Internal partition walls Stud work Vs block work

[romario]

I would love to hear other people thoughts on deciding whether to go for stud work with plasterboards or block work.

 

The property is a single storey  and I am currently thinking of doing a bit of mix of both.

 

Dense concrete blocks on:

Walls on South facing side of the building to increase the heavy mass and for the sound insulation between kitchen / living and bedrooms

 

Studwork on:

Kids bedrooms, corridor walls, reasons for that:

Easier to run any cables, safer for kids when they heat plasterboard wall comparing to concrete wall; It is a lot softer, I've done it myself

 

 

Mixed filling on bathrooms. For sound insulation I would prefer block work but it is easier to run and hide plumbing pipes in the studwork.

 

It would be great to see other people opinions.

[Oz07]

Prefer the feeling of solid walls in my current place. Realistically though I would use partitions in new build myself just so much easier and cheaper 

[Moonshine]

When it comes to sound insulation, a dense block work wall will always out perform a lightweight wall at low frequencies for a similar thickness of wall.

However you can get some high overall sound insulation with stud work (staggered stud), and better high frequency performance, with a slightly thicker wall.

If services are an issue with block, there is no reason why you can't batten off the block 20-50mm to create a services void and plaster board fixed to the battens.

And if you were battening off and sound insulation was key, you could always fill the cavity with insulation and resiliently mount the plaster board

Edited July 23, 2019 by Moonshine

[nod]

I fix MF framing for a living 

But I’ve used block to devise rooms off Except for bathrooms and utility on the ground floor 

Though it’s a bit of a myth that better soundproofing can be achieved using block 

To decide our bathrooms I’ve used two back to back 70 mil studded walls with a 50 cavity 

With a loo on either wall you can’t hear the flush from one bathroom to the other 

Two 50 mil studs back to back with a 50 cavity will give you better soundproofing than a 100 mil timber stud 

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, nod said:

[...]

Two 50 mil studs back to back with a 50 cavity will give you better soundproofing than a 100 mil timber stud 

 

That's four sheets of PB, Gary?

[Ian]

30 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

 

That's four sheets of PB, Gary?

The plasterboard is only on the outside faces Ian.

The two separate studs make a big difference to the acoustic qualities of the overall wall as there's no direct transmission path for structure borne sound. British Gypsum has a very good website which lists various partition wall types together with their acoustic ratings.

As with everything else, the detail is important eg not putting sockets back-to-back on either side of an acoustic wall. Sealing any air gaps is also v important.

 

[nod]

47 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

 

That's four sheets of PB, Gary?

Just two Ian

[joe90]

You can use 75mm stud, just stagger them so they overlap without touching.

[Oz07]

@nod so 150mm total though exc plasterboard. 

[nod]

Just now, nod said:

Just two Ian

A lot the work I do is party walls 

Factories offices

The sound will carry through dense material 

The middle unit is engineering lots of noice and radios 

The other two are offices staff 

So sound could easy become an issue 

[Oz07]

Yeh what about 4" sole and header with 3" studs art staggered 300mm centres. Would this give a superior sound resistance? Can't put nogs in centre I suppose with this way

[nod]

1 minute ago, Oz07 said:

@nod so 150mm total though exc plasterboard. 

150 plus single layer of 15 sound block 180 in total 100 mil acoustic quilt 

[nod]

18 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Yeh what about 4" sole and header with 3" studs art staggered 300mm centres. Would this give a superior sound resistance? Can't put nogs in centre I suppose with this way

Ideally you would have two independent  walls so thy sound doesn’t travel 

You can brace across the middle using mdf straps 

[Temp]

If you really wanted to go to town on sound proofing then it would be four layers of plasterboard - two each side. Staggered offset studs...

 

https://www.plinthandchintz.com/glossary/staggered-stud-wall-construction/

 

[the_r_sole]

.

Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[willbish]

12 hours ago, Temp said:

If you really wanted to go to town on sound proofing then it would be four layers of plasterboard - two each side. Staggered offset studs...

 

https://www.plinthandchintz.com/glossary/staggered-stud-wall-construction/

 

Is that Green Glue between the sheets of pb?

[jack]

Doesn't say so at the link, but it could well be. I looked into using that but didn't in the end. I'm glad, because the rest of the detailing by the plasterboard contractor was so crap that the green stuff wouldn't have made a dB of difference to the sound-proofing within the house.

[Oz07]

Did you do the offset studs then @jack

[jack]

No. I had grand plans to do so, particularly around the TV room and between bathrooms. But in the end, the plasterboarding suddenly happened sooner than I'd planned for, so I didn't end up using any additional sound-proofing techniques (other than double-boarding all internal walls).

 

I'm generally not that happy with the inter-room soundproofing. It's something I'd definitely pay more attention to if I were doing it all again.

[joe90]

Our stud walls are only between two guest bedrooms (one  a part time office) and another around built in wardrobes so I did not priorities it, all others are heavy block, if studs  were anywhere else I would have double boarded and staggered timbers. (I wish I had double boarded or/and resilience bars on all downstairs ceilings.

[romario]

Thank you for all the contributions.

I find this forum amazing that I ask for an opinion between A and B and the conversation goes so much further and people come with options C, D and E that I haven't thought about.

Edited July 27, 2019 by romario

[Moonshine]

Options on sound insulation are like arseholes, every one has one.

[Simplysimon]

8 hours ago, Moonshine said:

Options on sound insulation are like arseholes, every one has one.

and mine's essential! ?