Scrapped plans and redesigned, already framed

  • Thread starter Thread starter undrgrnd studio
  • Start date Start date
undrgrnd studio said:
I was trying explain to him what you wrote about using a puddy pad around the box, and he wasn't understanding.
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UG,

A putty pad is just that - it's a flat pad made of fire proof putty - it can be oicked up at any electrical supply warehouse - it doesn't stuff the box - it wraps around the back of the box - and around the wires entering the box.

Picture your drywall mass - and then look at your box - it has little mass at all - the putty makes up fo rthe loss of mass - and is good to about a weighted 40 dB of isolation.

Now - I am not going to mention this again after this last time.

The walls (and ceiling) you are building is what is typical for a standard office - nothing special - not very sound isolating - and something that you will hear the radio in the next room.

You seem to thing that concrete is a great isolator - and (for the purpose of music) it isn't........

I suppose the best thing would be for you to do your single layer (but make it all 5/8" - the 1/2" is useless) and then set up a pa system and play some music through it at the same levels that your band will be playing at - then check around to see how well isolated everything is.

Do this before you paint everything out and do all you trims and stuff - because then when you want to add another layer it won't be a killer.

And - before you tape your corners and to the floor - make certain you caulk them using backer rod along with the caulk.

That is your maximum isolation - because wherever air can go - sound goes.

A 16" thick crack along the edge of a wall 10' long is the same as a a 7 1/2" square hole right through the wall - that's 3 x 2.5 just sitting wide open -

The caulks are important - very important.

Rod
 
Thanks for the input. I always planned on using 5/8ths sheet rock all around, the 1/2" sheets are only on the back sides of the walls I can reach to cover the insulation.

I already can hear the difference just from foaming and insulating the floor joists that separate the apartments. When I first walked down into that basement I could clearly make out what the neighbors were saying on their side of the basement. Now, with only the insulation and expandable foam in those areas I can still hear them if it's dead silent on my side, but their voices are muffled. If they are being loud I can still hear their muffled voices over a very quiet radio.


What I am expecting out of this is by no means a sound proof room, not even a "nearly" sound proof room. What I needed was a way to reduce the sound in my neighbors house from "that sounds like a live band two feet away from me", to " damn my neighbor must be playing again, oh well I'll turn the TV up". As it was, if I played an electric guitar WITHOUT amplification the neighbors would know if I played the wrong note. Now, you probably wouldn't even hear it over there. When I'm done, I should be able to play an acoustic guitar pretty loud inside my room without the neighbors really noticing. I'll never get amplified bass and live drums down to a whisper over there, but I certainly will have reduced it.


I will be sheetrocking the stair landing's ceiling, that should further reduce the sound. I understand it will only help a little bit. But all of that, is on the OTHER side of this room I am building. Once the room is sealed up nicely, I bet I won't hear a peep from the neighbors when I am inside it. They wont hear me either, UNTIL I start playing live music. They WILL hear that, but I think it will be at a very acceptable level at a decent hour.

I do most recording though from 7pm-2am on Saturdays. The way it is now I'll do some guitar work, and I will do vocals. But no drums or live band playing after about 8:30-9.


What is backer rod BTW? I'm finishing up hanging the sheet rock on the lower half of my room tonight. I was going to do one layer of compound before I left. I figured the compound would fill the cracks just fine. But if your saying I can squeeze a few more decibels of reduction out of doing some extra caulking as well, I'll spend the extra time.
 
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you don't caulk the center of the wall - but the edges where they meet walls to ceiling - to other walls and to floors.......

Backer rod is a thin round piece of soft styrofoam that comes in various thicknesses (3/8" should be perfect for your needs) and is available to home despot - it is required for your caulk joints in order to help make certain they don't fail.

They create a 2 point contact for the caulk (which is GOOD) and stop a 3 point contact joint (which is BAD)

Rod
 
JuliánFernández said:
Rod? :confused:
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Julian,

First off - I'm fine =- and how are you doing?

Now - the wall compositions are explained at the top of the sheet - the one on the left is a double wall construction with one layer of 1/2" on one face - and 2 layers of 1/2" on the other face -

the walls themselves are 2x4 @ 16" o.c. and each wall has flluffy fiberglass insulation within the cavity.

The 2nd wall is exactly the same construction with the exception of both walls having 2 layers of 1/2" drywall.

The point I was trying to make was - all other things being equal - the real bang for the buck that you can get by just adding that additional layer of drywall........

The tests were taken from IR-761 which tested over 300 wall types

Rod
 
Thanks Rod!!! :D

Next year i´m gonna build my first "real" studio... (right now i have a nice isolated room in my house)... So, be ready to receive lots of questions! hahhah

btw, Your book is already on my Christmas whishlist! :p
 
Now, if I build a cylinder & put it inside, albiet completely decoupled, (except where I got lonely & took my wife with me) another cylinder then go inside to piss in a corner I'll get a cube in a basement - right?
Oh, oh - egg cartons NOT egg shells - I get it now!



Sorry - just being me - ie: silly.
I enjoyed following this thread - I learnt a lot and am particularly annoyed that it proves my father right again! He always yabbered on about if something ..."is worth doing - it's worth doing well".
 
I just about finished this project last weekend. I still need to build some kind of plug to fill the window cavity when I want to really stop the sound, and I also need to stain and weatherstrip the doors.

I can't give you a scientifically measured result, but I can give you my perception on the results.

There are two huge benefits that I have gained, first is the absence of "thumping" from my kids walking around upstairs, and second is total absence of any perceptible sound from the basement when you are on the top floor.

There is some sound carry over on the first floor, but it is minimal. Not enough to bother anyone. There is perceptible sound from outside the apartment by the window, but I will be taking care of that when I build a removable plug.

You can hear sound at about 40-50% of the actual volume when you stand right outside the room. This will be further reduced once I finish the weatherstripping and window plug. The good news is, that sound then has to travel through a cement wall to get to the neighbors. So I accomplished what I set out to accomplish, which was a significant reduction in sound on a budget..

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the results.
 
update

I finally built a plug for the window by framing out a tiny wall the size of the window opening, filling it with r13, facing it with particle board, covering it in carpet padding, wrapping it in fabric, adding handles, and then squeezing it into the opening. It doesn't fit as well as I had hoped. The carpet padding was a bit thicker than I thought, but it does fit in there tightly and I can get it about halfway in the opening. More than enough to seal the room up.

I decided to test the limits and played with a full band at midnight, and haven't had one complaint or even dirty look from a neighbor. It seems I accomplished my goal and much more. I couldn't be more thrilled. I wish I could have sealed the back of the ceiling and the two other walls, but it just wasn't accessible. It probably would have helped even more.

Thank you guys for all the help. I wouldn't have been able to do it without all the research I did reading your threads. I'll try to post pics later tonight if I can.
 
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