Weird quiestion: Sound proofing

[Ziggy]

Pretty weird question for a video game forum, but this is the only forum I post on these days. I'm not looking for any experts in the field, I'll value any one's opinion on this.

So here's the deal (I'll try to make it short to avoid the wall of text): I'm switching bedrooms in my house, and I'm moving into a room that's on the opposite side of the house that I'm on now. The side of the house that I'm on now, noise isn't much of an issue, even late at night. The room I'm moving into though, I don't want to keep my "next door neighbor" up at night because I'm watching TV.

So, there's one wall that's shared with the bedroom next to me (2 other walls face the outside and the 4th wall faces the stairwell). The shared wall is just normal dry wall with insulation in it. The sounds from TV and whatnot can easily make its way through the wall.

Really, I wouldn't mind busting the rock off and putting in sound proofing and re-rocking, but sound proofing is expensive and I cannot afford it (at least, all the sound proofing materials I've ever seen are very expensive). So I came up with this kinda ghetto idea, but I'm wondering if it's even worth doing or not.

So my idea is this: On the shared wall, I'm gonna put up wood paneling regardless. So being that I'm doing that, I had this idea. I've seen insulating boards of different materials before. Usually used to glue on cement walls in basements. I've actually seen boards of just straight up styrofoam. And it's very cheap. They come in 4x8 I think. So I was thinking about gluing the styrofoam (or what ever material) boards to the dry wall, then gluing my wood panels over it.

Is this even worth doing? Do you think the layer of styrofoam/wood panel would even make a difference in sound? Or is it just a waste of time? I realize it's not gonna make a HUGE difference, but even a small difference would be OK.

Like I said, I'm putting up the wood paneling anyway, and I know the boards are really cheap, so I'm not concerned about wasting the money. I realize that I wont be able to remove it if I ever wanted to change the appearance of the wall, I'm not concerned with that either (if I really wanted to, I wouldn't mind re-rocking it). More or less, I don't wanna waste the time doing it if it's not gonna have a decent effect.

[slowslow325]

I don't know where I heard this, but I heard lining a wall with those paperish egg cartons works well because of the shape.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I've heard of this too. Not sure if it's true or not, but I don't exactly care to have a wall of egg cartons lol.

[Octopod]

Could look cool.

[Jrecee]

Line all 4 walls, the floor and the ceiling with egg carton foam, and then breed chickens.

But so it doesn't get out of control, breed snakes as well. Also, paint the egg carton foam in bright colors with lead based paints.

Or, if you don't think it will look good, have the room always be pitch black. Then install steam vents that shoot steam of different temperatures. This way you can navigate the room based on whether you feel ice cold steam, or searing hot steam.

[CRTGAMER]

So, there's one wall that's shared with the bedroom next to me (2 other walls face the outside and the 4th wall faces the stairwell). The shared wall is just normal dry wall with insulation in it. The sounds from TV and whatnot can easily make its way through the wall.

So my idea is this: On the shared wall, I'm gonna put up wood paneling regardless. So being that I'm doing that, I had this idea. I've seen insulating boards of different materials before. Usually used to glue on cement walls in basements. I've actually seen boards of just straight up styrofoam. And it's very cheap. They come in 4x8 I think. So I was thinking about gluing the styrofoam (or what ever material) boards to the dry wall, then gluing my wood panels over it.

Is this even worth doing? Do you think the layer of styrofoam/wood panel would even make a difference in sound? Or is it just a waste of time? I realize it's not gonna make a HUGE difference, but even a small difference would be OK.

Any insulation or in this case styrofoam sheeting will help, any additional barrier to muffle sounds.
You might have to move your electrical outlets and switch boxes to compensate for the thicker wall.

[fvgazi]

That egg carton foam is great. You do not need to do the entire wall. Just maybe like 4 or 5 pieces placed throughout. It doesn't have to be that expensive sound proofing kind. Just the kind you would stick on top of a mattress.

In my friend's recording studio he took a bunch of scrap wood (mostly small ends from 2x4s) and glued them to pieces of plywood that were like 2'x3'. He hung them on the wall. The end result making it look like artwork and also breaking up and capturing sound. You could paint it it or whatever too. I wish I had a picture to show you. You could always just drape pieces of carpet on the wall.

If you have subs on a wood floor, that will amplify the sound (especially if there is a room underneath.) Try to prop speakers up on something that wont vibrate too much and isn't permanently attached to the floor.

[AppleQueso]

Egg cartons don't do ANYTHING for sound proofing, that's something you do for acoustic treatment, maybe, but not for sound proofing.

There's plenty of stuff around the internet for actual sound-proofing a room, but again, it's not exactly cheap.

[slowslow325]

Egg cartons don't do ANYTHING for sound proofing, that's something you do for acoustic treatment, maybe, but not for sound proofing.

There's plenty of stuff around the internet for actual sound-proofing a room, but again, it's not exactly cheap.

That's controversial, some people swear by it. But, I wouldn't exactly line my walls with egg carton if there was even a chance it won't work.

[AppleQueso]

Like I said, it's acoustical treatment, not sound proofing. People seem to use those terms interchangeably for some reason, but generally what's good for acoustical treatment isn't necessarily good for sound proofing, and vice-versa.