Soundproofing a single wall?

[Ady]

I live in a terraced house built around 1910. The dividing wall with my neighbours in my lounge is of single brick construction. This particular wall is the one behind my head when I sit listening to my system, photo below. The wall measures 267cm from floor to ceiling and is 470cm wide. The coving is solid plaster and skirting board solid wood.
Sound travels quite easily through this wall.
Is there a material that could be placed on this wall that would reduce the passage of noise?
The first obvious contraint is that the material could only be about 4cm thick. The second is that I have no intention of removing the coving, the skirting board possibly.

Bearing in mind the above, is it worth trying or would the sound just find it's way through via parts of the house I cannot treat?

Thanks in advance
Ady

Ps I appreciate that placing my sub next to this wall hasn't helped but it's where it works best

 

[tackleberry]

Depends how far you would like to go.

You can sound proof a wall to a degree but your weak points will be your ceiling and floor joints. Noise will find any weak spot. You also have coving which makes things a little more difficult. You would ideally aim to fill the floor void above the ceiling to stop the sound entering next doors floor void. Essentially extending the wall up through the wall you see now. Assuming this is done you have the option of.
Building a stud wall out with double plasterboard and decent fibreglass insulation. Again, to work properly this needs to go up through your ceiling, tight to the underside of your upstairs floorboards all the way across, with no weak points (gaps)

You could double plasterboard the wall as is and plaster, taking coving off and refitting for a small improvement, but it will be small IMO.

 

[MartinC]

Gut reaction: anything you could do would only be effective at higher frequencies and almost certainly wouldn't be worth how much worse it would look vs how it does now.

 

[steve 57]

I remember years ago working in a mecca nightclub, the dividing walls between the 2 discos where about 30" thick, made from multiple unconnected layers of framing, plasterboard and fibreglass. I know that from fitting soft drink pipes to a new bar.. which turned into quite a job.

The only thing that fits your criteria is to hang wall mounted panels, made with framing and multiple layers of damping..thick car carpet would be my choice then upholstery cover or wallpaper what you see.
Probably better to turn the volume down !

 

[petrichor]

You can buy Rockwool Sound Insulation Slabs to install behind a stud wall.

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Rockwool-S...NzP_THoPI2fpCyONMJ4aAuzgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
I don't know how effective it is other than the manufacturer's claims.
This would involve moving / replacing your coving though.

 

[MartinC]

You can buy Rockwool Sound Insulation Slabs to install behind a stud wall.

[URL]https://www.wickes.co.uk/Rockw...NzP_THoPI2fpCyONMJ4aAuzgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds[/URL]

I don't know how effective it is other than the manufacturer's claims.
This would involve moving / replacing your coving though.

Bear in mind that the OP said anything added could only be up to 4 cm thick.

 

[HIGHWAY61]

Headphones ? Or its lots of, probably expensive, work sadly.

 

[Ady]

Thanks for the replies so far guys. I was hoping that there might be some sort of relatively thin 'wonder' material that could be applied to the wall to stop the sound but it probably doesn't work like that.
The reason I ask is that the house on the other side of the wall in question has been effectively empty for the last 10 years but now has a family living in it. I suppose time will tell as to whether my music listening habits are an issue or not.
Cheers Ady

 

[DomT]

Why only 4cm of depth?

To treat the wall you either need a lot of mass or to disconnect the transmission of sound using something like resilient bars with rockwool but you need more than 4cms in both approaches. Much more difficult to do after the fact as @tackleberry has mentioned but not impossible.

 

[DomT]

There might be better videos but this is one that came to mind and they specifically talk about bass noise transmission. Or at least so think that it was in this one!

 

[StingRay]

What is your floor made from.

My last house had a similar problem.

Subs are a big no-no on wooden suspended flooring.

4mm, doubt that do very much.

Sound will also go into the ceiling and into next door, you really need to treat the whole adjoining wall.

 

[deggie]

Save ya money ,..invite them round for a session ,

 

[deggie]

Save ya money ,..invite them round for a session ,

 

[Jules_S]

There's something in what Keith says there. Turning what could be a potentially contentious situation into good neighbour relations / a social event would not only be a Nice Thing to do from a human perspective but could also avoid future conflict.

You could also ask them if you could pop round and take a listen for yourself, so you can work together to minimise intrusion. I think our @Monitor Gold Ten does something similar to the first option, holding social music evenings. Whether it's for neighbours or other friends I can't remember.

It may not be as bad as you think anyway, or perhaps they aren't necessarily too bothered by the sound transmission if it's not at antisocial hours. You may even share musical tastes - they'll be banging on the walls and asking you to turn it up so they can hear! Those Klipsch are pretty damned good and I reckon should be enjoyed by other people too

 

[XJC]

Save ya money ,..invite them round for a session ,

Agree with Jules there,
There's more sense to this than meets the eye.
Get to know them and if they've got young kids agree to keep the volume down after 9pm or whatever?
Ah! terraced, do the same with the other neighbours.

I lived in tenement flats for years and this was my approach.
I eventually got a decent flat with deaf folks up and down and young people left and right,

It did take me a while to get a detached though.

Communication is the key, otherwise it's headphones.

X.

 

[harv]

I've used a mixture of sound proofing options in my house rebuild, although as I haven't moved in yet can't tell you how good

Ceiling are resilience bars on to wooden joists 2x 15mm soundbloc plaster boards (more dense then normal) with 5mm mass loaded vinyl in between.

