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Anyone ever try to soundproof an apartment? (1 Viewer)

Philip_G

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Tough topic to fit, doesn't fit in HT construction. I think ahl will do.

Anyway, my new townhouse is great aside from my neighbor's TV, so I'm looking for some not too ugly ways to block out some noise, reading around at soundproofing.org hasn't turned much up. My problem is with bass from his tv, I don't think he has a sub, just his television probably right by his wall. The building is supposed to have a complete wall on my side, 3" of air, and a complete wall on his side. No shared plumbing or electrical, no penetrations of any kind actually.
I had thought of nailing up homasote and covering it with something, I had thought about filling that 3" gap or maybe even the inside of my wall with fomofoam, but the boards on the wall wouldn't look right, and the foam is expensive and probably would make matters worse from what I've read. So, anyone have any ideas? I can always turn up my sub and drown him out, but the noise irritates me to no end
 

Lee L

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Oct 26, 2000
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Any electrical, telephone or cable TV outlets on the wall?

I would take the covers off, especially the telephone or CATV and stuff them with insulation. You also might get som insight into what is really in your wall. If that does not help. Try the electrical box. You will have to turn off the power to that cucuit and try to take the box out and then stuff inuslation behind it, then install a new box back in the wall.

Also, if you have a good stopping point you might consider installing an additional layer of 5/8" drywall or 2 on your side, maybe a layer of homosote and a layer of drywall although mass is your friend in this case.

Also, if his unit is a mirror of yours and you hear him he can probably hear you. If you still need further reduction, maybe you can talk him into letting you go on his side and add the extra drywall there as well or maybe he will even pay for it.
 
E

Eric Kahn

About the only way to truely accomplish any soundproofing in your situation is to build another whole wall with drywall on both sides with an airspace between it and the old wall and you need to put fiberglass insulation in the new wall

it will cost a few dollars and you will lose 8 inch of space in your room but it is the only effectve solution

the building code really should require brick or cement walls between units to prevent this but the developers would raise hell over such a requirement since I think it would lower their 100% profit margin by a few points
 

Philip_G

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the way the room is built I could add an additional wall, there's like a 10" bit of space where it would fit in and not be noticeable, I just can't afford to have someone do it. I could probably build the wall myself and sheetrock it, then have someone tape and texture it, but it would still cost more than I can really afford :frowning:
 

Philip_T

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Philip_G ,
Sorry to hear about the noise in your new TH. I remember when I lived in a condo that was suppose to have concrete floors on each level for sound proofing and I could still hear the guy above me vacuum his floor at 2AM and could hear every footstep he took. Ended up driving us out. As far as some solutions for your problem, you could try this..
I happened to be in the same room once when my wife was watching Trading Spaces (okay okay, I was really watching it myself :b ) and they did this thing where they took 2'x2' (or something close) cuts of plywood, put padding on one side, covered it with material of your choice and screwed (or maybe they glued) it on the wall next to each other until the wall was covered with these things like a huge checkerboard. It actually looked kinda cool and might afford you some sound proofing, but I cant guarantee that. Plus, Im not sure how you would handle outlets. Good luck either way.
Philip_T
 

Lee L

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Philip_T,
that is a good idea. Philip_G (can;t we get some more Philips in here ;) ) you might even try to put a layer of drywall on the wall and then cover it with the panels instead of paying someone to finish it. Or you could try to finish it yourself (not as hard as it looks, think thin layers) and if it looks like doo-doo, then put the panels on later.
 

Philip_G

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I probably could do that. the electrical would be no big deal, I could put down some homasote then some thick drywall, problem is the wall is actually pretty large probably 20' by 20'
Another thought I had was to check the crawl, maybe there is something not sealed UNDER the existing walls, though by code they have to be 1 hour fire walls and this wouldn't be code.. that's a whole other story.

thanks for the ideas, I'll price out some materials :D
 

Glenn Overholt

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I wanted to say that something doesn't sound right here, but - well, that just doesn't come out right. :) Sorry!

Anyway, I'm only making guesses at some of these ideas, so feel free to change whatever you want to.

If there aren't any outlets, you should be hearing nothing. Have you asked your neighbor if he can hear you? (This way you might be able to split the cost).

I don't know about the 3" of air space, either. It just does not sound right. (another bad, sorry) If it is only air is there any way that you can fill it with insulation (roll type)? You might only need enough to just fill up like 4' up from the floor. Insulation betweeen your 2 x 4's wouldn't hurt either. You might want to make sure that everything is up to code.

Also, do your places have a common floor? The sound may just be passing though because there just happens to be one sheet of plywood supporting both places. It may even be leaking through where the floor meets the wall. If you have carpeting there, pull the corner out and check that out. A tube of caulk could fill that up in a jiffy.

Another thing I would try right off would be to get a sheet of sheetrock and place it over the area, and see what happens. Or even put a carpet up over that corner.

Glenn
 

Philip_G

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that's what they said when I was looking at the place. I'm going to pull the cover off the electrical outlet and drill through the inner but of drywall and probe around to see if in fact there is another wall :D
 

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