Soundproofing

[madeoftoast]

Anyone recently soundproofed and can recommend which panels to use? Neighbours are elderly and their tv is so loud due to their hearing failing.

We are getting the ceiling plastered and thought it was a good time to soundproof the wall connecting. Tia

Check to see if you share joists. If you do you could be wasting your money, as sound travels through the joists, not just the shared wall.
We spend £££’s and went through the upheaval of having the work done and it didn’t make a blind bit of difference because the joists ran lengthways through both properties.

I think it’s brick. 1960’s built.

This video is probably worth watching. I’ve got no experience with this companies products but I’ve had a look at their site and it’s professional in it’s approach.

I would advise against buying those wooden slatted panels from DIY shops (they’re quite trendy at the moment) as they’re not really intended for soundproofing; they’re about improving acoustics within your room. You can’t just hang a couple of panels on the wall and expect the problem to disappear, it doesn’t work like that. So you normally treat the whole wall which depending on your diy skills might need professionals. The pp is also right about alternative paths the sound might take eg floor joists so you have to bear that in mind too.

Thank you for the advice. The plasterer is going to do it for us then plaster over.

I hope your plasterer is also competent in constructing the solutions that the video describes, understands the reasoning behind them and executes them correctly. It’s very easy to get work done with this to have little effect if they don’t. This is where specialist sound proofing companies might be a better idea than just your standard plasterer.

I think both properties have to do it for it to work ? I think it noise insulates your own house - so if everyone does it it's good.

We did it when renovating our mid 60s house but because we have very quiet old neighbours we never hear anything.

Ideally the sound proofing should be on your neighbours side. I've had soundproofing twice. The first time was along the hall, stairs and part of a room and it was brilliant. It was quite expensive and it was specific soundproofing panels

I've had soundproofing panels here (not as good but much cheaper) which I think may be due to the internal walls being plasterboard rather than brick.