Denim insulation, developed in the early 1980s, is a non-toxic and fire-resistant product made from post-consumer recycled cotton and denim. It is soft, easy to handle, and fire-resistant, offering superior sound insulation properties compared to fiberglass and cellulose insulation. Denim insulation has a higher noise reduction coefficient (NRC) than other insulation materials, with 3.5-inch thickness having an STC rating of 52 for sounds in the 1000hz range.
Despite its higher cost than standard fiberglass insulation, denim insulation offers numerous advantages, including a higher Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) and sound transmission class. UltraTouch Denim Insulation, made from 80 recycled denim, offers a non-toxic and safe noise and thermal insulation solution from ASI.
Denim insulation is an eco-friendly, non-carcinogenic material with a multi-dimensional microstructure that isolates and traps sound waves. The fibers are multi-dimensional, porous, and dense, providing effective sound absorption and maximum thermal performance. For room acoustics, cotton/denim insulation has been successful even in the sub-100 Hz region when using large air gaps.
For making bedrooms quiet, cotton/denim fibers offer superior sound deadening properties when compared to fiberglass. UltraTouch Denim Insulation is made from 80 recycled denim, offering a non-toxic and safe noise and thermal insulation solution from ASI.
In summary, denim insulation is an eco-friendly and cost-effective option for soundproofing and insulation in homes. Its dense and absorbent properties make it an excellent choice for soundproofing and reducing noise levels.
📹 What material is the best for soundproofing?
I test out different materials for sound proofing. Join this channel: …
Is denim insulation good for sound?
Denim insulation offers superior sound insulation, reducing noise by 30 percent compared to other materials. It is also mold-resistant, making it ideal for crawl spaces and damp areas. It is also mildew and fungi-resistant. However, like all insulations, there are downsides to consider, such as potential noise pollution and mold growth. Therefore, it’s essential to carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks before deciding to use denim insulation in your home.
Is denim insulation better than fiberglass?
Denim insulation is an eco-friendly home insulation material made entirely from recycled jeans. It is a cotton-based material that is treated, bonded, and heated before being made into sheets for insulation. It is effective in reducing exterior noise, with some estimates suggesting it is 30 percent more effective than fiberglass insulation. Denim insulation comes in a range of high R-values (R-5 to R-30) that are comparable to or greater than other insulation types like fiberglass.
However, there are some drawbacks to using recycled denim insulation. It is difficult to cut due to its dense nature and thickness, making it difficult to slice with a utility knife. Some manufacturers have started to offer built-in perforations for added convenience. Additionally, recycled denim insulation is typically 10 percent higher in cost than standard insulation materials with the same R-value rating.
Lastly, a vapor barrier is required to prevent water and moisture from contacting the insulation, which is an extra expense unique to recycled denim insulation. Despite these drawbacks, denim insulation offers a sustainable and eco-friendly solution for insulate your home.
What is the STC rating of denim insulation?
Denim and cellulose insulation have good acoustical properties, with denim having a Noise Reduction Control rating of 1. 15 and a Sound Transmission Control rating of 52, while cellulose has an NRC rating of 0. 9 and an STC rating of 44. Denim insulation performs poorly in water repellency, allowing water to pass through easily, while cellulose effectively contains moisture. Both insulations show impressive fire resistance and a Class A fire rating due to their high borate content. Denim insulation is considered zero waste, with 85 recycled content and 100 recyclable parts.
Can jeans be used as insulation?
Denim insulation is an emerging house insulation material made from recycled denim jeans, suitable for walls, crawl spaces, ceilings, attics, and floors. It shares a similar R-Value of R-13 to R-19, indicating thermal resistance. The higher the R-value, the better the material’s thermal conductivity. Denim insulation is also a Class A fire-retardant, treated with borate flame retardants. It is easy to handle, acoustically efficient, and environmentally friendly.
Made from 100 recycled denim and treated with borate flame retardant, it is one of the most eco-friendly insulation options. Additionally, denim insulation can be recycled after use, extending its life.
Does cotton block sound?
It is evident that cotton balls are an inadequate form of hearing protection. However, the addition of distance between the source of noise and the listener can effectively reduce noise levels by 3-5 decibels for every 6 feet of distance gained.
What insulation is the most sound proof?
Fiberglass blown-in insulation is a top choice for soundproofing due to its excellent filling properties and superior sound absorption results. It is machine-applied in attics, floors, and netted walls, providing superior sound absorption. Mineral wool, also known as rock wool insulation, is a popular choice for sound reduction in homes and businesses, made from rock, furnace slag, and other raw materials. It is available in batt, blown-in, and board options.
