Need Sound Proofing Advice

[Danno321]

Hi, I live in a side-by-side condo complex and the sound proofing between units is not good.  I am wondering if anyone knows of a local company that could quote installing something like Fomo Foam in my vertical side walls.  Any help appreciated.

TIA,
Danno

[Talos4]

I think you'd be better off retro-fitting your common wall with something like Quiet rock. http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

I've seen it applied over existing drywall and it's supposed to be very effective.

[Dan the Man]

The foam will have mimimal effect on transmission thru the wall. It does more to cut down on reverberation then anything else. What you need is mass to dampen the sound.

Retrofitting after the fact in any case can be costly and not look good. The more you spend, the better it will perform and look.

Good luck with this one.

[jkane]

Install a home theater and crank it up.  :guitar:

[Doug Mohr]

The proper way to build the shared walls is with stagged joists and acoustic drywall. Very few developers are willing to spend an extra penny on anything that people won't realize was shortcut until after they sign the purchase. Sorry for the rant, I just hate half-a$$ developers and they seem to be prevalent in this city. We get the same complaints over and over again when we meet new neighbors and our only honest response can be "Yep, we knew that was going to happen because we watched the construction." However we don't, because that is a little too rude for my taste.

Back on topic:
As for solving it, the best way is to build a new wall a few inches in from the existing one. It could get expensive if you don't do it yourself, but the payoff is excellent. I helped a friend do that to the shared wall in his condo down in Chicago and it was a night & day difference. The worst part was relocating the outlets five inches out, but at least in Chicago, a homeowner is allowed to do his own electrical work, unlike here. :bang:

Doug