Soundproofing a wall

[markbuild]

  I have just moved into new home in North London , Victorian build. We are noticing a lot of sounds from next door, TV and kids playing etc. g etc. Has anyone any ideas on some good soundproofing and don't mind losing some space on the walls, we also have electric plugs on wall so need to sort those out as well. Cheers M

 

[Onoff]

I'd say batten the walls leaving service voids for cabling. Then pack with Rockwool batts and overboard with SoundBloc plasterboard. 

 

If you haven't got too many sockets and switches easy enough to crimp extensions on.

 

The face of the new pb would be something like 65mm off the old wall. You could mess around stacking extension boxes or possibly move the sockets and light switches up/down to new positions and even take the opportunity to add extra ones. Observe safe zones of course!

 

https://www.ukelectricalsupplies.com/search.htm?search=Metal+extension+box

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2018 by Onoff

[Onoff]

Btw, Gyproc SoundBloc boards you can get bigger than normal 8'x4" pb. They are incredibly heavy compared to normal ones but do the job I guess as they're denser. 

 

 

[Mr Punter]

As above but fix horizontal resilient bars to the vertical battens before fixing the plasterboard.  Seal all the edges with mastic before you fix skirtings.

[markbuild]

Hi, thanks for all the advice. I have seen a product called Genieclips. Apparently, they are the best form of resilience you can get in soundproofing a party wall. The website I was on also said that they could be attached direct to the party wall.

[Jeremy Harris]

We were in a similar position about 30 years ago.  First thing I'd say is don't expect miracles; you can reduce sound transmission but you almost certainly cant get rid of it completely.  My expectations were too high and even though I managed to make a massive reduction to the sound coming through the party wall I was never happy that I'd done enough!

 

I opted for a fairly cheap way to reduce the sound transmission, at the cost of a loss of some room space.  I built a new stud wall about 4" away from the party wall, and not attached to it at all.  I fixed it to the floor ceiling and side walls only.  I then started to board it out with two layers of plaster board, bonded together with PVA.  I used thick plasterboard planks, rather than whole sheets, that were only 600mm wide, but 3/4" thick.  As I boarded it out, starting from the bottom, I filled the void between the new wall and the old with cellulose insulation.  This was the densest stuff I could buy at the time in the local DIY store.  Filling the very top was difficult, so I resorted to putting the insulation inside plastic bags and stuffing it in.

 

To finish things off I put up bookshelves on that wall and filled it with every text book I could lay my hands on - the heavier the better. 

 

The result was reasonable, we could no longer here the couple next door shouting at each other, or things like their light switches clicking on and off, but we could still hear their stereo, but not usually their TV.  All around I think it was a success, and not that expensive, as everything was standard stuff from the local DIY store.

[gowman]

Genieclips sound good, we are in the process of soundproofing a party wall. What web page did you see this on ? Thanks in advance.

[markbuild]

The genie clips we found on Soundstop web site, will attach link below and many thanks to JSHarris for your help as well. https://www.soundstop.co.uk/soundproofing/soundproofing-walls/Genieclip-wall-solution2.php

 

 

[Adsibob]

I see that genieclips were discussed on this thread. I have soundproofed a utility room and I am very happy with it. We used various quite expensive products in combination with eachother and have succeeded in being able to run both laundry machines in the utility room without hearing them outside the utility room. Only problem is that I now want to hang shelves on my utility room wall and I'm concerned that piercing the wall to fix shelf brackets will compromise the soundproofing. 

 

One solution I am contemplating is to put up some genieclips, and then use a furring strip or channel (like the one shown here) and then attach the brackets to those furring channels. Will this work, or am I missing something obvious?