Acoustic Wall

About

What is an Acoustic Wall? An acoustic wall is a wall built or upgraded to control sound. There are two jobs it might be doing, and they are not the same. Sound insulation, or soundproofing, stops noise getting through the wall from the other side. This is what you want if the problem is a neighbour, a road, a party wall or a home office next to a living room. Acoustic treatment improves the sound inside a room by absorbing reflections and cutting echo and reverberation. This is what you want if the problem is a boomy, echoey room. Decorative slat panels are acoustic treatment. They tame echo within a room and they look good doing it. They will not stop your neighbour's television coming through the party wall, because they add almost no mass and do nothing about the path the sound is travelling along. If that is your problem, everything on this page is what you actually need. Does Soundproofing a Wall Actually Work? Yes, when it is treated as a system rather than a single product. The mistake is buying one thing and expecting it to fix everything. Mineral wool in the cavity on its own will help, but sound will still travel through the studs. Acoustic plasterboard on its own will help, but sound will still get through the gaps at the skirting. The wall goes quiet when the four mechanisms work together, and every one of them is cheap compared to the cost of getting it wrong and doing it twice. The Four Ways to Sound Insulate a Wall Add Mass Heavy things are harder for sound to move. Mass is the foundation of every soundproofing build-up. Acoustic plasterboard such as Siniat GTEC dB Board is denser than standard board and is stocked in 12.5mm and 15mm tapered edge. DBx PRO soundproofing board comes in 8.5mm, 10mm and 15mm. For a high-mass layer in a thin build-up, mass loaded vinyl and Tecsound self-adhesive acoustic membrane add serious weight without eating the room. Absorb in the Cavity An empty stud cavity is a drum. Filling it with dense mineral wool turns sound e