Is denim soundproof?
Denim, commonly associated with jeans, is a versatile material that serves not only as a source of clothing but also as an effective heat and sound insulator. This is due to its high Noise Absorption Coefficient, which allows it to block various noises at a few inches thick.
Is denim good for soundproofing?
Due to its high noise absorption coefficient, denim effectively blocks a range of noises at a thickness of just a few inches. This property prevents disturbances from airplanes, car traffic, and radio and television blasts, while also ensuring privacy for neighbors.
What material is best for blocking sound?
QuietFiber is an open-cell insulation material composed of mineral, rock, or stone wool, which effectively absorbs both acoustic and thermal energies.
What are the disadvantages of denim insulation?
Denim insulation is a cost-effective and eco-friendly option, but it requires a vapor barrier, which can be expensive due to its weight, packing, and drying time. It is 20-3 times more expensive than other insulation applications for the same R-value. However, there are trade-offs and personal decisions to make, such as recycling and maintaining a low landfill footprint. DIYers may find denim insulation more appealing due to its ease and comfort compared to fiberglass insulation.
What insulation is best for acoustics?
Mineral wool insulation is a type of insulation that offers both thermal and acoustic properties. It can be installed between joists or studs, providing quality sound absorption. Examples include the Rockwool Flexi Acoustic Slab, Earthwool Acoustic Floor Slab, and Knauf Earthwool FrameTherm rolls. Glass mineral wool, or fibreglass, also has thermal and acoustic properties but may not be as effective as other materials. It can reduce sound between floors and walls, but can slump over time, allowing flanking sound to pass through gaps.
Blown cellulose insulation, a combination of recycled paper fibers and fire-retardant material, is used for both thermal and acoustic insulation. It fills gaps and provides stronger sound proof insulation than glass mineral wool. However, it can be expensive and requires specialist equipment for installation. Additionally, blown cellulose insulation can be damaged by water, requiring replacement.
📹 Cellulose vsFIberglass Insulation Sound Proofing Demonstra
Cellulose Insulation and Fiberglass Insulation are compared in this demonstration to show the sound proofing differences in the …
There are basically two ways to increase sound insertion loss, increase the areal density or have multiple mediums. The sound has to excite the barrier material to transit through it. The denser it is, the more energy needed to excite the molecules. There is also an energy loss as sound transitions through two dissimilar materials. There are a few other ways, but they are not as common or significant.
I would love for you to have done this with one of those YouTube frequency range speaker test articles so we could see which tones each works better on so we could make sure we get most frequencies and know what’s best on bass because your test is one of the best please one more part to the article thanks
Sound attenuation depends on the mass and the completeness of the barrier. In other words, the heavier the sheet, the less the sound that gets through -so long as there aren’t any gaps. Your best performing option had two barriers with the outer one having reasonable mass. One thing to be careful with is what the soundproofing is trying to achieve. Some soundproofing measures are designed to reduce noise inside the ‘chamber’ by absorbing the sound and stopping it from reflecting back. That’s where some paints work best, and definitely the foam. Loved the no-nonsense practical demonstration though!
The key to sound proofing from my experience is first and foremost making the enclosure as air tight as possible as well as using an equitably dense material. I have seen rooms use very dense material but fail with air gaps and also the other way around. This is of course for rooms you want virtually no sound to enter of escape. If you are happy to have a sound deadening setup where some noise is acceptable then the gaps are not as crucial.
You are testing two different effects here. Sound travelling directly through dense material, and sound reflected. The Sonopan is designed to reduce reflective sound. Drywall, due to its very compact but random crystalline nature, best reduces through sound. Through sound reduction breaks up soundwaves, but you also want vibration reduced. Again, drywall is very good at reducing vibration. Insulation, both rockwool and fiberglass, are quite poor at sound reduction. The best I have found is actually a triple layer wall. From a construction point of view (as a partition wall between internal rooms), a 3″ timber frame sandwich. In the cavity, rockwool. Then going outwards (both sides) rosin paper. Then 3/8″ structural ply. Then 1/2″ drywall. The room to room sound reduction is amazing. Trouble is, ply is very expensive, but slowly coming down in price.
Plywood result would have been significantly better if seams were sealed with silicone (or even the duct tape used in the other experiments.) The sound leaks come through the tiny air gaps between the wood. 4 screws will only make a seal if the pieces are perfectly flat / square surfaces / edges at point of contact.
There are 2 factors contruibuting to transmission loss: density and thickness of material, and internal damping. 1/2 inch bitumen (preferrably lead lined), for instance, is very heavy, and has high internal damping and therefore will work very well. Light foam obviously will not work well, and everytnig in between should behave somewhere in between.
