You guys ever use sound board in your house to dampen noise?

[geepondy]

I live in a condo and sound proof in the wall between my bedroom and neighbors is not that great. Contractor who is doing my bathroom says I can put up a material which he calls "sound board" on top of the wall and then another layer of sheet rock on top of that and says it will make a big difference. Quoted me a fairly reasonable price if I have him do it.

You guys ever use sound board? What is it and what is it's technical name? When I try to look it up on the Internet, I get music responses, likewise not found in home depot sight.

 

[B@rt]

This link might help.

 

[abvidledUK]

You need density to stop sound travelling through walls.

However you do it.

Bricks, sand, plasterboard, anything heavy

 

[Coop]

check out Dynamats products. Good stuff, I used it on a few friends cars, but they have products for in your home too...

http://www.dynamat.com/products_architectural_introduction.html

 

[Jay R]

What are you doing in your bedroom that's making so much noise eh ???? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

 

[cratz2]

I've never used 'soundboard' but we've installed standard insulation between interior walls and between joists under the subfloor between floors. DEFINATELY makes a big difference. There are also expanding foams that do a very good job at blocking >100Hz noise. Most soundbarriers aren't going to do much to stop the lower frequencies because, while all sound is vibration, much below 200 Hz, it's a very real physical vibration so while insulation and probably soundboard may do a very decent job of filtering out screams of agone or ecstasy, it will do basically nothing to stop Nelly's music from the next condo.

 

[9volt]

Check out the articles at http://www.greengluecompany.com/ as well. I'm not suggesting you buy their stuff, but they do have alot of info.

The previous posters were correct about mass and insulation. Insulation will help with highs and mass will help with bass. Just adding another layer of drywall will help, possibly morre than the soundboard.

 

[geepondy]

LOL, no I wasn't thinking screams of ectasy (although it is very annoying when they occasionally shut the dog in there), mainly I was thinking of more thump noises like the door shutting.

 

[Sigman]

I saw the title of this thread and thought someone was using the soundboard in their computer to generate some noise cancellation frequencies or something...Duh!!!

 

[modamag]

The stuff really works great. We went house hunting for a new house couple years back. One of the house was right next to HW101. It was really noisy outside. But when we stepped inside and closed the door, we barely hear the cars zooming by.

The stuff looks like styrofoam, and is commonly found at Home Depot/Lowes construction area.

As for other stuff, eg Dynamat. You're paying for the advertising & hype. Don't get me wrong they make great stuff, I've stripped & dynamated several of my cars. However, for the $$$ you can get much more such as Fatmat and others.

These however are designed mostly for low frequency dampening not "sound barrier", for the $$$ your best bet is the HD/Lowes stuff.

 

[geepondy]

Interesting modamag (thanks for all other links and suggestions as well). Again, I'm not going to tear out the existing wall but do you think it would work as the contractor suggested by putting a layer on top of existing drywall and then another layer of drywall onto of that? From one of the provided links, I read, you should try to glue the drywall to the sound board as the nails will transmit noise.

 

[9volt]

Also, dynamat looks exactly like the 1/4" self adhesive ducting liner sold at HD. Dunno if it works as well, but for the price...

 

[TedTheLed]

poisonous properties aside, applying a layer of lead sheet somewhere in the 'sandwich' against the wall (any thickness - from a thick foil on up, the thicker the better) would be extremely effective in stopping sound tranmission, in addition to keeping Superman from peeking.. (I'm assuming lead would be cheap..?)

 

[Vermonter73]

Ok, first off, a pet peeve. It's DAMPING, not dampening. You want to damp the sound, not dampen it.

The Dynamat stuff stops annoying vibrations in cars, but doesn't do much to stop sound transmission.

Heavy is good, but if it's rigid it will still conduct sound.

A layer of foam between layers of sheetrock, with no studs and no nails or screws, should work pretty well. This allows the sound waves to hit the sheetrock, which then flexes. The foam absorbs the flex, and doesn't transmit it to the other layer.

 

[cratz2]

Also, dynamat looks exactly like the 1/4" self adhesive ducting liner sold at HD. Dunno if it works as well, but for the price...

I don't recall what the name of the product, but there's some stuff that's about 4" wide that looks exactly like Dynamat, except no logo of course. It was right next to the more narrow pieces aluminum flashing at HD or Lowes. It works just as well as Dynamat on doors, but it just wasn't as sticky as Dynamat or Fatmat for the inside of trunk lids. On the front doors and the sides and back of the trunk area, it was 100% sticky. I've installed plenty of Dynamat and have never had similar issues with it.

My cheap recommendation is to get original Dynamat (or Fatmat or whatever brand) for the trunk lid and a couple rolls of the cheap stuff from Lowes or The Home Depot and for the doors and trunk sides and rear and the back of the license plate.

 

[raggie33]

g i thought ya menat a comptuers sound card to. makes me wanna try it.

 

[Vermonter73]

My cheap recommendation is to get original Dynamat (or Fatmat or whatever brand) for the trunk lid and a couple rolls of the cheap stuff from Lowes or The Home Depot and for the doors and trunk sides and rear and the back of the license plate.

The OP is wondering how to soundproof a wall.

 

[JimmyM]

Place a strip of 1/2" high x 1" wide expanded polyurethane foam on the floor against the bottom of the existing wall.
On top of the existing sheetrock, put a good size blob of RTV every foot in a grid pattern. Then get 5/8" sheetrock and lay it up against the blobs of RTV. Push as little as you can. You want it to be held by the little RTV "springs" as far away from the existing wall as possible. Once the RTV sets, the sheetrock isn't going anywhere. Now you have a heavy wall that's as independent of the existing wall as you can get. Joint compound with a flex additive will prevent any joint cracks thay might happen because of the extremely small movements of one sheet with respect to another.
Depending on your humidity conditions where you live, you might want to spray the surfaces with AfterShock. It's a sealer with moldicide/biocide mixed in.