The Sound of Silence

Last week the sound proofers came and did their thing in the band room.  Most of the time, I enjoy the sounds coming up through the floor of the kitchen in our current house, but when I want to listen to something  else or when someone is experimenting with screeching metal guitar sounds, I ache for soundproofing.

First up was to put mufflers on the heat ducts.  These “privacy duct silencers” will keep the band noise from travelling through the network of pipes and serving as an unintended speaker system throughout the house. They are constructed of a layer of perforated and corrugated aluminum, then wrapped with fiberglass insulation and topped with another layer of unperforated corrugated aluminum. 

I think the mufflers work.  While the guys from Premier were working on firing up the geothermal system, I went into the band room next door and tried to shout through the duct to them.  They couldn’t hear me.  Or maybe they just pretended not to.

The next step was putting up sound isolating clips on the wall adjoining the guest room and attaching a “hat channel.” The sheet rock will attach to the channel and be isolated from the studs to keep the booming bass from traveling through the studs to the next room.

Next up was to shoot a laser line around the room to make sure the ceiling grid would be level.  There weren’t really two lines; I didn’t have a tripod and I’m not as steady as I used to be.

Then they suspended the grid from the ceiling and attached the hat channel to that.

Next came a layer of sound batts on top of the grid.

Then they put up sheet rock all around and came back to put a second, overlapping layer on the ceiling. 

But wait!

There’s more.  There is magic between the layers.

Before they put on the second layer of sheetrock, they apply copious amounts of green glue. The green glue is supposed to dampen the sound and trap it between the layers of sheetrock.

Keep going….

More, please…

That’s more like it.  Say, do you think that guy ever worked in a bakery?

And up it goes.

Every sheet on the second layer got the same treatment.

We went through quite a lot of green glue.

I expected great praise and exclamations of unending joy from the band members.  Not really.  It turns out that they are only interested in the acoustics inside the band room.  What happens outside of the room is not very interesting to them.

Sigh.

Well, at least the neighbors and I will be able to enjoy the sound of silence.