space)
- Physical vibration transmission through floor boards, beams, and even concrete floors

Very often it's a combination of all of the above, with some being worse than others at certain frequencies.

Unless you have a very good handle on what exactly is happening you are likely to spend a lot of time and money for a less than perfect fix.

I know someone who spent millions of dollars on a multi studio space only to overlook one of the above, and have seen most mistakes in my time in LA.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Not easy, could you maybe soundproof a different room without the shared/common wall?

JR

 

[john12ax7]

Hey John

Considering the informations you give (renting etc...) you'll better first try to figure out what is the room next to yours used for by the neighbour. Bedroom/kitchen/....
Because if it's -sensitive- like a bedroom, you'll probably invest to much for a (non permanent) solution that probably will wake up your neighbour anyway
There is no need for many dB over ambient noise to be perceived as disturbance in a quiet residential at 2am

Cheers
Zam

A bedroom would probably be a non-starter. Most likely it is a den/home office.

 

[john12ax7]

Absorption is not the answer here.

Sound can travel from one space to another via many mechanisms

- acoustic leakage (through AC vents for example, leaky door seals, open crawl spaces)
- acoustic re-radiation (your wall/ceiling acts like a drum head catching energy and passing sound to the next space)
- Physical vibration transmission through floor boards, beams, and even concrete floors

Very often it's a combination of all of the above, with some being worse than others at certain frequencies.

Unless you have a very good handle on what exactly is happening you are likely to spend a lot of time and money for a less than perfect fix.

I know someone who spent millions of dollars on a multi studio space only to overlook one of the above, and have seen most mistakes in my time in LA.

The flanking paths would be too dificult / expensive to deal with properly. I'm expecting a much less than perfect fix, but that might be good enough.

In the past I've had some success with absorption based solutions. Certainly at low frequencies it becomes impractical so you need to resort to mass and increasing reflection coefficients. But at higher frequencies I've found it adequate in some situations.

What would you recommend doing? Something like gaining 10 dB at 100 Hz and up might be enough.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

I don't walk away from jobs like this. I run.

We get a call at least once a month for a sound proofing project and always decline. If we control the variables in a new build we can guarantee performance. We have a circa $400k Master Studio build ongoing right now where isolation will be tested to the limits (huge speakers and a guy who likes to turn them all the way up). Even in this situation we have confidence.

In situations where the variables are unknown I would not spend any money or time, it's like building a beautiful dam with a 3ft hole at one end.

I'd suggest great headphones for home and use some of the thousands of amazing studios in LA when you want to make noise.

 

[scott2000]

so the ceiling isn't shared at all?

 

[Script]

Best soundproofing I did years back in an apartment over here was to talk to the neighbor and apologize for always listening to music late at night. Nice old lady didn't say anything, then raised her fingers and pointed at her hearing aides. From that day on she started to listen to loud music herself -- and man, she was hearing impaired for sure.

 

[Gesse]

Still working with soundproofing?