Soundproofing Existing Wall

[rnatalli]

My wife and I live in a brand-new condo. The ceilings are being redone and soundproofed as it wasn't done properly the 1st time around so ceilings are covered. But, I want to soundproof the shared walls on the sides as well. One of these walls is where my HT sits. My plan is simply go with 5/8" drywall over the existing wall with Green Glue in between. But I was thinking of installing clips over the existing wall (screwing the clips through to the studs of course). Is this a no-no? Do I have to rip down the existing wall to use sound clips?

 

[bpape]

It would depend on how the shared wall is built. At a minimum, you'll want to remove the drywall from your side prior to doing clips, channel, and double drywall or you'll have a triple leaf. If you're going to go to that effort, you might as well just put up another separate wall on your side (after removing drywall) and double drywall it.

This will be more effective for less money as it's completely decoupled (not the floor connection obviously) and you don't have to do clips/channel. The deeper space between will also lower the resonant frequency of the wall as does the double drywall.

Lastly, if you're going to do this, make the stud spacing different on your wall than on the neighbor's wall so they both have different resonances that can't complement each other.

In any case, make sure all outlets and other penetrations are boxed around and sealed and that the entire space is insulated fully.

Bryan

 

[Rickster71]

Rnatalli,
How old is your condo?
Can you hear your neighbors?
I don't remember the exact year the BOCA code required fire rated walls between dwelling units.
You may already have 2" of sheet rock (combined) between you and neighbor.

 

[rnatalli]

Rnatalli,
How old is your condo?
Can you hear your neighbors?
I don't remember the exact year the BOCA code required fire rated walls between dwelling units.
You may already have 2" of sheet rock (combined) between you and neighbor.

It's 6 months old so really new. They didn't stagger the studs

Some sound makes it through, primarily LF of course.