I would REALLY like to see a comparison of the better performing materials where you leave some kind of a gap between the materials, basically creating 2 boxes, one inside another. I’ve heard this makes a big difference but you need to have as little contact between the inner & outer box as possible. Maybe doing something like 1 sq inch stand offs (maybe 1 cubic inch so there’s an inch gap between boxes). The reason is the sound travels through the stand off material better than through air. I remember seeing “sound proof” rooms (music rooms where kids practice) made like this at my school. I’m guessing that different stand-off material would make a difference as well. Anyway, just a thought, thanks for the article!
On yachts where the engine room is next to the master cabin, they use a heavy composite that is several densities of foam, a thick metal layer (used to be lead, now AFAIK it is tin), fiberglass, more foam layers and an aluminum facing. It’s about an inch thick, probably really expensive. There are also auto products (sheets & paint) that work really well. Surprised you didn’t test MDF, probably better than plywood.
Great test – and these are the expected results of SONOpan! It’s engineered to be used in conjunction with drywall, not as a finished wall covering. 5/8″ type X specifically which adds good mass to an assembly. When installed in conjunction with drywall to soundproof a room the overall results will be substantial. Thanks for running the test.
MOST IMPORTANT – when using DRYWALL for soundproofing – always use 5/8″ drywall. DO NOT use 1/2″. DO NOT use 2 sheets of 1/2″. 1/2″ is manufactured to be light weight. It is less dense material, containing tiny air pockets, and it’s structural integrity is provided by the paper. 5/8″ is made with fiberglass fibers mixed in the gypsum. Fibers break up and redirect sound waves within the drywall. It’s also denser gypsum / significantly heavier / more mass. The results would have been significantly different if 5/8″ was used, and all seams were properly sealed – silicone on the inside seam, paper tape (really important) and standard mud on the outside seams (no quick dry / light weight / easy sanding / pink patching mud. Air pockets / cracks / gaps are the enemy. Density is your friend. This is also why you should always wear a mask / gloves / eyewear when working with 5/8″ drywall (there’s fiberglass in it).
More than you want to know: I appreciate what you’re tryna do. Controlling sound is tricky. Matching materials to task at hand is critical. Simply, mass is what blocks sound. The lower the frequency, the more mass per square ft is required. Foams etc control reflections by absorbtion (sort-of), but because they aren’t comparatively dense they don’t do well blocking lower freq sound waves. (high freqs are easy) Your little boom box doesn’t produce much low-end or volume. Sheetrock in double layers works well. It’s dense. Bottom line. Mass = blockage. Your sheet rock box did well basically proving the point. It did better when you added sonopan because it added mass, along with scrubbing off some energy. (a studio control room I helped build back in the 80’s used a combo of sand-filled cynderblock, double layer 3/4 inch sheetrock, owens-corning compressed fiberboard, and wood diffusers. The total weight of the materials was about 18 tons IIRC. MASS) .02
good experiment tnX btw nice Music 😉 wish someone done this experiment with power generators lots of articles out there but not really experimenting like this! as you know Power Generators its not just dbs its their high pitch noise so if even you damp the sound to 50~60dbs they are still annoying as hell 🤦♂ so solution is not just lower the dbs but also change the essence of that noise
I saw a article a while ago that inspired me for future projects, and was not even considered here. In a nutshell, bath towels in a frame covered in a stretchable fabric like something you would find on a speaker grill. Something about the cotton loops absorbed the most amount of sound. You could buy up a bunch of towels from good will stores, wash them and use them. I plan on making several panels for my office and home maybe this winter. Ever try yelling into a folded bath towel? Muffles the sound pretty darned good. I think the article that inspired me was a way to muffle the sounds from a gasoline electric generator.
sound passing from one material to another is most effective. double hung drywall with a gap between layers is fantastic. I use 5/8 fire rated. Also different frequencies are absorbed differently. using fiberglass insulation in walls helps broaden the spectrum of sounds deadened. If you get even fancier frame the walls with a 6″ plate and have 2×4 studs individually for each side of the wall, this will eliminate low frequency transmission through the framing. It’s worth the extra work for a recreation room or a high volume home theatre.
It is not clear what frequency range is involved here. Low frequency sound penetrates material better due to its long wavelength. The only way to block low end sound is with dense material. Not surprised the plywood and drywall worked best here for that reason. Concrete or lead would work even better. That lightweight green stuff I would not expect to do much at all for blocking the low end, it’s main use would be deadening high end echoes inside a room.
