How to make noise insulation in an apartment

In modern construction, there is a clear tendency to reduce the weight of structures. This allows you to reduce the cost of the foundation, but negatively affects the sound insulation of the premises. Construction campaigns comply with modern standards, but they do not correspond to a person's idea of ​​a comfortable life. After all, not everyone is interested in hearing what the neighbors are doing. Even less like that what you said can be "documented" in the next apartment. This is how modern norms contribute to the openness of modern society. And this is far from happy. That is why sound insulation in an apartment is a concern not only of those who live in old panel and brick houses, but also in new buildings.

How to soundproof a wall from neighbors

If it is necessary to significantly reduce the level of noise that passes through the wall, a number of measures are required. First of all, it is necessary to close up cracks, potholes and cracks on the wall. Sound is transmitted through the smallest cavities, therefore it is necessary to achieve complete tightness. After that, it is necessary to carefully seal up pipes passing through the walls and other communications, if any. In this case, it is necessary to use polyurethane foam only in extreme cases - it practically does not delay sounds. Better - any plaster composition.

Serious measures are needed to prevent neighbors from being heard

If there are switches or sockets on the wall, it is also better to seal up the cavities behind the socket boxes, and to fill it using a porous blown material - mineral wool of low and medium density. This is only a preparatory stage, but already carrying out all these activities can significantly improve the sound insulation in the apartment.

Capital decision

If the noise level is very high, additional soundproofing will have to be done. To do this, at some distance from the main wall (at least 10-15 mm), place a partition (made of guides and profiles for plasterboard or wood), sheathed with gypsum plasterboard or gypsum fiber sheets (gypsum plasterboard or gypsum plasterboard). The space between the uprights is filled with special sound-absorbing or ordinary mineral wool. Installation of such an additional wall can reduce the noise level by 62 times (depending on the selected materials and compliance with the technology). If you want the sound insulation in the apartment to improve significantly, you must adhere to certain rules when installing it:

• The additional wall should not be connected with the main one. All racks are attached only to the floor and flow, and special vibration-damping pads are placed under them (SilentLayer tape, SilentJoint gaskets, vibration-insulating layer Vibrostek-V300). It is possible to use special guides of the Vibrofix Liner type, which are already provided with a mount with vibration, sound and insulation protection. When attaching to the ceiling, not ordinary suspensions are used, but vibration damping (anti-vibration) ones. The cost of these materials is high, but without using them, you will not achieve good results.
  

  Sound insulation with mineral wool - device diagram

• The space between the posts without gaps and gaps is filled with special sound-insulating mats or ordinary mineral wool of a well-known manufacturer with known sound-insulating characteristics (must be specified in the technical parameters).The fact is that thermal insulation mineral wool of the same density and thickness, but from different manufacturers, have very different sound absorption characteristics. This is not their main purpose, because few small manufacturers pay attention to this. Only well-known brands also test their products by this parameter. Will there be a difference in sound insulation when using special materials? Of course, but it is not as critical as the difference in price. If the question of price is not worth it, of course, it is better to use special materials.
• Plating of gypsum board or gypsum board is standard. It is possible in one, but better - in two layers with a gap (not coincidence) of the seams.

You can also improve the sound insulation properties of this wall by laying a layer of gypsum board and gypsum plasterboard. They have similar characteristics, but there are still differences. So the sound insulation in the apartment will be even better.

Yes! Another point: instead of metal profiles, you can use wooden blocks of a suitable section (50 mm in one of the sections for laying soundproofing material).

Is it possible to do without drywall

The design described in the previous paragraph is effective, but takes up too much space - about 10 cm. This is far from always acceptable. There are methods that can improve sound insulation in an apartment, but require less space. The bad news is that you won't be able to achieve the same level of soundproofing. The good thing is that you can significantly increase noise absorption, bringing it to quite comfortable. We will use new materials of small thickness, but with good sound insulation properties.

