Cork on top of drywall for sound insulation? (floor, roofing, townhouse)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Seem to remember reading somewhere that adding cork to a sheetrock wall will greatly reduce sound transmission.
Mange a triplex and the master bedroom of one unit shares a wall with the bathroom of the other unit...
It is built to code with separation between studs for each unit.
The tenant with the master bedroom has her furniture arranged so the head board is about 8" away from the wall nearest the sink, tub and toilet and is having trouble sleeping at night when the other tenant comes home from the graveyard shift and takes a shower...
Also... the copper pipes have been wrapped with sound insulation... which reduced the issue many years ago.
Anyone have experience with adding a layer of cork to reduce sound?
For starters cork ain't fire proof. It'll burn like wood. I would hate to get any kind of porous surface in a rental unit...
The sound frequncies that cork will deaden are pretty limitied, it very well might not do anything to stop sound transmission from a shower on the far side of a wall...
The right way to address is to open up at least one side of the wall, pack the cavity with appropriate sound deadening insulation (typically the stuff is denser than regular energy saver insulation, often made of rockwool instead of fiberglass) offset the studs,get the specialty sound deadening drywall and adhesives and then button everything back up. When done right those kind of efforts will make so that you can have a literally rock and roll jam session on one side and babies sleeping on the other...
Cork will probably have no meaningful effect on this kind of noise. Neither would a 6 inch think batt of fiberglass. Fiber-like materials can block high frequency sounds, but not low frequencies. If you held up a piece of fiberglass home insulation in front of a speaker playing music, it would reduce the loudness of high notes. But bass would come right through. Plumbing noise, etc. is basically low frequency sound.
To reduce the transmission of these kinds of sounds, you need to add mass and stiffness. It needs to heavy enough and "dead" enough that low frequencies have trouble energizing the wall. So a second layer of sheetrock or another entire thickness of wall might be required.
Seem to remember reading somewhere that adding cork to a sheetrock wall will greatly reduce sound transmission.
Mange a triplex and the master bedroom of one unit shares a wall with the bathroom of the other unit...
It is built to code with separation between studs for each unit.
The tenant with the master bedroom has her furniture arranged so the head board is about 8" away from the wall nearest the sink, tub and toilet and is having trouble sleeping at night when the other tenant comes home from the graveyard shift and takes a shower...
Also... the copper pipes have been wrapped with sound insulation... which reduced the issue many years ago.
Anyone have experience with adding a layer of cork to reduce sound?
Cork isn't going to do much for you, and it may be a code violation because it's not flame retardant.
Seem to remember reading somewhere that adding cork to a sheetrock wall will greatly reduce sound transmission.
Mange a triplex and the master bedroom of one unit shares a wall with the bathroom of the other unit...
It is built to code with separation between studs for each unit.
I can't imagine that cork would help much. As has been stated, you need MASS for sound insulation -- think heavy: lead, sheetrock.
I'm not sure what "separation between studs" means, but the common walls in my old townhouse had sheetrock, 2x4, sheetrock, 2x4, sheetrock. Maybe that's what yours is, as I believe the extra sandwiched sheetrock formed a firewall. It went all the way to the roof, as I recall. It was very quiet. In 10+ years living there with neighbors on both sides, I can only recall one or two times hearing anything through the walls. It was a "thud" on the wall (teen boys in the family).
Sometimes, however, sound can resonate along/through materials. In my garage I have a stack of insulation designed to quiet Learjets and such airplanes. It's very a thin layer of lead (thin to keep it light) stuck to open cell foam. The other side of the foam sticks to the interior of the plane's fuselage, mainly to isolate the lead from vibrations. Very expensive stuff that I'll never use now that I've sold my last plane.
Maybe tennant needs to move her bed away from the common wall. Its alittle hard to sound proof walls once the structure is complete....unless you want to pull walls apart and start over. Condos...apartments...demiseing wall....all nature of the beast.
I can't imagine that cork would help much. As has been stated, you need MASS for sound insulation -- think heavy: lead, sheetrock.
I'm not sure what "separation between studs" means, but the common walls in my old townhouse had sheetrock, 2x4, sheetrock, 2x4, sheetrock. Maybe that's what yours is, as I believe the extra sandwiched sheetrock formed a firewall. It went all the way to the roof, as I recall. It was very quiet. In 10+ years living there with neighbors on both sides, I can only recall one or two times hearing anything through the walls. It was a "thud" on the wall (teen boys in the family).
Sometimes, however, sound can resonate along/through materials. In my garage I have a stack of insulation designed to quiet Learjets and such airplanes. It's very a thin layer of lead (thin to keep it light) stuck to open cell foam. The other side of the foam sticks to the interior of the plane's fuselage, mainly to isolate the lead from vibrations. Very expensive stuff that I'll never use now that I've sold my last plane.
...
The wall is Sheetrock, stud, insulation, offset stud and Sheetrock... built in 1970
I love that aircraft vibration damping material... I've used 3M Y-370 inside the body cavities of the cars I was restoring and made a world of difference. Sadly, I don't have anymore... bought a couple of boxes of seconds/damage stock for next to nothing in the 1980's...
What's it going for now days?
At the job, we have a conference room ceiling with cork over drywall... it is very quiet and the audio booths for hearing tests use cork... just not sure how it would work with plumbing.
The benefit of the 12 x 25 pieces would be I could be in and out in short time without fooling around with the drywall.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 06-28-2012 at 09:15 PM..
Maybe tennant needs to move her bed away from the common wall. Its alittle hard to sound proof walls once the structure is complete....unless you want to pull walls apart and start over. Condos...apartments...demiseing wall....all nature of the beast.
Her California King will only fit with the headboard against the common wall...
Many moons ago cork was used as a sound proofing materials. You glued the materials to the existing drywall and then glued new drywall to the cork. It worked for the most part but wasn't perfect. The key to sound proofing is never to use a metal fastener that actually transmits the sound. Always glue. We even used at one time a sound deadening felt that was basically roofing felt with no asphalt on it. Worked great on floor systems where you didn't want to hear the folks walking across the upstairs floor. Used a lot of it in hospital construction too between rooms.
Not sure what fire retardant has to do with any of the materials. Obviously the studs aren't fire retardant as well as other materials used in home construction.
My dad built soundproof studios for radio stations. Wanna know what your real answer is? Ask her if she wants the problem resolved over a period of a month with workers tearing apart the walls, or a $25 per month reduction of the rent and no further complaints.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
