hanging heavy stuff on sound-proofed wall

[bulb763]

I am planning on acoustically insulating a party wall in the house. I have given myself ~100mm to play with, so in that space I'm going to have 50mm thick stud (600mm centres) stuffed with acoustic roll, then fastened onto the studs will be horizontal resiliant bar (600mm centres), hanging off which will be two 12.5mm layers of acoustic plasterboard, sandwiching a ~2mm acoustic membrane.

I'd like to not have to worry about whether or not I can hang / fix heavy things to the wall. I'm thinking immediately of a ~24" TV ~4-5 foot off the floor, but potentially a few shelves in the future too.

I'm aware that the whole point of the resiliant bar is to isolate the plasterboard from the stud, but I don't know whether this affects it's load bearing capabilities. Can anyone advise?

Ta muchly

[RedLeicester]

Keep off the res bars and you'll be fine, then use spring toggles if you're brave, hollow wall anchors if you're not.

[Jonboy_t]

I'm certinly no expert, but I've done some recording with various bands in teh past and in almost every single sound proofed studio I've been in, there are dozens of guitars/keyboards/bass' etc ahnign from them. One 24" TV would be about the same as 2 guitars and the holes would probably be spaced about the same distance as the instruments are, so I reckon you'd be OK.

Same with shelves too, but I wouldn't want to put anything huge on them!

As above, I'm definitely no expert though!!

[Webbit]

I’ve done this on the party walls upstairs and downstairs, I used 2x sheets of 12.5mm acoustic plasterboard attached to resilient bars to stud frame upstairs and minus the resilient bars downstairs and tbh there is no difference. Make sure your stud work frame is not touching the party wall and the there is a small gap (to be filled with acoustic sealant) around the plaster board edges and you will have a decoupled structure.

If you do decide to minus the resilient bars you’ll be able to line studwork for things like your telly to be bolted through.

Also have you got a solid party wall or one with a cavity? This works well with a solid wall but creates a triple leaf affect if you have a cavity wall (decreases the walls acoustic performance)!

Thought I’d add my experiences – works well on airborne noise – talking, laughing etc. But doesn’t do anything for doors banging (already gone through the structure of the building).

Cheers
Matt

[bulb763]

Webbit said:

I’ve done this on the party walls upstairs and downstairs, I used 2x sheets of 12.5mm acoustic plasterboard attached to resilient bars to stud frame upstairs and minus the resilient bars downstairs and tbh there is no difference. Make sure your stud work frame is not touching the party wall and the there is a small gap (to be filled with acoustic sealant) around the plaster board edges and you will have a decoupled structure.

If you do decide to minus the resilient bars you’ll be able to line studwork for things like your telly to be bolted through.

Also have you got a solid party wall or one with a cavity? This works well with a solid wall but creates a triple leaf affect if you have a cavity wall (decreases the walls acoustic performance)!

Thought I’d add my experiences – works well on airborne noise – talking, laughing etc. But doesn’t do anything for doors banging (already gone through the structure of the building).

Cheers
Matt

triple leaf effect? wassat then? Are you saying its better or worse? I dont understand how extra mass in between us would make a noise problem worse!

Its a timber framed house with cavity party-wall made of breeze blocks. Got the place two months ago and the joining neighbours have a noisy dog a crying baby. To be fair though, that is all I have been able to hear so far (airbourne - I'm resigned to the fact that I'll always be able to hear doors slamming).

Thanks, sounds like you've done exactly what I'm going to do.

hanging stuff - surely I dont need to worry about screwing through the plasterboard into the res bars, its just the timber stud that I need to avoid?

[Webbit]

I think you might be ok with doing this with your solid party wall. I'm not an expert, just remember the info i found when researching for my own wall, but from websites such as -http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/library/articles/triple_leaf_effect/ - triple leaf (2 air gaps) is thought to reduce the soundproofing qualities of a double leaf wall (1 air gap). The lower the "STC" rating, the worse the soundproofing properties!

I remember adding mass to a cavity party wall (such as M20AD panels - google, or just adding extra layers of acoustic plasterboard)is another way to go about it.

My noise problems were similar to yours - 3 yappy dogs next door and loud talking crystal clear through 9in brick walls (1930s semi). I'm hypersensitive though bought about by my previous house - awful neighbours, these current ones are ok - dogs don't really bark tbh! Detached next time I hope!

Cheers, Matt

[rvttim]

Hang plywood off your resiliant bar and then add your plasterboard. the thickness of your plywood depends on the wieghts you want it to carry. We gen spec 15mm ply for an office. Ensure all screwws do not go int the studs or all is wasted