soundproofing party wall?

[jonneymendoza]

I came across Wall Soundproofing | Industry Leading Solutions which offers a wide range of solutions with some adding thickness the size of a coke can! and wondering if its worth soundproofing my party wall downstairs on my living and dining room.

The living and dining room are joined together as the wall between them does not exist and i have two chimney breast situated in the middle of each room.

It is a semi detached house and the part i wanna sound proof is the party wall.

All the walls except the chimney breast. Or does the chimney breast needs to have sound proofing too?

This is so i can watch TV on my AV setup that has 5.1 surround sound speakers without disturbing neighbours .

FYI i can hear them speak, well mainly the husband as he does speak quite loud but can hear mumbling of his voice if its quiet in the room i am in.

Thoughts? Worth doing? My missus thinks its a waste of money especially thinking that i should also soundproof the chimney breast but the videos i have seen of people doing it, seems to indicate that they dont do that part.

Also, will i be able to still hang shelves etc on the party wall if its backed by a soundproof wall?

 

[Mason-]

So many variables. If you want it done properly you will lose a fair amount of space. A lot of materials will mute high and mid frequencies well, but bass will still get through, really the only thing that stops it is mass.

Another common area where sound gets through is if you and your neighbour have joists mounted on the party wall. Depending on the age of the house they may have built the party wall around the joists rather than use hangers, meaning there is a hole in the wall where your joist sits, and on the other side. And if they are in line with each other. Chances are a lot of sound will transmit through here. A telltale sign is if you can hear their movements upstairs e.g. stairs, joists/floorboards creaking. It can all be remedied but requires a lot of work and all depends on how ‘soundproof’ you want it to be.

Or… come to the conclusion that you’re in a non-detached house. Mass and distance are the only real solutions to bass and just lower your expectations. Or move.

“you can’t always get what you want”

 

[Macky]

We're in a semi and the neighbours have their TV mounted on the chimney breast which comes through pretty damn loudly into our house. If it's TV sound that is the problem, you could try soundproofing directly behind it.