SoundPROOF = no sound Sound Dampening = what you are trying to achieve. Soundproofing only works if you are able to decouple the source from the rest of the environment. (in musicstudio’s, the recording equipment is located in a decoupled room. Even cables are fed into the equipment room in specialized ways. But I digress… THE best way to dampen sound (if soundproofing is not achievable) is by using MASS + an absorbing material. Mass (plywood/concrete) will stop higher frequencies. Absorbing materials (like foam) will stop lower frequencies.
Just an FYI for many of the people commenting here: Soundproofing IS NOT THE SAME as sound absorption. You DO NOT want soundproofing in a studio. Soundproofing is meant to trap all the sound energy inside the room so that you cannot hear anything outside the room. In a studio, sound energy escaping the room is a good thing. Sound ‘absorption’ relates to dampening of reflections, turning the kinetic energy of sound into heat so that you only hear the sound coming from the speakers rather than the sound reflecting off the walls. A thick concrete wall would provide the best soundproofing but the worst sound absorption and make for a terrible studio. A room made of foam panels would cause the least reflections and make for a great studio but would provide the worst soundproofing. If you are building a studio and are worried about making noise, rather build the walls thicker (fill with rockwool insulation) and offset the studs to minimize sound transmission. Also, very thick (1.5-2 feet) DIY sound panels made with cheap low density fiberglass wool insulation absorb low frequencies MUCH better than the acoustic panels you see being sold for a small fortune.
Thanks a lot. Great article, very clear and straightforward. I wonder why you have not try Plywood with Sonopan . I think I can safely assume it would have been the winning combination. I am building a soundproof booth trying to get an electrical device that got fans making noises around 70dB so outside the box it is about 20db. I am planning the wall of the booth to be 20cm thick. The middle will be a wooded structure 70mm thick, then resiliant bar on either side to avoid direct contact of the 15mm plasterboard. I’ll have 15mm plastboard + 5 mm acoustic adhesive + 15 plastboard + the resiliant bar (27mm) + the wooden frame 70mm + + the resiliant bar (27mm) + 15mm plastboard + 5 mm acoustic adhesive + 15 plastboard . In between in the void, filled with acoustic rockwool 100. I hope this will do the trick….
the best sound absorber is a glass wool, because it made of long thin elastic fibers. Density influences to the frequency, in a general case the best is a combination of two different density: 40kilograms per cubic meter and 80 kilograms per cubic meter (sorry, don’t know inches 🙂) And the best for a sound reflection is the most heaviest board you may found. So three goals to be achieved: heavy walls + the best absorber + good assembling (fully sealed). Reflection + absorption.
Not trying to be overly critical here, but just have an observation. Your dust collection system will have a motor that will probably operate at a steady RPM, creating an overall steady acoustic frequency? What is that sound frequency? The choice and position of a particular sound absorbing/diffusing material, is selected for its ability to suppress a particular range of frequencies? Why didn’t you just record the sound of the dust collection machine, and its volume from a set distance, with all lagging removed, then play it back through your speaker? Its not ideal, but it will give you a closer representation of the frequencies you need to close out. You might be spending a lot of money and time on materials that aren’t applicable for your particular needs. Nice you took the time though. Much appreciated.👍
Thank you for this. It’s interesting and well done, but I have some concerns. 3/4″ plywood is very stiff if you make a small box out of it. But a 4’x8′ sheet of the same material is flexible enough to resonate at certain bass frequencies. I think the tiny, rigid box is not a fair test of this material. It’s nice to see that foam is fairly useless. My second concern is that your little speaker sounds like it’s putting out mostly 1-4kHz frequencies. You should at least show a frequency response graph of your sound source so we know what’s actually being tested.
Lot of effort there thanks.I have used mass loaded vinyl in an emergency to block out garden machinery noise for my son who has Hyperacusis (sensative hearing, after Meningtis ) and it made a difference, I have since built a studio (a room with in a room, in a large shed) in drywall with a cavity, including the ceiling, (decoupled) I wish I had lined with ply now, although it’s 5 x the price of plasterboard (we call it). Even though your db mtr showed it was lower, if you turn the volume down until the ply box isjust silent, the drywall plus box can still be heard, is that just the article ? Just about to fill some door panels with scrap drywall, not now, I also have some left over 18mm ply.
