Sound proofing party walls

Soldato
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I live in a semi detached house and am looking at sound proofing the party wall as our neighbours are generally just noisy people.

Thudding up and down the stairs, music from their kitchen ceiling speakers can be heard throughout the house and anything the daughter gets up to in her bedroom :rolleyes:


I'm looking at doing a kitchen extension and other work to the house but before I invest I wanted to get peoples experience and costs to have this type of work done. It would likely be the kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom.


Thanks.
 
Soldato
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Had this problem myself it was horrendous.
I'm afraid soundproofing might help a little but I'd save that money on moving house thats what I did and the advice I would give.
I really wouldn't waste money on soundproofing you definetly won't stop banging noises.
Feel your pain.
 
Associate
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From what little i read it's only as good as the weakest area, and is awfully expensive. So i scrapped the idea.

Mainly posting to let you know that search will show up some results as i looked when i had considered it. My point above isn't much help i know :p
 
Soldato
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Just be louder and worse

Still haven't found out what the horrible old man next door doesn't like music wise... His hateful lodger hates a the hammer banging so it's an easy win to try and push him over the edge with
 
Associate
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As above really, sound is mainly transmitted through the structure of the building... its impossible to block this with sound proofing materials on walls.
 
Soldato
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Just be louder and worse

Still haven't found out what the horrible old man next door doesn't like music wise... His hateful lodger hates a the hammer banging so it's an easy win to try and push him over the edge with

Agree, had to endure awfully loud neighbours so I just installed surround sound in the living room and I whacked the volume up constantly and placed the speakers right next to the party wall, and now I am in the process of fully renovating the entire house, in order to sell up and move on.

The drilling and banging noises have in fact really get under their skin, as twice they have now asked to reduce this noise, and twice I've told them I am conducting construction work under permitted noise regulations, for DIY this includes weekends from 9am - 6pm and that has given me great satisfaction - the noise next door has dropped off a lot lately when it was pointed out they make as much noise and can be easily heard, could hear them arguing, talking loudly and the lot.

I also wonder if playing PC games in the living room like Doom internal at a bloody good volume annoyed them - hope so.

Anyhow, we have now put up 12.5 mm plasterboard to 50mm battens with rockwool between the battens and floor joists everywhere, its made a small difference but honestly just installed rockwool as i can get it very cheaply from where I work, and considering I have had to re plaster board and reskim and batten ALL external and party walls and ceilings in the house, to get this done by plastering crew and supplies, would be EXTREMELY expensive, I have done it as I can plaster skim and get all materials at very good prices and its helped muffled the sounds from next door, but not removed it, and they have also quieten down themselves as i do think the noise I was making has made them realise - you can really hear more then you realise through walls.

Plastering + board , skim more so is expensive if you can't do this yourselves plus the cost of 50mm rockwool and the plaster boards, and labour its not a cheap thing to do and it doesn't give total sound proofing anyhow .
 
Soldato
OP
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We are on good terms with our neighbours and for most of the time its fine noise wise but they are a family of 5 with 3 children still at school.

The kitchen and bathroom are being gutted anyway and the bedroom wall has nothing on it. Maybe we just notice it more being at home for so much of this year. We have considered moving but we do like the house, the area and our neighbours so would have to be a last resort.

I was looking at something like this;
https://www.soundproofingstore.co.uk/solid-party-wall-soundproofing
 
Caporegime
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We are on good terms with our neighbours and for most of the time its fine noise wise but they are a family of 5 with 3 children still at school.

The kitchen and bathroom are being gutted anyway and the bedroom wall has nothing on it. Maybe we just notice it more being at home for so much of this year. We have considered moving but we do like the house, the area and our neighbours so would have to be a last resort.

I was looking at something like this;
https://www.soundproofingstore.co.uk/solid-party-wall-soundproofing

You do understand sound will also be travelling through the floors and ceilings not just the walls?

You would need to soundproof most of your house not just the party wall.

***removed useless advice***
 
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Associate
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Everyone saying it doesn't work but surely there must be a way to soundproof a room even if it stops the noise by like 50% would be worth it imo.

There is, but it costs a fortune.

You do understand sound will also be travelling through the floors and ceilings not just the walls?

You would need to soundproof most of your house not just the party wall.

^^This.
 
Soldato
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Everyone saying it doesn't work but surely there must be a way to soundproof a room even if it stops the noise by like 50% would be worth it imo.

As said there is, but its quite expensive , even if you can hang plasterboard and reskim walls to a good standard its still fairly expensive. The problem is, as mentioned, the sound travels up through the walls and ceilings, and TBH that video he linked to showing metal battens and sound proof plasterboard, it won't remove all noise IMO. Leaving gaps bottom and sides of the boards can introduce other problems down the line, such as filling shrinkage - results are cracks, so the only true way is to rip down what is there, back to solid brick and ceiling joists, on all brick walls install CLS stud, around 600mmm apart, 400mm is also acceptable, stuff this with 50mm acoustic rockwool or knauf wool, and same for inbetween ceiling joists, re-board with 12.5 blue plasterboard, scrim tape ALL joints, reskim, then repaint, and doing this around the entire house , well, thats gonna be expensive, even if you can reboard and reskim yourself.

And using 12.5 blue plasterboard on ceilings is not advise, too heavy and will eventually sag, so best to use standard 12.5mm wallboard on ceilings. It gets expensive .

Stud partition walls, you can do the same, just won't need to install any stud work, just stuff rookwool into the voids, reboard.
 
Caporegime
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Everyone saying it doesn't work but surely there must be a way to soundproof a room even if it stops the noise by like 50% would be worth it imo.

The cost to do so properly would be so expensive you would be spending tens of thousands per room and after spending £50k+ your still living in a small semi detached house.

That money could instead bought you a bigger detached home.

The new gurdwara they built in Glasgow they spent over £200k soundproofing the partition wall of the 2 main halls. Completely useless you can hear everything as the sound is travelling through the floor and ceiling.

Put your phone speaker on and play some music. Now take a plastic cup cut a speaker sized hole at the bottom and now put that hole over it to create a loud speaker. Even though it's the same volume it's now significantly louder as it's now travelling through the cup.

Now imagine how sound can travel through an entire building. Unless of course you use massive amounts of material or density which for housing is so expensive you would be stupid to do so as buying a new home would be cheaper and smarter.
 
Caporegime
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You can't properly soundproof a party wall without losing significant amounts of space, and doing the floors and ceilings too.

The only effective way is to build a false cavity and put in lots of sound deadening materials into a stud wall.
 
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