Need soundproof wall(s) bad! CMU or double wood wall?

Thin plywood wall between our place and theirs. We hear each other snore and talk and TV and radio, all hours. We wake up at 3:15 AM from his alarm clock, he's off to work. We get along nicely and there are no complaints about it, but it is the elephant in the room!

Landlord gave me the greenlight to work up a proposal.

I know which end of a hammer to grab, but that's about it, so I'm looking for advice. I'm also looking for a local person who can work up an accurate estimate and do the job in its entirety over a two day period tops.

The home is concrete slab with CMU exterior walls.

The wall I need to replace is approximately 15 feet (length) by 7 feet high.

Basic internet research tells me two options which will be effective and relatively cheap, and doable with materials readily available locally.

1. CMU wall. Major consideration seems to be the weight of the finished wall and whether it will cause structural damage to the underlying slab.

2. Two walls stud and plywood or stud and drywall, the walls separated by a few inches of dead airspace.

There is space above the wall too, so sound would be transmitted between the top of the wall and the ceiling, but that is a minor issue and I can see already how we could insulate a few feet of ceiling on each side of the wall.

Anyone have experience with this one??

 

Assuming it is a 2x2 framed wall with 1/4 or 1/8 plywood on both side, the easiest would be to pull the plywood off one side and put in some batt insulation or stud up another wall up next to the existing wall and insulate it. If the wall went up higher than the ceiling height it could be insulated to cut down on noise a bit as well.

Shawn

 

Sheetrock is very good to absorb sound. Try putting two layers should help. You will probably not be able to totally eliminate the noise issue. Whatever you use, use as few fasteners as possible as the sound will travel thru the metal.

 

Experience taught me that this works well but not with dead airspace. Fill the space with sawdust.

 

Or you could google "can sawdust be used as insulation" and learn about it. Many old homes in Canada used it. Its great insulation and excellent sound deadener.

 

Thanks all for the input. All electrical is surface mounted here, consists mostly of extension cords. In my particular applicatiopn, sawdust between two walls would not be a fire hazard as there would be no electrical running inside the walls. That is to say, the sawdust between sheetrocked walls would not increase existing risk to fire, whatever that risk may be. I have someone coming over this coming week to have a look and advise, still researching it out. I have not priced anything out yet, does anyone have knowledge in general terms whether two sheetrocked walls would be more expensive than one cmu wall? Cost is a factor, im on a tight budget and the home is not mine, after all.

 

I'm a bit confused. Is there not already a wall there? Can you not add 2 x 2 or 2 x 4 studs to it then fill with whatever you want then put sheetrock or whatever over that? Without a pic I am just imagining in my mind's eye.

In my old house from Canada I had 2x4 walls between bedrooms, sawdust filled, and you could barely hear the kids fighting in the next room so long as they kept the door shut.

 

Yes, you are correct. 2 by 2 studs in the frame, plywood one one side only. I have decided to not use sawdust in the initial fix but to do the fix one stage at a time, doing more if needed. Your idea is a good one to start with, maybe thicken the frame and sheetrock it on my side only (my side of the wall has the exposed 2 by 2 studs). That may be enough to do the trick. And if not, simply build another wall on their side. I have a feeling that would suffice for our needs. And if not, maybe blow in some fill after the fact. I read some things about sawdust, could absorb too much moisture, and one article about spontaneous combustion of sawdust. Also some considerations about the type of wood of the sawdust, and its moisture content at the time it is used as fill, some concerns about it settling over time, too. So in the interest of keeping it simple, I'm going to skip the sawdust idea. I think a properly sheetrocked wall should be the first step, it may be enough!