I took a tour of a company that built Transformers when I was in college and they had a room that was supposed to allow no sound in or out and it was literally a giant box with textured foam similar to egg cartons and it was eerily quiet in there even with a bunch of other people when they close the door
I believe the best combination would be soft foam on the inside, with about 2-4in air gap separation, the reason for air gap is so the vibrations and resonating sound doesn’t just directly transfer through the materials, then a denser foam, with another 2-4in air gap and then finally a rigid dense layer like mdf or plywood. This would be the most ideal situation but for your use case would probably be overkill. This solution would be best used for building a soundproof room or chamber for recording 😅
It does sound like you made up your mind before the tests – you didn’t want to use plywood. I’m not judging. It looks like you got the most effect with the least effort. But I wonder what would be the results if you try more combinations than that – the green stuff in or outside, also combine it with plywood, and compare that to two layers of each. also maybe try other materials. Btw it’s good to record sound level at different frequencies – 100Hz, 500Hz and 2kHz – these are just numbers I made up, not a standard or something. Reducing high frequency is the easiest and it’s also the most annoying part of the sound.
As a former sound engineer, the art of sound proofing has been well known for many decades. It was easy to guess which of your systems would have produced the best results. That is, the system with the most layers. Layers with air-space between them will always give you the best result. The more the layers, the better the results. This is a critical issue for music studios. It honestly matters only marginally which “sound proofing material” you used. Like you said, you could have used layers of drywall and probably got an even better result. My guess is the foam would have worked well too if it was an inside layer of drywall, wood, or any other stiff material. The secret sauce is layers with air-space. One of the things you could have done is not just checked for dbs but checked for frequencies. Certain materials work better for low vs high frequencies. The foam would have been good for low waves. The stiffer materials are good for high waves. Check the overall frequencies of your dust collection system and then choose the best layer material to suppress it.
I build double stud walls, foam board insulation on the outer wall and fiberglass insulation to fill in the rest. I use OSB on the studs, basically sheathing the inside walls like you would the outside walls, then I add the decorative layer – ie shiplap, tongue and groove on top of the OSB. It is a lot more solid that drywall, easier to hang and easier hang stuff on compared to drywall. It isn’t perfect, the windows are the weak point, but it is a lot better than a single stud wall. I also seal all of my outlet and switch boxes and this makes a difference. I also caulk all of the seams on the OSB. I have seen double studding done where you have the first stud wall, then a 2inch gap, then the 2nd stud wall. I’d be interested to see how that does for soundproofing and insulation.
As mentioned earlier I will be doing the following for my basement studio. I will be installing Rockwood between the studs. Then using a 6mil plastic to cover the insulation. Next Sonopan. On top of the sonopan, I will use mass vinyl, then that metal clip, then 5/8 drywall. A second layer of 5/8 drywall, but I will use some carpet glue between the drywall.. On the outside of the room I will also install sonopan with mass vinyl, but with only one sheet of drwall.. I think that will provide the ultimate sound proofing method.. lets see how that works and I will post a article.. wish me luck..
Roxul in the stud bays works amazing well. The only issue with drywall is that sound bounces off the hard surfaces. The low cost option to build surface boxes to hold Roxul and a cloth cover to hide the roxul, when sound hits the roxul the sound is absorbed (attenuated). In this test your presuming the sound is total encased in the drywall, but that isn’t the real world. If you have even a small opening (pinhole) it enough to allow sound to escape.
Surely the frequency of the noise source will impact determine the type of attenuation. Also, the room reverberation characteristics will affect resultant sound levels as will the resonant frequency characteristics of the attenuation materials. Double wall with acoustic material between should deal with low and high frequency noise sources especially if the two skins have different resonant frequency characteristics. Finally, continuity of the acoustic shroud is a must. A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link, so to speak.
Well done, thank you. I looked into Sonopan a while back (sound proofing my laundry room) and remember reading it was designed to be covered in drywall to be effective. Interesting to see an actual demo of it. I ended up with just Roxul Safe and Sound between studs. Silly question, but could you vary the speed of the dust collector to reduce noise?
This test is kind of made to give the advantage to the sonopan. This is the only material that has been tested in combination to another one(that performed better when used alone on top of that)… Considering sonopan alone performed worse than a regular 1/2 inch drywall, we can expect 2 layers of 5/8 inch drywall to perform better, and also be significantly cheaper than sonopan + drywall.
Maybe doing a Drywall-Sonopan-Plywood sandwich would be the most effective. Presumably the different characteristics of the respective materials would cover a broader frequency spectrum, plus you’d have three layers. Obviously that would increase the cost, especially if you’re talking an entire room or an entire house’s worth of wall materials, but personally I would do it if it made a big enough difference.
