Greetings, I am in the planning process of soundproofing a condo for AV use, and am fairly familiar with the standard issues/solutions. I have recently read about special interior wall paints (e.g., Acousti-Coat #150) that purports to provide significant soundproofing abilities ("reduces sound transmission and reflection by 30%). Sounds a little too easy to be true. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this type of product?

[IronGiant]

I can see a paint might absorb some sound, but 30% ?

Wow 3 coats and I'd be in heaven

Sorry, I don't believe it...

Welcome to the forums by the way.

dave

[clarky78]

This sounds ideal for us as we have just moved house and can here our neighbours talking and tv's etc, though louder noises don't seem to transmit !? Might be worth a try, but, as this quote from their website FAQ's says, it won't be good enough for sound insulation on an 'extreme' level, like your penthouse:

Q: My son plays drums in our garage, will AC keep the noise from going through the walls into our house? ANS: NO, Acousti-Coat is not designed for EXTREME sound control nor will it help with sound transfer through, Wall penetrations, Door and window openings, Stomping and banging from the floor above or a blasting powerful stereo in your neighbors unit next door.

Extreme sound problems of this nature require extensive sound control applications, all very expensive and very complicated. Acousti-Coat was developed as a relatively inexpensive, easy to apply solution for situations where echo within the room needs to be reduced and where sound in the Speech Range frequencies needs to be reduced through the coated surface.

[woody67]

I could imagine a potential reduction of reflected sound (but not 30%) and higher frequencies at that, but I can't see how it would manage to prevent sound passing through it

[baldrick]

Unless it's a thick liquid rubber I can't really see how a paint can provide any proper soundproofing!?!?

The most effective way to soundproof is to build a room within a room, with the inner 'room' isolated from the original walls.

Effectively the walls and ceilings are mounted on springs so that they actually move and absorb all of the sound waves that would otherwise pass through the physical structure.

The floor should use a very heavy board ideally laid on some form of membrane to isolate it from the joists.

The real downside with fully soundproofed rooms is that they will get very hot and have very little natural airflow. Windows and doorway are the biggest problem. Windows can be worked around using good secondary glazing or have 'plugs' that fill the openings when you want to run the system at a good volume.

Doorways can only really be solved by having an airlock type of affair, with 2 doors one of which is attached to the isolated wall...

We are about to embark on building a new house and I'm looking into the options of soundproofing one of the rooms...

[mattym]

if your building from scratch you have a much better chance to soundproof it well! You can get acoustic vents and vent covers iirc