Soundproofing

[Muddymike]

We have an unused door between the main house and the annex which we let as a holiday apartment. The door is between out TV room and a passageway in the annex, close to the annex lounge. The door is screwed shut and the handles removed so it cannot be opened but we do not want to block it off permanently by bricking it up.

Our problem is we feel uncomfortable using the TV room when we have paying guests as sound travels thought the door. I attempted to soundproof it last year by fixing 1" polystyrene and 1/2" plasterboard over the door on the annex side. Sadly this has made little improvement.

There is plenty of depth on the annex side to fix some further form of soundproofing, any recommendations on the best material to use?

Mike

[Ash]

Hi Mike

I haven't much experience of soundproofing ... only in doing it to a shed we had built in our garden for our son so he could practice his drums without disturbing us too much.

When you fitted the polystyrene and plasterboard did you leave a gap or fit them flush ... have you thought about leaving a gap and filling it loosely with loft insulation to try and muffle the sound? Leave the existing soundproofing in place and build a frame in front of it and fill it with loft insulation (B&Q are currently selling rolls at £3 which would be more than enough for your doorway) you may need to staple it in place to stop it all sagging to the bottom. Another sheet of plasterboard over the loft insulation should then see a big improvement in reducing the sound.

Ash

[Cash]

Mike,

Is ther any room there to fit another door (possibly a heavy fire door) thus causing an 'air gap' (as large as possible), which is far more effective than trying to fit something on the existing door?

Cash

[Tom]

I've looked into soundproofing a few times. There are some great products out there (soundproofing plaster board, fibre etc) but you definitely need good advice - there's lots of BS out there on this subject and you only know if you've succeeded once the job is complete.

This company impressed me when I spoke to them:

out the client list... even the bank of england.

Maybe (and I've no connection to these guys) give them a call and see what they say.

Cheers,

Tom

[Lardman]

FWIW

I cut out the racket from next doors TV with the 2 inch general purpose insulation from Wickes, and 9mm plasterboard. It wont stop all the heavy bass noise but its worth a try. I did skim the boards afterwards not sure how much difference that made though.

... just wish I could stop the smell of stale cigarette smoke coming up from under the floor now....

Lard.

[Ash]

Know the feeling well ... the wife spends a small fortune on plug in air fresheners to hide the smell coming in from next door. They must be chaining smoking pipe addicts ... but what can you do? During the summer we can open windows for a nice fresh blast of clean air but in the winter yuk!

Why don't you take up tap dancing and see if they get fed up and move?

Ash

[Rod]

Smoking a cigar or two usually helps... :-)

[AJH]

Sorry to say this but noise can only effectively be stopped in it's tracks by dense material. An acoustics engineer told me that, he also said that stud partitions filled with Rockwool etc won't stop it and I can testify to that. Unfortunately dense or medium density concrete blocks is the way to go. As you don't want anything permanent maybe you could stack some blocks up in the depth of the doorway wall thickness then retain them in place each side with a 2x2 section frame with plasterboard finish. I know it sounds like a bit of an epic but at least you could remove it easily at a future date. If the blocks can be laid belly down they will be quite stable, but they would need a sufficiently strong base substructure to support them.

[Rob]

Mass is certainly the way. I wouldn't rule out airborne transfer, especially if you have a suspended timber floor.

Rob