Think of sound like an ammo round. U want ballistic gel to GRAB the round and slow it down to a stop so it doesn’t come out the other end. A room inside of a room plus sound proofing material grabs the sound and SLOWS it down so it can’t get through the other side for u to hear it. Theres a difference between heavy DAMPENING and sound PROOFING. dampening sound is making a super thick walls around plus ceiling and floor so sound may travel through but its very muffled. Thicker thr muffle gets more quiet. Proofing is a whole other setup. The gap betwen the inner room and outer room shell needs to be filled with rock wool material. Its essentially a cube inside of another cube with the gaps filled in. Very thick as well. The pads on the walls both inside where u are working and OUTSIDE where u see things, can add more layers to slow the sound down so it doesn’t come out. Adding that space between existing wall and inner wall drastically helps things.
It looks like your dust collection is riggidly connected to walls and floor. Maybe that’s where the noise goes through. You could try rubber anti-vibration below the container. As for the walls – that’s hard… you can try making something, but you can also try rubber mounts for air conditioners – try to goolge “Air Conditioning Split Anti-Vibration Feet”. They have no rigid connection. The two bolts only connect to the rubber, not to each other. If you doubt that could be a problem measure your phone in the air from one meter and then put it on a sheet of plywood.
Hey so i am a casual guitarist and i sometimes play the guitar. Also im a student and i like to study in peace. But i cannot do so because there is a cutout in my wall (brick wall) which is an open window and a lot of sound disturbances come from it. I want to block the sounds that come from outside, what should i do? I cannot really fill it with bricks cause there’s not enough space to fit them because of the window grill which is built in the wall. Its like a thick window grill that is fixed in the cement and thus i cannot put bricks in the cutout.
Sound ‘Dampening”, not soundproofing. Basic physics in sound dampening comes down to mass. yes, the Sonopan is engineered to dampen sound, but only when used WITH drywall. You were also comparing a fairly thick piece of plywood with a relatively thin piece of drywall. A better “apples to apples” comparison would be a 3/4″ drywall, or even better, 5/8″ and either ‘greenwall’ or fire rated as they are more dense (which makes me wonder what kind of drywall you used? Was it the ultralite?) You will find a lot of information and ideas if you look at audiophile forums and such. People that have home theatre systems in their home and looking at sound dampening that way.
Decoulping the two layer is best if you can’t (by space or money) add mass & acoustic deading stuff. But can vary based on the type of noise though! Also, consider wrapping all the piping–a lot of noise from the stuff travelling in the pipes/duct work–can often be noisier than the motor/fan itself!
There is a difference between sound “proofing” and sound “absorption”. Sound absorbing materials require matching with the frequencies of the sound to be absorbed. High frequencies and low frequencies require different materials. The only thing that proofs against sound is mass. Encased in a 6ft thick concrete bubble, nobody outside will hear you scream.😱 As the vid’ perfectly showed, a combination of absorbent material and high mass boxing is the best you can hope for. 😎👍
That’s a lot of effort. It was a good idea to put a box inside a box while using lid panels of the same size. This makes a well-isolated box and provides a good basis for comparing different materials. To further improve sound isolation, it might be beneficial to add a thin, airtight elastic mat, like a silicone mat, between the boxes and the first lid. Additionally, pressing the whole thing down with some weight could make it more airtight, resulting in better sound isolation. And if you want to go even further, making sure each seal and connection of the sides of the boxes as well as the lids is airtight could make it even quieter. Anyway, it’s an interesting project already!
Couldn’t find anything on using cork as soundproofing material. I am sure it reduced noise, but not sure how it compares. It may have some advantages over sonopan: available in smaller sheets (buying typical 8 x 4 ft sonopan not so good for small project), easy to apply and will not collect dust as sonopan would. I want to build a box for may dewalt table saw.
Wow the answer is not in the test. It will be plywood or any low resonating wood and dense fiber insulation 50kg/m³ or rock wool. I don’t know how it’s sold in north America. If you can compress the absorbtion material onto the wood to prevent the wood from vibrating even better. There are 3 components to sound insulation. 1 Air tight. 2 Absorbtion 3 Stop the inner surface from vibrating the outer surface. ie density like rubber
This is an interesting experiment. I’m curious. I have a heater closet with a very loud oil furnace and louver doors so the equipment can breathe. If I insulated everything I could in that closet, but sound could still project through those doors, would the effort still provide any significant noise reduction?
