What is the most cost-effective way to sound-proof a room?
Question by Bill Smith: What is the most cost-effective way to sound-proof a room?
In the process of building interior walls to create offices inside a building. Private conversations will be taking place in those offices, so they need to be soundproofed. Is there any particular (preferably inexpensive) material that can be placed within the walls that is effective at blocking sound?
Best answer:
Answer by Phil
The best way to soundproof a room is to build double walls around the office. both walls should have batts of insulation in them and leave a small space between the walls so that vibrations cannot pass from 1 wall to the other. It is also good to put a foam sill seal material under and over the framing to lessen the vibration transfer into the main building structure.
Give your answer to this question below!
There’s a new product out now called “QuietRock” It’s like regular sheetrock but the difference is that it has a metal quieting barrier in the center. It dampens a lot of sound and is used for homes in noisy areas like near a freeway or near airports.
Use Corebond insulation. It is the spray in foam. Works great.
A variant of the first answer: Stagger the wall studs so that half of them support one side of the wall, and half support the other. If you were using 2X6 studs you’d end up with an 8″ wall, with a stud every 8 inches. Then fill the gaps with insulation, preferably one built for sound damping.
A variant of the second answer: put metal furring strips horizontally across the studs, then screw standard drywall onto those. This is particularly effective when using wood studs, basically the metal pieces behave like springs to let the drywall vibrate without vibrating the studs.
On a really basic level: Put up two layers of drywall, so it is 1″ or even 1 1/2″ thick. The more weight, the less sound goes through it.