UKH

Has anyone used mass loaded vinyl matting as part of soundproofing a party wall? Was it effective?

cheers 

No, but in my semi educated acoustic opinion it would likely have minimal effect. It may reduce transmission through the wall by a certain amount in a limited frequency range (depending on how much mass it actually has) but you'd need quite a detailed look at where sound is really coming through. Straight through the wall/under the floor/ceiling cavity/shared chimney stack etc. Direct transmission through the wall isn't necessarily where most of the sound is getting through.

What is the wall construction and general layout between you and your neighbour? The reality is anything short of fairly involved works that are either fairly messy or will reduce your room sizes considerably these types of remedial works generally don't work very well. 

Thank you! I did suspect it wouldn’t make a great difference. It’s a single brick wall between ourselves and next door.  I plan to create a stud wall set back from the party wall. Acoustic plaster board either side of the stud wall with Rockwool in between. Was wondering whether to incorporate this matting also. Not sure if this would work, any thoughts? Cheers 

It occurred to me that you could fill the cavity with sand. I looked it up and yes, it was used by the Victorians.

https://www.soundproofingstore.co.uk/top-12-soundproofing-myths

If you have a look around the website you'll see other stuff that's a bit more high tech and some advice.

Many years ago I looked into sound proofing a radar system and came to the conclusion that you really needed heavy stuff to do the job. Either that or a lot of space so you can add foam pyramids like you get in anechoic chambers.

https://images.app.goo.gl/RAupoXsMhnMKpp6v5

That would certainly make your living room stand out from your neighbours'.

Well it does offer mass in a fairly 'slim' package and mass is mainly what reduces transmission whether it's in fancy compound matting or a block of concrete. It becomes a bit of a cost benefit exercise over other mass providers that may be thicker and/or how much you are seeking to reduce transmission. 

It may be that the vinyl matting also adds a resilient layer that increases absorption but that's just speculation on my part

Can't say whether it will work. If you can, first look to close any gaps between you and your neighbour (under floors, gaps in brickwork etc) then building a stud wall in the way you describe does have a good chance of bringing levels down.

You could try banging on the wall and shouting STFU...

Given he stated the partition is single brick, his neighbours may be a little surprised when he starts pouring sand into the 'cavity'!

Also the foam pyramids in an anechoic chamber aren't really doing anything for sound transmission but are acting to reduce the reverberation within the space to near zero (the lack of echo part). My experience is the rooms are usually floating structures within a s**tload of concrete - that's the part that is reducing sound getting in and out.

I was thinking of filling the space between the stud wall and the brick.

Ha ha I did think this could be a more satisfying albeit likely more short lived option! 

Thank you, I never thought of adding soundproofing between the joists

Ah right, sorry misunderstood. Would love to be there in the future though when the property has changed hands and the unfortunate new owner starts doing a bit of diy on the wall and removes the plasterboard 

Check out marine engine soundproifing panels such as quietlife. I've recently been using silentcoat in a couple of vehicles to good effect but you need to build it with several layers for the different sounds. I've heard rockwool is effective but I've not used it myself. 

Don’t fill the gap, a cavity is more effective if there is an absorbent material in part of it.

The most effective and economical wall type I’ve ever been involved with was several layers of BG Soundblock, a vertical spanning stud (I or timber), 50mm RWA45 slab and 50mm cavity. Materials are about £10-15 a m2.

With 3 layers of 15mm board and 1 layer of 50mm RWA45 forming each room, we achieved Rw of over 70dB room-room in a music school.

In a normal house where you can’t properly treat under floors etc, I’d go for 10mm gap, 70mm timber stud (3x2), 2 layers of 12.5mm soundblock. Put 50mm RWA45 between the studs. Avoid cutting plug sockets in the wallboards if you can.

Pardon!

I am following this thread with interest after a year of the most entitled, noisy little f***er medical students living next door have made our lives a misery. Loud, posh braying voices reverberating through the walls day and night! The previous medical students who lived next door were absolutely fine, and in fact came around to ask very politely if I'd mind keeping my TV down during their exams. I'm a bit mutton so was mortified. The subtitles went on after that!

Anyway back on point... I'm about to have major refurbishment done to the house and have been told sound reducing, acoustic bar hangers clipped to the walls and then real dense, thick noise reducing plasterboard and then a good slap of plaster over the top is the best way to go. Apparently keeping an air gap between the existing wall and the new barrier plasterboard is the best way to prevent vibration (which is what sound is after all) being transmitted through the party wall. It also had the advantage of only losing and inch or two  of space from your room as opposed to 5 inches with a new stud wall. I've been advised it'll still take the noise levels down significantly. Fingers crossed for better neighbours! 😁

Hadn't considered the underfloor cavities but we're looking to get a concrete slab laid on ground floor and an underfloor heating system so hopefully that will help.

When the flat upstairs went up for sale a few years back I got the owner to allow me to get a specialist firm in to lift the floorboards upstairs and insert thick, dense rockwool between the joists, replace the floorboards by screwing them down and sealing the gaps with silicone, then a 1 inch thick rubber barrier over the boards and on top of that a footfall reducing rubber crumb underlay over the top. The reduction in noise from the flat above was about 70%, I would say. Well worth the cost for the improved quality of life! Also improved the heat retention in my flat by about 50% too. 

Previously- 30mm air gap- 70mm stud wall with sound rated insulation- 15mm sound board- all edges sealed with sound rated mastic-wall plaster skim coated. 

Worked really well-  could no longer hear the neighbours..

It would add mass and possibly damping to the wall which are both beneficial, but it's more typical to just add another layer of board or something. I've mostly seen MLV used for addressing smaller weak areas, like where the edge of a concrete floor slab meets the facade of an office building for example.

A couple of things to note - By creating a complete stud wall offset from the brick wall you are making a triple leaf wall (with two cavities), which will have all kinds of resonances (At resonances the sound insulation is minimal) and the performance is hard to predict. Usually better to put all the plasterboard on the outside of the stud creating one larger cavity with a thicker wall leaf. With a good 50mm or so thick mineral wool in this larger cavity the sound insulation should be decent. Make sure the joins do not line up between your layers of plasterboard, and as far as possible deal with any weaknesses around this partition, eg through the floor void etc

You need mass (to prevent whatever barrier you are building to start vibrating) as well as some plasticity to dissipate any vibrations that occur regardless. Concrete is good at the former, rockwool at the latter. Sand would do both, but is a pain to work with.

I built a sound barrier when we converted a basement room of our terraced house into an additional bedroom, and sound isolation was much worse in in the basement than upstairs.

I ended up building a timber frame stud wall as a floating construction, with a 10 mm rubber dampening layer top and bottom and on the sides, a double layer of plasterboard, and filling the cavity with rockwool.

Did the job for me, and was not too much hassle as a DIY job. However, we did lose something like 12 cm of room width.

Thanks for all of your input, really helpful!

I soundproofed a room and used the high density matting. It was against a single skin brick wall. I also left an air gap, then built a stud wall with acoustic rockwool inbetween the studs. Finished it off with acoustic plaster board fixed onto resilient bars that isolate the boards from the studs.

The best solution, but most expensive is isolation (joists are the problem) the resilient bars provide a degree of this. After that it's adding mass, which the matting and acoustic plaster board  provides.

I cant say how much the matting helps but the room is a lot quieter than it was before, and the noise I'm making (piano and drums) hasn't recieved any complaints (or requests).