Walls are a mix, so I've used stud frames with 45kgm rockwool to cavity fill, resilience bars on both sides, external to room same as ceiling but inside room I've used 15mm sbx boards (which are basically segmented cardboard panels filled with sand but utterly inert) with a layer of plasterboard on top. This I've used for the loud rooms but for the main living space adjoining wall I used a single panel solution called soundboard 4 (different companies have slightly different versions) this one is a 30mm thick panel that consists of 15mm plasterboard with 2 X 3mm mass loaded vinyl with 9mm of damping foam between the 2 layers and with this you literally screw the panels directly to your existing wall and skim.

Floors are rockwool filled with joist tape (a thin damping sponge tape) and foam and mass loaded vinyl heavy weight interlocking cement impregnated boards. My listening room on the ground floor I've filled around 1/3 of the underfloor with rockwool at the speaker end.

The only thing to be wary of is weight of the methods above so each of the full size sandwiched plasterboards for the ceiling was around 80kg for 2.4x 1.2m and the sbx boards are 33kg for 1.2 X 0.8m panels. To say my builders hated me is an understatement

I did come across a wonder material called acoustiblok but for me to do the whole house was crazy money.

Sorry for the long post but pm me if you want more details.

 

[DomT]

I've used a mixture of sound proofing options in my house rebuild, although as I haven't moved in yet can't tell you how good

Ceiling are resilience bars on to wooden joists 2x 15mm soundbloc plaster boards (more dense then normal) with 5mm mass loaded vinyl in between.

Walls are a mix, so I've used stud frames with 45kgm rockwool to cavity fill, resilience bars on both sides, external to room same as ceiling but inside room I've used 15mm sbx boards (which are basically segmented cardboard panels filled with sand but utterly inert) with a layer of plasterboard on top. This I've used for the loud rooms but for the main living space adjoining wall I used a single panel solution called soundboard 4 (different companies have slightly different versions) this one is a 30mm thick panel that consists of 15mm plasterboard with 2 X 3mm mass loaded vinyl with 9mm of damping foam between the 2 layers and with this you literally screw the panels directly to your existing wall and skim.

Floors are rockwool filled with joist tape (a thin damping sponge tape) and foam and mass loaded vinyl heavy weight interlocking cement impregnated boards. My listening room on the ground floor I've filled around 1/3 of the underfloor with rockwool at the speaker end.

The only thing to be wary of is weight of the methods above so each of the full size sandwiched plasterboards for the ceiling was around 80kg for 2.4x 1.2m and the sbx boards are 33kg for 1.2 X 0.8m panels. To say my builders hated me is an understatement

I did come across a wonder material called acoustiblok but for me to do the whole house was crazy money.

Sorry for the long post but pm me if you want more details.

Great post. The last flat that I owned in the UK used very similar construction method. We were in the top floor and never heard the people below us or to the side. No spoken words, music or TV. Nothing. Was really surprised as it was a new build and all specified by the builder and not us. I am not aware of the brand of plasterboard used but external facing walls had double plasterboard. It also seriously retained heat well and we never had to turn the thermostat about 13 degrees in winter.

 

[DomT]

I've used a mixture of sound proofing options in my house rebuild, although as I haven't moved in yet can't tell you how good

Ceiling are resilience bars on to wooden joists 2x 15mm soundbloc plaster boards (more dense then normal) with 5mm mass loaded vinyl in between.

Walls are a mix, so I've used stud frames with 45kgm rockwool to cavity fill, resilience bars on both sides, external to room same as ceiling but inside room I've used 15mm sbx boards (which are basically segmented cardboard panels filled with sand but utterly inert) with a layer of plasterboard on top. This I've used for the loud rooms but for the main living space adjoining wall I used a single panel solution called soundboard 4 (different companies have slightly different versions) this one is a 30mm thick panel that consists of 15mm plasterboard with 2 X 3mm mass loaded vinyl with 9mm of damping foam between the 2 layers and with this you literally screw the panels directly to your existing wall and skim.

Floors are rockwool filled with joist tape (a thin damping sponge tape) and foam and mass loaded vinyl heavy weight interlocking cement impregnated boards. My listening room on the ground floor I've filled around 1/3 of the underfloor with rockwool at the speaker end.

The only thing to be wary of is weight of the methods above so each of the full size sandwiched plasterboards for the ceiling was around 80kg for 2.4x 1.2m and the sbx boards are 33kg for 1.2 X 0.8m panels. To say my builders hated me is an understatement

I did come across a wonder material called acoustiblok but for me to do the whole house was crazy money.

Sorry for the long post but pm me if you want more details.

That acousticblock product in the video looses very interesting. Will speak to my architect as that would be great for the studio and home we are building.

 

[Dogwithnotail]

The biggest challenge here is the limit of 4cm on the depth of any treatment.

There within these constraints the most practicable solution would be to mass load the wall as much as possible. High density plasterboard and/or marine ply might help.

How well this works will depend on how much heavier you can make the wall and also how well sealed the construction may be.

Other noise paths may be via the floor and ceiling where the joists may transmit vibration through to next door.

If you can access the room next door I would play some sounds and have a listen to where it may be leaking through - fixing discrete weaknesses like these will be most (cost) effective - within reason!

If the noise transmits via the floor structure it may help to isolate the sub / speakers using Townshend seismic bars or similar.

Edit: just saw a previous thread where you may already have these!

At the end of the day if your neighbours are sensitive to noise then there will be issue - even if very quiet on their side. Best to establish a friendly and respectful relationship.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[Ady]

Thanks once again to everyone for taking the time to reply. Some interesting comments and possible solutions. I've not had time yet to view the videos but will tomorrow.
To clarify a little more, I've not had any complaints from the neighbours so far, I just want to try and keep it that way. I never listen to music after about 8pm, mainly daytime listening.
The floor is concrete.
I said the solution needed to be thin because I couldn't really countenance losing say 6inches of the room size, plus there are doors close to the wall that need taking into consideration.
Cheers Ady