Soundproofing material for walls and ceilings

Not so long ago, ISOPLAAT heat and sound insulation boards (Izoplat) appeared on the market. This is one of the varieties of fiberboard of considerable thickness. There are slabs with a thickness of 12 mm and 25 mm (size 2700 * 1200 mm). They are made from wood waste ground into flour, which is pressed under high pressure. In the process, a natural adhesive is released, which is contained in the wood fibers. It also serves as a binder. Manufacturers claim that a 12 mm thick slab has a sound insulation coefficient of -23 dB, and 25 mm -25 dB.

A decrease in the noise level by 10 dB is perceived by our ear as a decrease in audibility by about 2 times. That is, when using Isoplat 12 mm thick, it will be possible to reduce the sound load by about 4 times. For most cases, this is sufficient.

Installation method

How to mount ISOPLAAT? On prepared walls (with potholes and crevices sealed, relatively flat, etc.) to one of the compositions:

• Adhesive used for fixing thermal insulation, drywall or gypsum base. It is applied along the perimeter of the sheet in a strip at least 3 cm thick, then in the central part in dots with a step of 30 cm.
• Mounting polyurethane foam in a cylinder. It is also applied along the perimeter, and in the central part - with a snake.
  

  Frameless sound insulation in an apartment with Izoplat: installation methods

The stove has one side smooth, the other rough. The adhesive is applied to the rough side. Having installed and pressed the sheet against the wall, it is additionally fastened with self-tapping screws (with flat caps). The holes remaining after the holes are covered with putty.

Preparation for finishing

The surface of the sound insulation boards can be putty. In order to apply a minimum layer of putty, it is advisable to chamfer about 3 mm at the edges of the boards, putty the joints after installation, glue them with a mesh or special tape. After the putty has dried, you can mount the finish.

According to the manufacturers, this is a very good option.

Only the seams can be repaired under the wallpaper, without putting putty on the entire surface. But in this case, there will be a large consumption of wallpaper glue, since this material absorbs water well. But at the same time it does not warp, does not change its structure when wet and dry. Also, this material is vapor permeable. That is, it also serves as a microclimate regulator in the room. And this is in addition to insulation and sound insulation.It turns out that sound insulation in an apartment with the ISOPLAAT heat-and-sound insulation board is a good choice.

What else to pay attention to

As mentioned above, sound passes through the smallest cracks. Therefore, when installing profiles or wooden blocks, when filling a soundproof partition with noise-absorbing material, everything must be laid very tightly so that there are not even minimal gaps. It is necessary to achieve tightness. It is easier to do this using an acoustic sealant. All joints are coated with it, which significantly improves performance.

Another important point: to improve sound insulation performance

Frameless sound insulation with ZIPS plates

When using special panels, sound insulation in the apartment can also be done without erecting a frame. These panels consist of gypsum fiber sheets (gypsum fiber sheets) to which a layer of sound-absorbing material (basalt or glass wool with certain characteristics) is attached. The slabs are connected to each other according to the groove-ridge principle, so that installation is simple. Each panel has built-in vibration isolation units, through which they are attached to the base wall. This mounting method allows achieving good results: a certain level of vibration "damping" is built in. Currently on sale are panels with a thickness of 40 mm to 120 mm.

Frameless wall soundproofing device

When mounted on a wall, ZIPS do not have a rigid connection with the floor, ceiling and adjacent walls. An anti-vibration gasket (of the Vibrostek-M type) is placed under the plates in two layers. All joints are coated with a non-hardening sealant (soundproof silicone).

Frameless wall soundproofing device in an apartment or house

Sound insulation of walls with vibroacoustic slabs involves subsequent plasterboard cladding. It is also better to seal its joints with a special sealant, and putty on top, then glue the finish.

