Sound Proofing

[xwordmad]

Hi, we live in a semi, last year we paid a builder to gut our kitchen...as the walls have been replaced with plasterboard we are now left with a kitchen where we can hear our neighbours clear as day. The kitchen is an add on and single brick each side... the kitchen is now fitted, tiled wall etc, is there anything now we can do to soundproof? Is it so that you can have soundproof plasterboard? Any help appreciated, thankyou

[TheChair]

"as the walls have been replaced with plasterboard"
What were they before?

[frugalfred]

Single brick? How did that ever get past Building Regulations?

[Clanad]

I can only compare your plight to what happens here in the U.S., but a hollow wall , as I think you are suggesting is behind the newly installed plasterboards can be injected with blown in insulation… usually shredded fiberglass, that will significantly help with the sound problem. A small, 2 inch diameter hole is cut out at the top of the wall near the ceiling between each supporting stud and a blower then injects the fiberglass. Following the injection the small cutouts are reinstalled and plastered over ready for paint…

The injection of the fiberglass is done by either hiring the process done or, again, here, one can rent the blower and buy the fiberglass at any DIY store. Although this has been a lengthy description of the possibility, the whole process would cost about $100 (US) or so if you do it or maybe $200 if hired from an insulation company.

[xwordmad]

The kitchen extension is 1930s, if isnt a new extension... each side is single brick ... beffore it was solid wall

[xwordmad]

Just to clarify, when we had the kitchen gutted we had walls taken back to brick

[frugalfred]

Did the builder attach the plasterboard directly to the bricks, or did he stud the wall, i.e. fix battens to it? If the latter, then there will be a space betqeen the brickwork and the plasterboard, and you could get ot injected with a soundproofing material.

[Quizproquo]

Back to brick from what though?

[xwordmad]

I believe they just attached to brick

[frugalfred]

I hope this wasn't a cowboy builder's bodge!

[xwordmad]

Quizprogo....they took old plaster off, back to brickwork and replaced with plasterboard

[xwordmad]

Could we have had sound proof plasteboard? I would have paid extra had we been aware there would be a sound issue... should the builder have been aware this would leave us with an issue taking the original solid plaster off?

[Dogsbody2]

There's a reasonable explanation of how sound travels across walls here: -
http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/sound_proofing_in_the_home.htm

Generic solutions are to either add mass to the wall to reduce the effect, or put a layer between to minimise transfer of the sound waves across (the insulation approach suggested above). It sounds like this is now worse because mass has been removed from the previous wall.

I don't think you can blame this on the building company.

[Old_Geezer]

Have not heard of soundproof plasterboard: it's just plaster with card on each face.

Didn't understand what "dry lining" was until I had a new extension. Then, to my horror, found I didn't have a proper professional plaster job but some baton and board bodge with a skim of plaster ! Builder should have explained in advance that it meant he had no one able to plaster properly so I could go hire someone who did.

If I understand you correctly you mean that you and your neighbours share a cavity wall. In which case, with your neighbours' permission there must be soundproofing material you could fill the cavity with.

[Mosaic]

OG, there are firms that sell 'soundproof plasterboard' but it's basically the thicker gyproc thermal board ie it has a layer of rigid foreproof foam bonded to the back.
I can empathise with the OP - we too have a inter-war semi, and some of the original builder's bodges have to be seen. This includes a less-than-meaty party wall, and as the next doors have gone for hardwood floors, lots of sound penetration.
If we stay in this house I'll get round to it, but there are lots of similarities between heat insulation and sound deadening.
Are there lots of fixtures on your party wall? That would be a problem if so. If not, it's an annoying but simple job to pry off or unscrew the plasterboard, install sound-deadening insulation (oridnary stuff sold for lofts), reboard and re-plaster.
That is, provided the boards installed by the builder are onto battens. If stuck directly to the brick, it won't work.
You could stick a layer of gyproc thermal board over the existing, replaster etc but that's a real bodge n a half.

[Old_Geezer]

Well; one lives and learns: again :-)

[Old_Geezer]

I read it that the wall is now retiled; so I don't see prying it off as a preferred option.

[Mosaic]

Og, you and your careful reading......
It's still not 9 O'clock so I'm still mistaking the fridge for the microwave, let alone reading carefully.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah that explains the cold porridge.

[alavahalf]

By removing the plaster back to the brick .. you have actually made the wall thinner. The old plaster had a sound reducing effect due to it's mass. This has now gone.
The last time I had a job like this the customer was complaing about the noise from the neighbours. She got a local builder to overboard the wall .. he used the dot and dab method to create a new layer of plasterboards over the existing wall ( he was rather mean with the adhesive material which meant a larger than required area was not attached as well as it could be).
She thought that the now thicker wall, would reduce the noise.
Little did she know that it had the opposite effect ... the new thin cavity created when the boards were fitted, with the boards standing slightly off the old wall, left a hollow space and gave off more noise than before. A bit like a hifi speaker uses the empty box to amplify sound.
A bit drastic I know, but to solve the now even worse noise issue, I removed the whole layer of new boards. It did work and reduce the noise back to it's previous level. That is all I was asked to do.

With hindsight you now know that re-plastering/rendering the old wall would have been the best bet.

Accoustic plasterboards are readily available .. from £20 - £250 each. .. same old story you get what you pay for. If you do go down that route make sure you fill the cavity before the boards are secured and dont cut any holes in them for sockets (Lets the noise out) ... Good luck

[The Builder]

All good stuff from the other posters.

Such a shame, Xword. A good opportunity missed. You were unlucky in having a builder who just does what he's asked to do, while offering no input. So many are like this. It absolves them of any responsibility. They really don't like "thinking".

Anyone presented with just a 4" wall between them and the neighbour, should automatically start to come up with soundproofing ideas. It's so easy.

Put up 100mm thick concrete block wall slap up against the existing to create more soundproofing "mass".

Or... fix 50mm battens; fill between battens with "Rockwool" acoustic insulation batts. Finish with 2 x layers of 12.5mm "Soundcheck" plasterboard.

Or......... this is rather a "Rolls Royce" method I've used between flats ........ Fix a timber stud wall 50mm from the existing, but.... fix on flexible rubber mountings to reduce "impact sound". Stuff the studwork with acoustic insulation to reduce "airborne sound".... finish with "Soundcheck" board.

None of these methods would cost a fortune, and the results would be pretty spectacular compared to what it must be like now.