Sound deadening walls

Steve Ash

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Michigan
Reading Marty's "Birth of a shop, the final trimester" someone mentioned using insulation to sound proof the walls of his shop to his office. I thought I'd make a illustration or a model of how we made sound proof walls in the apartment complexes I used to build as a younger fella, we never used insulation to do this...just the stagger stud method.

I thought with everyone building shops or are going to build... this thread might come in useful.

Between every dwelling we would frame a common wall and stagger the studs to allow a cavity for the noise to deaden and keep the next dwelling from hearing what the neighbors were doing in their apartment.

These weren't used in motels as I'm sure many can attest to the noise doesn't stay within the walls of the other guests in a motel. The apartments we built were 24 unit dwellings...24 families per complex, so I'm pretty certain these walls did what they were intended to do.

I made a model showing the procedure we used...

*Note, this may not be scale but does illustrate the framing procedure.*

Starting out with a set of 2x6's for top and bottom plates, you next do a layout of 12" centers with every other 2x4 stud on one edge of the plate, the studs in between are still on layout but on the opposite edge of the plates. Frame the entire wall this way with the end studs being 2x6 to keep the noise within the walls.

I tried to illustrate drywall being used on one side to show the cavity with the opposing stud to deaden the noise. Drywall was used on both sides in the apartments of course but leaving one side off gives a view of my intent.

If you are using a 2x4 wall you could do the same thing only turn all studs one quarter turn. If you have the room to frame two walls side by side and a few inches apart you can accomplish the same effect with 2x4's instead of 2x6's. What you are doing is creating a dead space for the noise to diminish.
 

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Seve,

Did you put any type of insulation in the walls, for additional noise deadening, heat/cool retention, or ??

Thanks, good info.

No Greg, we were the framing crew so we didn't do any insulating and to the best of my recollection the drywallers just covered up the bare studs after electrical was ran through it. If I remember correctly (this was 16 years ago) the units were heated and AC'd by zones meaning no one could turn the heat up or the Ac up to an extreme in their individual apartment, so therefore the need to independently control each dwelling was not neccesary since it was controlled for them.
 
Steve, we did the same thing when we built. The framer used 2x6s for top and bottom plates and then stagered the studs, just like your picture. I also had the insulation man spray Icynene foam between the studs. This wall separates the MBR from the den, and you can't hear anything through the wall.

Good tip there craftsman.
 
Which way, Bart...just the studs staggered, no insulation, staggered studs with insulation, or staggered studs with the double dry wall?

I'd like to do something with a wall I want to build to separate the shop from the garage, and keep the noise from reaching the house as much as possible.

Thanks,
 
I have only seen it with one layer of sheet rock between the 2 walls. They left enough space between the walls that the sheet rock between the walls on one wall didn't contact the other walls studs.They must of framed one wall sheet rocked it & then framed the other wall right close to it. I insulated on both sides of the sheet rock doing my best to keep the insulation spaced off of the sheet rock between the 2 walls & the sheet rockers finished the inside of each apartment wall. Years ago about 30 years ago they used to just build 2 staggered stud walls no sheet rock between & we insulated both walls & they sheet rocked over them.

The double sheet rock layers one right over the other with staggered joints in commercial buildings is to give people more time to get out.
 
Steve,

Interesting technique...

With my long partition wall already framed, is there some way for me to incorporate this into it?

I'm wondering if the sound-deadening effectiveness is due to the fact that the sheetrock on one side of the wall is not touching the studs on the other side...as well as the dead air baffles in the wall. Because if it is, there's no way to retro-fit that into my long wall since the OSB on both sides will be touching the same studs.

What are your thoughts...?
- Marty -

P.S. Thanks for sharing...:thumb:
 
Steve,

Interesting technique...

With my long partition wall already framed, is there some way for me to incorporate this into it?

I'm wondering if the sound-deadening effectiveness is due to the fact that the sheetrock on one side of the wall is not touching the studs on the other side...as well as the dead air baffles in the wall. Because if it is, there's no way to retro-fit that into my long wall since the OSB on both sides will be touching the same studs.

What are your thoughts...?
- Marty -

P.S. Thanks for sharing...:thumb:
Marty, I am sure that this is the prime reason for the efectiveness of the technique. By the way, the January 2007 issue of Fine Homebuilding has a good article on soundproofing and isolating the drywall is one of the things that they talk about in the article.
 
Steve,

Interesting technique...

With my long partition wall already framed, is there some way for me to incorporate this into it?

I'm wondering if the sound-deadening effectiveness is due to the fact that the sheetrock on one side of the wall is not touching the studs on the other side...as well as the dead air baffles in the wall. Because if it is, there's no way to retro-fit that into my long wall since the OSB on both sides will be touching the same studs.

What are your thoughts...?
- Marty -

P.S. Thanks for sharing...:thumb:

Marty you would have to frame another wall in front of your existing wall so you wouldn't have the sound transmission. I guess it could be 2x4 flat with maybe a 1/2" airspace. Since it's just going to be you and Denise you probably wouldn't want to waste the money. Unless one of you are going to be working in the office while the other is working in the shop.

Doug
 
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