How not to soundproof walls

You can often find recommendations to use foam or polyurethane foam as soundproofing boards. This is not worth doing. It has good thermal insulation properties, but it works very poorly as sound insulation. After you stick it on the walls, it may turn out that the situation has become worse - you now hear speech behind the wall more clearly. This is all due to the sound-insulating characteristics of the foam - under some conditions (no one has yet been able to formulate exactly), a significant gap appears in the characteristics at frequencies characteristic of speech. In this case, the sound insulation in the apartment will only worsen. You have to shoot everything and start over.

It is better not to use polystyrene for sound insulation. It only makes things worse

The graph shows two curves. Dotted line - sound insulation characteristics of the plastered wall, black line - if foam is laid under the plaster. It rescues well from very low (less than 100 Hz) and very high (more than 2000 Hz) frequencies, but the entire conversational spectrum is "failed".

The only place where expanded polystyrene can be used as sound insulation is in a floating floor screed. In this case, it suppresses impact noise well.

Important! The above is true if the foam is glued from the inside. Its use outside as a thermal insulation material usually has a positive effect on the sound insulation of premises. That is, the foam can be used to reduce the noise level coming from the street.

Ceiling soundproofing

In addition to the noises that come through the walls, neighbors from above are often disturbed - steps, creaking floorboards, etc. interfere with sleep. The way out in this case is to make a suspended plasterboard ceiling, but not a simple one, but on special vibration-damping suspensions. Why? Because sounds are transmitted through vibrations, and stomping - especially.If you use a conventional rigid fixing for gypsum board to the ceiling, there will be no effect, the sound insulation of the ceiling will not improve, even if the space between the main and false ceiling is filled with sound-absorbing material. The vibrations will be transmitted through the hangers and propagated by the drywall. Therefore, it is necessary to use special suspensions with vibration damping gaskets. For example, Vibrofix SP and Vibrofix P.

Installation of a plasterboard ceiling frame to improve the sound insulation of an apartment

The use of these suspensions reduces the level of noise penetrating through the ceiling by 18 dB Vibrofix P and 25 dB with Vibrofix SP. Ceiling noise insulation made with their use will cut off not only impact noise, but also air noise - speech, etc. (if you fill the space with a layer of mineral wool).

To save money, you can use ordinary suspensions, but fix them to the ceiling through thin foam soundproof materials (Dichtunsband KNAUF), but better - staple fiberglass (Vibrostek, folded in two layers). The fact is that foamed materials are crumpled, lose their properties, and fiberglass stably keeps its characteristics. If you're worried about fiberglass dust flying in the air, don't. The structure must be airtight in order for it to be effective.

Vibrofix SP - for soundproofing ceilings

Since one of the requirements of a good sound-insulating structure is the presence of a massive outer layer, it is advisable to hem with two layers of gypsum board with a gap between the seams and sealing the seams with a sealant on each of them. But again, the combination is better - GVL + GKL. If the sounds are very loud, a soundproofing membrane can be inserted between them.

For soundproofing the ceiling in the apartment, you can use basalt or fiberglass mats. If possible - special soundproof, if not - choose one of the normal brands (more on this below).

There is one more thing: the joints should be sealed not with putty, but with a sound-proof acoustic sealant. It does not harden and does not transmit vibrations. If you make a false ceiling according to these rules, the sound insulation in the apartment will improve significantly.

What if you want to make a stretch ceiling? The same, but without finishing. If there are noises from above, but not very strong, you can try to do with Isoplat, but again: the noise reduction will not be so significant.

Soundproofing the floor

In order for the sound insulation in the apartment to be complete, measures are also taken to soundproof the floor. There are two goals here: to disturb the neighbors below as little as possible and to reduce or remove the reflective effect of hard flooring (laminate, parquet).

If, during the repair process, the floor is leveled with a screed, then a layer of expanded polystyrene can be laid in its thickness. In addition to thermal insulation (important when installing warm floor) it will also protect against impact noise. If you don't need thermal insulation, thin foam is best. In terms of soundproofing the floor, they will give the same effect as 5 cm foam.

