Home Improvement for Women

I don’t know about you but I live on the 16th floor of an apartment building; In total solitude and immune to the motor yanking bottle clanking of a garbage truck picking up trash.  Yah right,  in my dreams!  Actually it sounds like the sound is amplified by each floor up.

Ah but wait I have just the solution.  SOUND PROOFING! Bet you don’t know about it or know how easy it is.  Well I’m just the person to tell you , that you can sound proof your walls and ceiling as if you were living on top of a mountain. Here’s how to do it yourself!

Turn Up the Volume! Got neighbors? Me too – and unfortunately, I can hear them. Maybe it’s the kids discovering how to push their stereo speakers to the limit or that garbage truck that shows up at 7am on a Sunday morning! Even if you don’t have people right next door you may want to create a home theatre or music room where you will not be disturbed by the rest of the family and they will not be disturbed by you. Whatever the reason there is a cure—and it all boils down to one thing…sound proofing. Here is my sure fire quite cure. My favorite tricks for sleeping late and blasting the guitar are: Sound Proof A WallThe crucial trick when soundproofing a wall is to make sure that your new layer of soundproofing does not transmit reverberations from the old wall. If you want to go the quick route, you can add another layer of sheetrock onto the wall. Make sure the sheetrock joins along seams that are different or staggered from those of the original wall –this avoids creating a new channel for sound.  Use heavy adhesive to keep the sheetrock in place as you nail it in along the studs.  Be sure you locate the studs with a stud finder or tape measure (studs are typically found every 16” on center from the start of the wall) before slapping up the soundproofing wall. Finish the wall with seam tape and joint compound.   For a thicker layer of sound absorbency, you’ll want to create a stagger-studded second wall. Strip the sheetrock, or plaster from the original wall.  Then, frame out a second stud wall with a sole plate and top plate that do not touch the original stud wall’s framework.  In placing the studs between the sole plate and top plate, line the studs up so as not to echo the placement of the original studs.  Now you can lay insulation between the studs, put up the sheetrock wall and finish it with seam tape and joint compound.Finally, pad your walls with fabric. Not only does this “custom designer treatment” look gorgeous, it does help cut down even more on sound traveling between rooms and apartments. Use luaun, staplegun batting and fabric to the sheets. Then, apply to your walls with industrial strength Velcro and a couple of discreet tack nails.   Sound Proof A Ceiling    A dropped ceiling also creates a sound barrier, because they are specially designed to soak up noise and they are easy to install.  If your ceiling is flat, you can do the job quickly by simply gluing the acoustical tiles to the ceiling with a strong adhesive.If your ceiling is wavy, or if you need particularly strong sound proofing,  consider adding a dropped ceiling.  This creates a level plane with frames in which the tiles rest.  Although be aware that you will lose ceiling height…about 5 inches.Before installing the dropped ceiling frame, you can also staple batts of insulation to the original ceiling to create yet another layer of noise-reducing material.  This will even increase the room’s energy efficiency.Also, dropped ceilings come in so many styles these days, and are not as institutional looking as they used to be.  Change Doors And Add CarpetingReplace hollow-core doors with heavier solid-core doors to minimize sound transmission between rooms. Install wall-to-wall carpeting with extra-thick carpet pads underneath. If you do not like or cannot install wall-to-wall carpeting, place room sized rugs down, with extra thick carpet pads underneath. Double up by placing a carpet pad on the floor, a sisel rug on top of that, and then another, more colorful rung on top of that. Triple padding cuts down on noise, and is stylish-looking.  A very exciting product on the market is called Green Glue (www.greengluecompany.com). In terms of soundproofing products, it’s fairly  inexpensive and easy to work with – although I recommend hiring a contractor to apply it unless you are a confident DIY’er. Green Glue is slathered between two rigid surfaces (your wall, and another sheet of drywall, for example). It takes about 10 days to cure and for you to begin to notice a difference in the sound, and nearly a month before it reaches its peak capabilities. You can also use Green Glue on your ceiling.studios.  So go on and invite your relatives over to the guest bedroom without worrying about overhearing them or turn your spare bedroom into a home office! If I can do it (quietly), so can you!   

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Do It Yourself!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.