Best sound insulation for mounting on inside of walls?

Mike H · 5th January 2007

I have two adjacent rooms in my home dedicated to studio use (no more spare bedrooms

):
(1) One for computer, racks, gear, tape deck, amp heads, etc.
(2) One for cabs and mics.

The cab/mic room is thermally insulated (in 2x6 walls), but not sound insulated. This has worked, but as we get more traffic along our road (we are in the county, with cities starting to encroach), the car/truck noise has become a problem when tracking. So, I need to keep the noise out.

I really don't want to tear into the walls. I'd like to install sheets of something on the inside walls, as well as over the one window in the room. I'm thinking covering the (double pane) window will get 80+% of the problem.

I looked at the Auralex website
http://www.acoustics101.com/walls.asp
and they basically recommend a layer of their SheetBlok (1/8" dense vinyl rolls, 1 lb/sq ft) covered with one or two additional layers of sheetrock.

Maybe, as a first step, I'll just hang a couple of 4 ft wide rolls of SheetBlok over the window, to see if this solves most of the problem. It won't look too great, but it would avoid a lot of work.

Is the SheetBlok/sheetrock approach the way you'd go?
Anything easier that wil get me most of the way there?

Ethan Winer · 5th January 2007

Mike,

Quote:

the car/truck noise has become a problem when tracking. So, I need to keep the noise out. I really don't want to tear into the walls. I'd like to install sheets of something on the inside walls, as well as over the one window in the room.

I'm not an isolation expert, but I'm sure you'll need much more than thin sheets of anything to make a dent in this problem. The cheapest and most effective barrier is plain old sheet rock.

For your window you could make a one-inch thick plug from that, or maybe use MDF, and use rubber gaskets to seal the edges to the wall around the window when it's in place. As for the wall itself, adding a thin layer of vinyl will do very little if anything to help. Another layer of sheet rock will do more, but even that's not a total solution is the noise leakage is very bad.

--Ethan

xaos · 5th January 2007

Truck vibration and noise has a tendency to travel through the ground. Is building a floating floor within reason? You may be surprised after all you work is done that the auto related noise is not all gone.
I built one in my room, floating the floor on neoprene blocks. It works great.

As always, Ethan's advice is great and I would follow it to the letter.

5th January 2007	#1
Mike H Lives for gear Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Oregon Posts: 1,748 Thread Starter	Best sound insulation for mounting on inside of walls? I have two adjacent rooms in my home dedicated to studio use (no more spare bedrooms ): (1) One for computer, racks, gear, tape deck, amp heads, etc. (2) One for cabs and mics. The cab/mic room is thermally insulated (in 2x6 walls), but not sound insulated. This has worked, but as we get more traffic along our road (we are in the county, with cities starting to encroach), the car/truck noise has become a problem when tracking. So, I need to keep the noise out. I really don't want to tear into the walls. I'd like to install sheets of something on the inside walls, as well as over the one window in the room. I'm thinking covering the (double pane) window will get 80+% of the problem. I looked at the Auralex website http://www.acoustics101.com/walls.asp and they basically recommend a layer of their SheetBlok (1/8" dense vinyl rolls, 1 lb/sq ft) covered with one or two additional layers of sheetrock. Maybe, as a first step, I'll just hang a couple of 4 ft wide rolls of SheetBlok over the window, to see if this solves most of the problem. It won't look too great, but it would avoid a lot of work. Is the SheetBlok/sheetrock approach the way you'd go? Anything easier that wil get me most of the way there?

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5th January 2007	#3
xaos Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 292	Truck vibration and noise has a tendency to travel through the ground. Is building a floating floor within reason? You may be surprised after all you work is done that the auto related noise is not all gone. I built one in my room, floating the floor on neoprene blocks. It works great. As always, Ethan's advice is great and I would follow it to the letter.