Just use thick mdf. The more density/mass your material has, the less it can resonate and reflects the sound instead of absorbing it. As you testet, that’s why the light foam hardly help anything. You want to trap the soundwaves inside the box, prevent the air Bourne sound bekome structure born noise. Think of a solid concrete wall vs drywall.
foam is only for sound agjusting. drywall + rockwool on the inside is what i always use. actualy to soundproff a wall. i have 10 cm rockwool not tuching the wall. 1 cm gap, and 2 x drywall where the asembly are not same place. (fire safety ) . cheap and works very well. use the heavy wet drywall it is heavyer than normal drywall and only a little more expencive. nothing tuch the wall, only floor and roof and thhe side walls.
It looks like you aren’t venting the dust collector outside anymore and are now using a filter. I’m in the process of redoing my setup and was planning something similar. I’ve seen a lot of people use a secondary bucket under the filter to catch anything that isn’t caught by the first stage cyclone. I noticed yours doesn’t appear to have a collection point on the filter. Do you find dust collects at the bottom of the filter?
Rock wool???? I am music engineer and rock wool is the best sound proofing material hands down . You want to make panels though and mount about a half inch off the wall and your panels must be a cloth front and back so air can push through the rock wool in the panels . This with double sheet rock walls and seal around all outlets and penetrations Will make your room so quiet that someone that is not used to it walks in it feels immediately uncomfortably weird, 😂
you need to have different materials, to reduce different sound waves. And best isolation is empty space. if you have a way to add a empty space between drywall and other isolation material it should improve even better. oh. before you add drywall to studs you need to apply a foam band to reduce vibration.
Different materials each have different “response curves.” Meaning each material dampens different frequencies differently. AND, different materials dampen different sound volumes differently. Meaning, a material may be great at reducing low-volume ambient sound, but terrible at absorbing high-volume percussive sounds, like a gas powered generator. Sometimes, your goal is different as well. Do you want almost complete silence? Or, to reduce echos and reverb for audio recording? Or just to make your vacuum system tolerable in an already noisy shop? Each goal requires different materials and different baffle construction. If you aren’t testing for the type and volume of sound that you are trying to dampen, then you are wasting your time. It’s like asking your dog directions to the movie theater. He will always take you to the pet store instead.
Every material – especially solid materials like ply or drywall, have specific natural resonance that they transmit. Using 2 layers of drywall makes sense especially if they are different thicknesses – 1/2′ combined with 5/8′ or 3/8 which have different resonant transmission frequencies. Separating the 2 layers with a soft mastic make sense also. Silicone?
im getting ready to build a portable air compressor enclosure. my situation made drywall and the cheap 70 percent off pieces of 1×2 etc at hd lowes. gonna stack 1/2 dryway, with a rubber (green glue) type layer. then gonna use some insulation batts. would like rockwool panels but have no money these days. jjust gonna build on the flyish and throw all the random things ive gathered thinking acoustic trreatment, noise dampening. i boughtg some trampo;ine springs for1 dollar for a bunch. thinking of suspending compresser from top and sides. even considering using this liquid poly two part rubber stuff i bought to make bushings and putting a sort of sleve over the springs…this is a very good information and appreciate the help …….
There are simply two aspects to take into consideration – mass and de-coupling. If you have two layer dry-wall cube – where the internal is not much touching the external cube – the effect would be dramatically bigger. The technical challenge is decoupling of course…. That’s why you gotta mess with those resilient websites, rubber pads, non-drying glue etc… Very good illustration though!
A comment below made a good point of dissimilar materials and sound propagation. as a former sound engineer and consultant, One thing you didn’t address and that many people overlook: frequencies. WHAT are you trying to reduce in terms of frequencies, not just noise? So the proper steps to take are as follows: 1. get a microphone, laptop/computer and interface with frequency analysis software 2. setup the system and get a visual on that the highest amplitude frequencies / range are 3. determine proper material needed based on those readings. sub frequencies require different treatments than the 10K plus range. A simple solution at work i used to keep back room conversations from being reflected off a wall into the showroom was the grey cone sheet foam for equipment cases. 6 of them spaced apart and now we have privacy because the foam attenuated the upper frequencies that i needed to limit
This is an inserted article but not like to like comparison as in one configuration you have 2 layers. The drywall behaves better then sonopan in sigismund layer so it would have been interesting to also have 2 layers of drywall which should be best and cheaper than the sonopan solution and take no more space
Soundproofing is based either in damping, or absorbing. With damping, you need an elastic material that is glued to a heavy one (ie. plasterboard). The weight of the plasterboard will be used to stop the kinetic energy of the sound waves. When using absorbing, you need less dence but very thick materials that will scatter the energy, eventually diminishing it.
