how to soundproof bedroom wall ?

Sleepy

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Hi, I can hear My neighbors TV loud at night, as well as her talking and her dog barking.

How will be the cheapest most effective way of sound proofing my bedroom wall to stop her noise? Its only a 3 meter wall and i think its dot&dab.

Also the best place to order the materials online? I had a look in b&q but they only had loft installation.

I can do the work myself and was thinking of putting carpet tiles on the new plasterboard to save paying to have it plastered.

I have made a quick diagram, the red line is where i can hear the noise.

Thanks for any help.
 

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I think the problem here is that it is all well and good to insulate the wall but it is the spaces around it and the brick in between the walls.

you would have to sort out the whole room and do every single wall, the ceiling and the floor to make sure you can stop the noise.



btw, how old/new is your house?

if it is new there are certain regulations that need to be in place to do with noise levels.
 
Sound-proofing, easier said than done. When we were in Worcester we had some awful neighbours so I seriously considered trying to block the racket. But the amount of work involved to be fairly sure of getting it right was awesome.

You have to work on every point of entry of the sound. And if the joists ran into the adjoining wall, things got really difficult, because the joists would transmit the noise too.

But a High performance acoustic membrane is a good place to start.

In the end, while pondering what to do, I looked at the problem from the opposite end. I blocked up my ears with foam earplugs (the ones from SuperDrug were particularly effective) and before I got round to doing anything expensive the b*******s moved away and my karma was restored.
 
Hi, I can hear My neighbors TV loud at night, as well as her talking and her dog barking.

Thanks for any help.

Tell her to ****! Inform her you can her her and to please keep it down. I'm sure it will work.
If not turn your up and she will get the idea.
 
thanks for the replys

The place is about 20 years old, Told her a couple of times now but the noise just keeps on. The walls are so thin.
 
ahh dont think you will be covered by the noise regulations then.

just was saying because my Granny has has lots of problems in her place and it was found out that they had not built it to the correct standards.
does not mean it is crap by any means.

just is annoying that you can hear others walking around the place!
 
Drill a small hole in the adjoining wall... don't go right through the wall, stop when you hit the cavity. Place a microphone in the hole so it can pick up all the racket, then plug it into your fully turned up amp and connect every speaker you can get your hands on & point them at the wall... every time she makes a noise she'll get it back 20 times louder.

That should do it! :smashin:
 
I do currently have my speakers facing towards her wall that come on if she gets too loud. it never makes any difference though.

I've tried using ear plugs but cant sleep with them in as there to uncomfortable.

I can hear her tv/talking as im typing this and im getting more and more wound up.
 
Swap your rooms around fella, any reason you can't make the lounge your bedroom? Is it a flat?

yeah its a flat, well maisonette.

Bedroom is to small to be a lounge, and the lounge is to noisy to be a bedroom because of traffic, theres no winning :rolleyes:
 

As said above, try this stuff... the one top of the list - gotta be worth a shot at £50 a roll... soundproofing materials price list

"This material has excellent sound insulating properties. Many construction materials and techniques do not provide enough damping. Rigid sheet materials such as plasterboard absorb little sound energy becuase they tend to vibrate and re-radiate sound on the other side quite effectively. Tecsound acoustic membrane however has tremendous density and mass whilst being extremely 'limp', its acoustically better than lead of the same surface mass, so will help absorb sound energy far more efficiently."
 
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Drill a small hole in the adjoining wall... don't go right through the wall, stop when you hit the cavity. Place a microphone in the hole so it can pick up all the racket, then plug it into your fully turned up amp and connect every speaker you can get your hands on & point them at the wall... every time she makes a noise she'll get it back 20 times louder.

That should do it! :smashin:

PMSL!!!!!!!!
:arty:
 
To stop noise, I used

50mm kingspan in stud work (to stop my neighbour getting free heat)
Studwork screwed to each other, ceiling and floor....not wall.
12.5mm Wallboard plasterboard
15mm Soundbloc plasterboard (tested with my neighbour.....)
Carpet underlay
15mm Soundbloc plasterboard

I tested with my neighbour my music "rather louder than normal" and i could nothing bar a little pop pop pop of the bass. So based on that, i bought 3 more sheets of soundbloc and bunging in some carpet underlay which is going to get dumped anyway.

So based on that i have 42.5mm of plasterboard, underlay and insulation boards on neighbours wall.
Rest of the room is same just without the underlay and second 15mm boards.

Should do the trick.

Agree with "johntheexpat" though, sound proofing is a NIGHTMARE. I seemed to almost cracked it though.
 
I did similar to richsmif. Got a '60s house which has only got a single course of cinderblock as a party wall.

1. Built a frame from CLS (Cheapest usable timber) 10-20mm from the surface of the existing wall, secured to floor and ceiling, not to the wall.
2. Lined the framework with Knauff accoustic roll - it's a super dense fibreglass for this sort of job.
3. put a layer of 9mm OSB for strength, fixed to framework only. Sealed around the edges with Soundall expanding Accoustic foam/adhesive.
4. covered with a layer of soundblock plasterboard (the blue stuff)
5. Skim of plaster. Then finish of choice (wallpaper, tiles, etc)

The improvement is definitely noticeable. Impact noises are still there, as they're transmitted through the denser wall structures, but vocal noises are significantly muted. We were at our wits end prior to this - next door are definitelty disfunctional (council house). This has made thing much better, though not perfect.

In all I did all the joining walls of the house, probably worked out about 30sq m in total and cost about £500 - all the materials are available at B&Q.

It's worth bearing in mind that this also cost me 100mm off the length of each room - that could be a problem in some areas.
 
Regardless of the age of a property, installing an independent soundproofed stud wall system will give the best results at reducing noise through any party wall. However, with more modern post war houses, the cavity in the structural walls and lighter construction materials will mean that flanking noise around the party wall will reduce the efficiency of any acoustic improvement made to the party wall.
 
Problem with trying to sort out noise related issues is a right mare - where air gets sound will travel so basically you want air tightness. No mean feat and costly also. The options you have perhaps are to "cushion" the sound.

How you do that is dependant on where you have your furniture and such. I found that having plenty of soft furnishings in my old house such as cushions and heavy fabrics reduced the noise or perhaps it was a placebo effect!

But with experience of living in a maisonette many years ago I know exactly the pains your going through there fella!

Only real option is spend a wad of cash or take that cash and save towards a deposit on a house - a detached one!
 
There are a few practical ideas on this website

Knauf and Gyproc both have PDFs for soundproofing construction using soundbloc/ acoustic insulation. Don't forget the floor and flanking paths.

I found this place to be the cheapest with delivery for soundbloc and Knauf acoustic slabs (RS45).

Toolstation do acoustic sealant at a good price.

And I've just seen the date the thread was started.. :rolleyes:
 

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