Stuffing your walls full of batting insulation may help isolate room temperature, but the treatment does nothing to block noise from bleeding from room to room. Much like a pile of sponges can’t block flooding water, you need sandbags, the same holds true with block noise. You need density, and fiberglass batting insulation stuffed between wall or ceiling joists is not dense. In addition, the true path that the noise travels along is structural, much like a string pulled tight between two coffee cans. The “framing” inside your wall or ceiling most likely is connecting your rooms together. It is this framing that delivers noise back and forth via vibration. This means that no matter what you stuff between your joists, behind your drywall, it won’t work because the treatment is ignoring the vibration path that the energy is transmitting through.
But lining your surface with dB-Bloc DOES block noiseWhat most contractors of a generation back will think to do, is to stuff the walls full of batting insulation and call the wall “soundproof”. Well in fact, it doesn’t work. What does work is layering mass loaded vinyl, such as dB-Bloc, over the entire surface of the wall or ceiling, then a channel system to disconnect the contact points, and new drywall. For questions related to your common wall or ceiling noise issues, visit NetWell Noise Control online at www.controlnoise.com or call their help desk at 1-800-638-9355.
