Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Oct 01, 2013 12:50 pm Story in a nut shell, building a new house, planning on adding extra "sound proofing" into the house between the internal walls during the frame stage before the plastering. The way I was going to go about this was to purchase some Insulation / acoustic batts and put them in. Basically I want to sound proof the bedrooms & theatre room better so internally the house is quieter for sleep and entertainment. Is this the best & easiest way to go about it on a budget, DIY insulation sound batts such as earthwool / pink batts from bunnings / masters? Will the acoustic and non acoustic property ones have a big difference or the fact that having insulation batts between the plaster wall and frame help deaden the noise / sound substantially already? Or definately go down the route of purchasing the acoustic insulation batts that help deaden / dampen noise further for more money? Any safety concerns with electrical and plumbing? I know gloves and glasses would be ideal to have on for work with fiber glass / wool etc... Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 2Oct 01, 2013 4:21 pm You'll definitely find a noticeable difference if you load the walls up with acoustic batts. It's a relatively cheap and easy way to improve your home, and something I would never build a house without. When we built our current house we included R2.0 SoundScreen to pretty much all walls, along with Boral SoundStop 13mm plasterboard (although this was too expensive to put everywhere). Living opposite a train line meant noise control was important to us. The batts made a clear difference during construction, where we had the opportunity to find out if they worked before the plaster went up, but the combination of the two is simply incredible. Personally, if I were to build again I would go with R2.5 instead of R2.0 for the batts and make sure the installers actually knew what they were doing with the SoundStop plaster (our guys left gaps around the edges, didn't seal things properly, etc thereby reducing the effectiveness). For rooms that I really wanted quiet I'd go with two layers of plasterboard too, and use Boral's vibration damping mounting system. It'd cost a little bit more but now I've experienced it in person I wouldn't hesitate to hand over a little more cash. The standard batts are nowhere near as effective at controlling noise, you're definitely better off buying proper acoustic batts. They use different materials, with the standard ones doing very little about sound. I can't see any electrical or plumbing issues involved with installation - cut the batt to size, stick it into the frame, and you're done. If you're lucky you can do it the day before they plaster, and be there while they're working to make sure none of it gets removed or knocked out of place. And you're right - gloves, safety glasses, long sleeves and patience are must-have items. Other things to consider is your ceiling insulation (the roof is a big area for heat and noise transmission) - we used SoundStop on all our ceilings and R4.1 (regular, not acoustic) batts with excellent results. And your windows of course... double glazing makes a massive difference to both energy and noise. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 3Oct 01, 2013 4:33 pm Yea I'm leaning to use SoundScreen for some essential walls to mitigate noise. I don't think I'll be totally pedantic about it but I know its very rare that once a house is built you will knock down a wall and insulate or sound deaden it. This is more for general sound proofing for the bedrooms and regards to the design of my house I'll have a wall mount plasma on one side in the family room and on the other side of the wall will be my theatre room so that internal wall I want to deaden properly so both can be running without disrupting one another in event of them both running but that won't happen too frequently anyway. They will be back to back but the sound / speaker will be facing different directions anyway. For the other parts it will be like bathroom kitchen and laundry to a wall next to a bedroom / study so I figured it would be beneficial to sound deaden or insulate those rooms Regarding the R / Thermal rating i'm not actually sure what "batts" they will use on the outer walls but I know insulation is a minimum requirement I might ask my CRM what rating / batts they will use there and the roof as I know every house has to be built to a specific green star rating now anyway... Just checked my building plans: INSULATION R3.5 Glasswool batts to ceiling of roof space only (excludes garage) R2.0 Glasswool wall batts including sisalation to external brick veneer walls (excluding garage) and wall between garage and house. I thought the R 2.0 and R2.5 are just thermal insulation ratings not actual sound deadening / absorbtion? With having the bats held in place I know some people use a staple gun and string to secure the batts between the studs some just make sure its a nice tight snug fit with a batt about 10mm bigger than the actual space so it can seal any gaps and what not. we aren't really living near any train lines or anything too noisey its a new suburban estate nestled away in keysborough. Only the windows at the front of the house and master bedroom will be double glazed as this is where I'd imagine most of the noise will be and the sleeping! Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 4Oct 01, 2013 6:20 pm Some info in this thread [urlhttps://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=67196][/url] Soundscreen is now new generation Soundscreen, with better noise figures. It is essentially residential Rockwool, still in use for studios etc. For the walls, you might look at 13mm or 16mm Fire Rated Plaster, which can perform as well, but a bit more affordable. If you have a particular wall that is closer to a noise source, like the family room, a sheet of 13 + a sheet of 16 works better than 2 of the same thickness. Overlap the sheets, so edges do not align, and for maximum performance seal every edge with a good acoustical sealant, including window frames. A good seal around the doors reduces leakage to / from other rooms. Raven is a good Aussie brand, varying styles for budgets. Sound gets in from anywhere, and if a concern, Soundscreen above the ceiling plaster can top off, budget permitting of course. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 5Oct 01, 2013 7:17 pm great thanks for that yea unfortunately I won't have too much time or input on the house is being built by a volume builder and the contract, build materials and post contract variations are done and dusted. So I'll only be able to sneak in during the weekends to improve the build some what and mitigate some potential future issues. Stuff that's easy to do accessible and DIYablle I don't work as a tradie as my day job so my abilities are limited. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 6Oct 01, 2013 7:22 pm no problems. Sounds like your location won't be too noisy, and the main issues might come between the family room and theatre room. That would be the one, if at all possible, to add a 16mm sheet as well. But, as we know, variations can cost a bomb. Maybe later, if it warrants it. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 7Oct 01, 2013 7:46 pm yea the other BR's probably not too critical but One has adjoning walls to the bathroom & kitchen, the other br is inbetween the laundry and master br ensuite which will really be purposed for as a study. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 8Oct 05, 2013 7:02 am I'm not familiar with the acoustic-rated products, but even regular pink batts can make an enormous difference in the amount of sound transmitted through a room. Mind you, I was only trying to make the granny flat quieter, not muffle a train! Don't forget to add insulation to the joist spaces adjacent to the walls, too. Other low-tech solutions include adding a second layer of drywall with the seams staggered, or putting bookcases up against the wall. (If you glue corkboard or some other sound-deadening material to the back of the bookcase and screw the case to the wall, it can help quite a bit.) Chris Chris On the threshold of retirement... and trying to check my assumptions at the door Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 10Oct 07, 2013 9:04 pm Hi there. All of these suggestions will help to some end. The only two ways to effectively isolate sound is by adding mass to the walls (such as double plastering with 16mm fyrchek) or decoupling the walls, ceiling and floor from other rooms. Most batt products will reduce resonances within wall cavities and absorb some of the middle to higher freq sounds but bass and lower freqs will pass through almost untouched. If you just want to muffle some of the sound leaking between walls batts will help. Just be reasonable in your expectations. I think what I am suggesting is way beyond what you want to do but sound reduction is cheapish. Sound isolation is something altogether different, harder and way more expensive. Good luck. Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 11Oct 08, 2013 2:13 pm yea not after isolation as much just to reduce sound travel within the house so say 2 tv's can run back to back wall mounted and not "disrupt" the other on the other side of the wall with fairly normal sound levels not like super loud and what not Re: Sound Proofing / Deadening 12Oct 08, 2013 5:18 pm Sounds like you are on the right path. Just be mindful that leaking sound is like a leaking bucket of water. You need to plug all the holes. Sound will also travel through your ceiling and floors. Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20650 thanks Chippy, i hope they have applied sealer but i am doubt to be honest, so i am gonna do this job after handover. 8 16268 Brass fly wire, you will need to cut it, shape it and jam it into brick slots 1 7464 |