Has anyone ever soundproofed a room?

[RubyFakeLips]

Very dull. We are renovating our new (pre covid) house and have found the only place to put a downstairs loo is next to seating end of the kitchen (to be clear door will not open onto the kitchen at all).

Now we obviously aren't going to position the actual toilet on the shared wall but I'd really prefer not to hear my DH taking a shit while I'm having my cornflakes or any time really

I've said I want it soundproof DH think this is ridiculous, not possible due to being very costly and complicated. Anyone done this sort of thing easily?

[Destroyedpeople]

I heard you can sound proof a room with egg boxes. ... (Irrelevant)

[notangelinajolie]

Or you could have a no poo in the downstairs loo rule

Sorry, not helpful. Our downstairs loo shares a wall with our kitchen and sofa and yes, I can confirm you do need soundproofing. Something we didn't do. And a rule my DH has great difficulty in following

We had to soundproof the kids bedroom to stop loud sex noises coming through from next door in our last house. We used a layer of thick celotex insulation and plaster board and had a plasterer come in to skim over the top. That worked quite well but we lost precious bedroom space. Which was the reason we didn't do the loo in our next house.

[MrsKypp]

We soundproofed a wall and it cost just over £2,000. Done professionally to block out noise from the neighbour through a 1960s uselessly thin wall. Neighbour wasn't a problem, the wall was. Fine now!

[Comefromaway]

Egg boxes don’t soundproof a room, they (or rather egg is shaped foam acoustic panels) reduce the echo.

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Yes. Not difficult

You can get sound reducing plasterboard. You sandwich two layers of this with something called ‘green glue’. This is a sound absorbing bonding agent.

In the cavity between the partition and plasterboard use a higher spec insulation than usual. We did this ten years ago so do some research but there are differenent grades of mineral wool sound insulation.
We did the whole wall between us and next door, so a toilet will not be expensive. Well worth it I reckon

[Destroyedpeople]

Yes the egg boxes thing is a myth apparently...

[user1471528245]

It’s all about sound waves, I soundproofed my cinema room (it’s a big cupboard) literally big enough for a sofa and projector screen, so quite simple really if you’re creating the walls use dense block not the normal lightweight and then use soundproof plasterboard,(Slightly more expensive than normal) but don’t do normal dot and dab use a silicon adhesive this basically creates aN air gap between the block and the board And the silicon kills the sound vibrations going through the wall, or if you’re creating stud walls with timber use Knauf sound proof rock wool and soundproof plasterboard and again glue it rather than screw it to the timbers, And if you really want to go to town put two layers of plasterboard in but again silicon glue between the layers, you may not kill all the sound but it will be better than standard partitions, for a room the size of a toilet it’s not going to be huge money and if you can do it yourself even cheaper, if you search YouTube there is an American diy video on how to soundproof a room that’s quite usefull

[RubyFakeLips]

@notangelinajolie hah bloody hah, I have four boys, I'd probably have to barricade myself in to enforce that one.

Thanks all this is really useful. I posted this, went down a rabbit hole of research myself and woke up about 3:00 am with my ipad on my face! So I do appreciate, in detail, its not the most enthralling of topics.

Due to current circumstances its been difficult to get any one of the builders we're considering to actually discuss this as they all want to talk about in person in situe!

Sounds as if it is doable and affordable and DH is coming round to the idea too.

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Green glue for sound absorbing sandwich between 2 layers of ‘DB plasterboard’ www.affixit.co.uk/green-glue.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwxLH3BRApEiwAqX9arftFtMqUAkNxV9dolw4k92xYiRsyMYWiUYiseX9OPqEES5q2Z5BklBoC24EQAvD_BwE

[HasaDigaEebowai]

We used soundproofing plasterboard in our dressing room which separates the ensuite from the bedroom. It's definitely better (although obviously sound still travels though gaps around doors etc)

[GrimDamnFanjo]

This thread may be the answer to my prayers. New neighbours enjoy lots of sex. I'm fed up of being woken up!

[SophiaLarsen]

Create a wall that stands off from your current wall. Build a battened wall that creates an air gap between your old wall and to be new wall. Then place in the squares you have created with battens sound insulation. The over the top place high density rubber backed plasterboard. Skim as normal. You don't want to compromise the integrity of this wall with sockets, shelves, nailed in pictures etc.

We did it for a party wall between us and Dom Joly's brother next door. Works a treat.

Check out: soundproofingstore.co.uk

[SophiaLarsen]

The trick is to use different density materials to absorb the different frequencies of noise.

[GrimDamnFanjo]

@SophiaLarsen I was about to have a socket put in!
Does that mean a radiator is a bad idea too and will need to be removed?

[SophiaLarsen]

It's not recommended if you really need the soundproofing to be effective.

[GrimDamnFanjo]

@SophiaLarsen thanks for confirming I'd be happy to give up my radiator so I don't have to listen to anymore "sexy times."

[TimeWastingButFun]

We have a bathroom in a newly built annexe (opening out into a living space' and the builder recommended soundproofing. I thought it was unnecessary but we did it anyway and it's really effective, you can't hear the toilet flush or anything.

[Alisonjabub]

Yep straightforward and very common. Rockwool type insulation and/or soundproof plasterboard. Naturally it usually means a little more thickness and loss of space but this can be minimised with good planning.