Sound travels mostly thru air. This is why Soundproofing must block air and be air tight. This was confirmed when I soundproofed an upstairs room in my house and was shocked by how much sound came thru the doorknob hole before I put the door knob in. Next is to add mass as blocked sound energy is converted to vibrational force. Force = mass * acceleration so the more mass the less acceleration and less vibration. Last thing is to absorb and not transmit vibrations by using soft silicon and air gaps between large mass objects with air tight seals.
I have an older house built in the 1950s so plaster walls everywhere which is a plus. My drumset is set up in the guest bedroom I know a lot of the sound is already deadened due to the plaster and modern windows but I want to further soundproof on a budget the best I can but have no idea how or what to use. Any advice is appreciated. Especially with the low frequencies because I use fast double bass and I don’t want my neighbors hearing all that
your speaker is playing a wide range of frequencies of sounds, at a pretty similar volume. but a machine like a dust extractor is more likely to produce specific frequencies of sound at very different volumes. So while the foam didn’t do much to reduce the highest db value of the speaker. it may have been effective at reducing high pitched loud sounds coming from the dust extractor. to do this test you really need to record your dust extractor and see what frequencies its producing and at what volume. and then test what is best at reducing each of those.
I would love to buy some of this stuff because I live in an apartment complex and I can’t even turn on my stereo to a comfortable level of sound normal music and my neighbors. Still bother the heck out of me they pounce on the wall with a hammer and this old lady as well next-door to me, she calls me on my phone because she once was my friend as a friendly neighbor, but she says she can hear in my stereo how much and how good is this stuff because I have a Sony Muteki LBT-ZX66i 560 W and my other Sony is 420 W with speakers that change colors, which is a really awesome Stereo it has bass bazooka and my Yamaha surround sound system, 145 W X 7 it has Atmos surround sound right now my iPhone 12 pro max is misspelling 100,000,000,000% I hate my China phone but please tell me how much does it cost to get insulation walls soundproofing so I can enjoy my music. Thank you.
A simple Db measurement says nothing as you did. You need to kill the specific frequencies you create in the workshop not just the average created by the music. The test you’ve done is extremely generic and zero useful. That speaker is capable of a range from 120Hz to “maybe” 12.500kHz and honestly, it sucks, a lot. Is a super Chinese 1W speaker with no future. Ask to an expert how to do a proper reading and get the right material for what you need. And that’s definitely not the duct tape….
This article is very usefull however it would be very nice if you could try those “slim” materials” such as corks or any other natural or not tech out there + on different wall type (plain bricks, air filled bricks, plain concrete)… It seems that there are so much stuff out there but absolutely no articles cover that…For someone that have enough room in their house/flat you’re probably the most complete article on youtube…i wish you’d do one for people that wish to keep the maximum of their space available.
one thing to consider is decoupling, ie if you enclose the DC and hard mount the enclosure to the existing wall you will get some sound transmission through that joint,, not 100% sure how you would decouple but there should be a way.. also how your DC is mounted to the wall etc as this will allow sound transmission..
a real test would be with heavy bass . low frequencies are very difficult to block. hasn’t everyone been at a stoplight and their car is vibrating because someone else is playing some heavy base in front or behind them? even in winter with windows closed. higher frequencies carry little energy . they are pretty easy to stop.
Like so many others who have left comments, I appreciate the brevity of your article. Thanks. But I feel compelled to point out that you seem to have a bias for sonopan. Under your test conditions two regularly used building materials performed better at sound control than the one specific SOUND CONTROL PRODUCT! And if you want to use two separate products in conjunction, why not use the two products which individually performed best — plywood and drywall?
I was directed to this article by someone. This is NOT how you test soundproofing. The only reason that the cellulose performs better in this NON-Scientific test is that it has more MASS. When you put fiber insulation in your walls, it will absorb the resonances within the wall cavity and ‘assist’ the MASS of the wall panels. This is beyond ridiculous. This demonstration is devised by a group of SALESPEOPLE, not acousticians! They are promoting (falsely) that cellulose does a better job at soundproofing. – Contrary to the millions of dollars invested in the correct testing of ir761 by NRC-CNRC (look it up). This procedure is not valid and does NOTHING but FOOL the novice.
In the fiberglass example, It appears that you may not have had a good seal between the insulation applied to the lid and the insulation in the bucket. When you put the lid on it seemed “loosely fit”. However, in the cellulose example, it appear that you had a better seal between the cellulose applied to the lid and the material in the bucket. That is a critical aspect of soundproofing – minimizing sound transmission AROUND the soundproofing material. While I believe that cellulose can be packed more densely, which affects sound transmission a good deal, I’m not sure your test was done properly – unless you repeated it with a clear plastic bucket so we can see that there were no gaps in both examples. Can you please repeat it as such? Thanks!