Complete soundproofing floor solution - with screed

In any case, when installing a floating screed, care must be taken to isolate the slab from the walls so that vibrations are not transmitted. To do this, roll out a special vibration-damping tape around the perimeter, but you can cut the same material that you put in the screed into strips 10-15 cm wide and roll it along the walls. After the screed has gained at least half the strength, the excess tape can be cut off.

If the floor is relatively flat, it is leveled by laying the plywood (in two layers, staggered seams, seams, and on top of the underlay for the laminate and the coating itself. With this method of laying, the floor turns out to be quite "echoing" and the neighbors below can hear your movements well. effect, it is recommended to use a special soundproofing substrate (for example, ACUFLEX) or cork.Just also note that these materials will remove impact noise and make it less "booming". This will not achieve complete soundproofing of the floor.

For good sound insulation of the floor in the apartment, soundproofing materials are placed under plywood, and on the laminate / parquet - cork or soundproofing underlay - to reduce impact noise

To get the best effect, all the same soundproof boards are laid under the plywood - the Rockwool or Max Forte Shumoizol brands are suitable (less thickness with better characteristics). Above - two layers of plywood or GVL + plywood. Sheets are laid apart, fastened with self-tapping screws. Around the perimeter, do not forget to lay an edging tape (sound and vibration damping) or cut material with similar characteristics. In this case, the soundproofing of the floor will cut off not only shock noises, but also conversations, and you will not hear the neighbors below, nor will they hear you.

Soundproofing in an apartment: how to choose materials

There are two types of materials that reduce the level of noise in an apartment: for sound insulation and sound absorption. Soundproofing materials reduce the level of noise passing through them, for sound absorption - reduce the level of the reflected signal. For the room not to be "echoing" sound absorption is required, so as not to hear neighbors - sound insulation, but the best results are achieved using both types of materials.

When soundproofing according to traditional schemes, sound-absorbing materials are usually mineral wool - basalt or fiberglass with a density of 35-40 kg / m3. It is they who have the optimal characteristics - they scatter sound waves characteristic of speech in their thickness. Rigid enclosing materials - gypsum fiber board, gypsum board, plywood, OSB are used as sound absorption. They can all be used, since they have approximately the same characteristics in terms of sound reflection, but two layers of different materials work better - the sound is attenuated more when passing through layers of different densities.

Sound insulation characteristics of some types of mineral wool in the speech range

A little about whether to use soundproof mineral wool. When using it, the characteristics of sound insulation increase by 2-5 dB. In some cases this is important, in others it can be neglected. Especially if you look at the price: it is 2-3 times higher than that of ordinary mineral wool of this density. So if there is a need to save money, you can choose from normal brands of ordinary basalt or mineral wool. Some are listed in the table above, and some common brands of specialty materials are listed in another table below.

As you can see, it is quite possible to pick up basalt wool, which is close in characteristics to specialized ones.

A few words about the use of various thin materials - films, foamed, metallized and others. They cannot be used as protection against airborne noise (speech that we hear through fences). They hardly work at all. They can reduce the impact noise a little, but you will hear the conversation of neighbors just as clearly (if you're lucky, then a little quieter).

Test results of various designs

If you want sound insulation in the apartment to be good, you should definitely not save on vibration isolation from the walls and ceiling (when organizing frame sound insulation). The fact that it is worth laying sound-proof gaskets under the profiles has already been said, as well as the use of vibration-damping suspensions. But it is also very desirable to mount the racks, too, not rigidly, but using SilentJoint - a vibration-decoupling mount, which gives an additional improvement in performance. These are gaskets made of special Sylomer material.By the way, it can be used as pads for vibration-sound decoupling instead of these mounts, but it is unlikely to be cheaper. Another question is if you don't find similar mounts. Then "Silomer" is the best way out.