Soundproofing Between Houses Sharing Common Wall

[scorecard]

I have a house which shares a common wall with the next house. The main bedroom in my house shares the common wall with the main bedroom in the next house. The noise which comes throught the wall is quite loud and is not even raised voices / not even yelling.

Swapping bedrooms / changing the bedroom to be the living room etc., is very impractical because it would mean that everybody would have to walk through the bedroom to get to the living room.

So I'm looking for suggestions, please, on how to do some sound proofing work.

I have two suggestions so far:

1. Because the dividing wall is in fact a double wall with a cavity, made using the new light weight cement blocks, fill the dividing space with spray on insulation, the type that they spray under the tiles etc on your roof.

2. Hang a very thick sheet of plastic covering the whole wall, about 3 cm out from the wall, then hang a thick heavy weight curtain to cover the plastic.

Would appreciate any comments from members on these two ideas and of course I welcome any further suggestions.

Thanks

[Soutpeel]

<P>Filling the cavity would be the way to go, but being a common wall would need to talk to the next house and get "permission" to do it.</P>

<P>An alternative may be to clad the inside face of your wall with 4" timber batterns/dry wall and fill with fibre glass roof insulation or possibly use the spray insulation mentioned above.</P>

<P>You could even do similar with acoustic foam, if you can find it<BR></P>

[PattayaParent]

^agree with Soutpeel but maybe instead of fibreglass rolls use 'rockwool' solid sheets.

[AyG]

Check the roof space. Make sure that the dividing wall continues to the roof and that it doesn't have gaps in it. Quite often you find that the sound is going around the wall, not through it.

[Soutpeel]

Check the roof space. Make sure that the dividing wall continues to the roof and that it doesn't have gaps in it. Quite often you find that the sound is going around the wall, not through it.

In almost all cases the dividing wall will not continue to roof level, they generally stop a foot or so above the ceiling level, in this case install 4" thick roofing insulation, Will control the roof temperature better as well as provide an acoustic barrier

[katabeachbum]

single most efficient thing to do is to have a look at your electrical switches and outlets in this wall.

remove one of them and you can probably see your neighbor

fill up the box with cement and install switches and outlets in boxes outside the wall. Huge difference

[bbradsby]

Sound attenuation requires some careful due diligence on your part. Is the sound:

1. high frequency - female voice, etc. - or low frequency - bass guitar, etc...

2. impact noise like high heels on wood or tile flooring

3. have you determined the height & openings of wall above ceiling?

4. do you have un-gasketed and/or single-glazed windows closely adjacent to the wall in question? Does the neighbor?

5. are there wiring devices (outlets...) in the offending wall?

These are all potential sources of sound transmission, and you have to isolate the source(s) to devise an effective solution.