Hanging acoustic panels without drilling holes

[mattcoffay]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post here...I've read the forums for quite a while but haven't ever had to ask a question. In this case, though, after running quite a few searches I wasn't able to find what I'm looking for.

So, here's the deal: I'm moving into a new studio space in a couple of weeks. The live/tracking room is going to be several hundred square feet (I've yet to get in and take precise measurements) with roughly 12 foot ceilings. It's in a finished basement, which means it's all drywall surrounded by concrete; so, there's a lot of sound insulation which results in a very reverberant room.

I want to hang acoustic panels in the room to treat it for recording purposes, but I don't want to drill holes in the wall and cause a loss of sound insulation in the room (by the way, someone stop me and let me know if drilling holes for hanging panels won't affect the room's sound insulation...I'm just assuming that it would). Previously, I've built acoustic panels by attaching Roxul 60 to 1x2 wood frames and wrapping in burlap.

I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of how I could somehow surface mount some of these in this room, rather than drilling holes in the wall and doing the picture wire thing? I'm wanting to do 4 corner panels, a couple of clouds, and a few wall panels as well, and I want to have air space between the panels and walls/ceiling.

Thanks very very much in advance.

[pan]

Glue wood panels on the ceiling and walls where needed - you can then drill and screw (in) those ...dependend on the weight you want to fix they need to have a certain size though...like 5-6 inches square per corner of your cloud.

[skiltrip]

I screwed my 2x4x2" panels right into my ceiling...

Wrapped in burlap, glued on the back, with no wood attached on the back.

I took 7 3" sheetrock screws, each with a washer that's about an inch in diameter. drilled the panel right to the ceiling, one screw in each corner, 2 in the middle of the longer sides, and 1 in the middle for extra support. Dont drill them in tight... just until you see the panel pull in a teeny tiny bit. I mean a tiny bit. You can even use 4" sheet rock screws and let the panels float off the ceiling and inch or so, leaving some space between the back of the panel on the ceiling. No wood on teh back and you're getting more absorbtion. Also, it's much lighter, which is good for mounting on the ceiling.

[mattcoffay]

Right, but I want to *avoid* drilling holes into the walls and ceiling because I want to keep the room soundproof.

I'm not sure I understood the bit about how big the strips of wood would need to be in order to support the panels (I think that a 2' x 4' Roxul 60 panel on 1x2 wood ends up weighing something like 10 lbs). Also, what kind of glue would I use, and how would I get these things off the wall at some point?

[skiltrip]

Originally Posted by mattcoffay

Right, but I want to *avoid* drilling holes into the walls and ceiling because I want to keep the room soundproof.

I'm not sure I understood the bit about how big the strips of wood would need to be in order to support the panels (I think that a 2' x 4' Roxul 60 panel on 1x2 wood ends up weighing something like 10 lbs). Also, what kind of glue would I use, and how would I get these things off the wall at some point?

Sheetrock screws in sheetrock shouldn't compromise soundproofing characteristics. But if you can figure out a screwless solution, that's cool too.

[johndykstra]

I'm a bit confused as to what "drywall surrounded by concrete" means

[mattcoffay]

Sorry--meaning that the room is in the basement of the house, where the foundation is laid: so the room's interior is drywall, behind which is insulation, followed by concrete outside of the house (as opposed to a drywall interior, followed by insulation and some sort of vinyl siding or something that wouldn't provide any real soundproofing).

[johndykstra]

I would hang them on the walls using cleats (see attachment)

You can caulk around the edges of the cleat if you feel the need, to make it air tight.

Also, if you make the cleats the right size, you'll get the spacing from the wall that you want too.

[andrebrito]

If you live in Europe or Australia check Flexiglue, great glue for foam and EPS, should also work perfectly in wood

[Colorblind]

Originally Posted by dykstraster@gmai

I would hang them on the walls using cleats (see attachment)

You can caulk around the edges of the cleat if you feel the need, to make it air tight.

Also, if you make the cleats the right size, you'll get the spacing from the wall that you want too.

+1

C