Sound Masking to Prevent Eavesdropping In an open office it’s hard to concentrate when you can hear every conversation around you. Closed offices have the same problem in reverse: voices leak through walls, under doors and over the ceiling grid when the walls stop at the tiles. If you can hear your neighbors, they can…
How Soundproof Underlayment Works Do you constantly hear footsteps and talking above your head? If you live in a multi-story home or apartment building, you’re probably no stranger to noise from the floor above. Soundproofing a floor isn’t complex as long as you have the right materials and access to the floor that needs it.…
Quick answer Yes. Screw the MLV through the drywall into the studs, tape the seams, and cover it with a new layer of drywall caulked at the edges. It works, just not as well as MLV installed directly on the studs. Can You Put Mass Loaded Vinyl Over Drywall? A common question that we receive…
How to Soundproof a Garage: Start With the Leaks A garage is the hardest room in the house to soundproof and the easiest to get wrong. It has the biggest door in the building, usually a thin sheet of steel with gaps on all four sides. The walls often have drywall on one side or…
Mass Loaded Vinyl Installation Overview Mass loaded vinyl is a heavy, limp sheet that blocks sound when it’s fixed to the framing and covered with drywall. Installing it isn’t complicated, but it is heavy work, and small mistakes – an open seam, a gap around an outlet – let sound straight through. Our sister company…
Does Soundproof Paint Work? Soundproof paint sounds like the perfect fix: roll a few coats onto the wall you share with a noisy neighbor and enjoy the quiet. It doesn’t work that way. A coat of paint, however thick, adds almost nothing to the weight of a wall, and weight is what stops sound passing…
How to Soundproof an Existing Wall Without Removing Drywall Most walls get soundproofed after the fact: a new neighbor, a nursery next to the TV room, a home office that shares a wall with the laundry. The wall is finished, painted and probably has outlets, trim and a door in it, and tearing it open…
How to Soundproof a Fence Most backyard fences do almost nothing for noise. Wood boards shrink and open gaps, vinyl privacy fences are hollow and light, and chain link is mostly air. Traffic, a neighbor’s dog or a pool pump goes straight through or straight over. You don’t need to tear the fence out. Hanging…
Best Mass Loaded Vinyl Mass loaded vinyl (MLV) is a thin, heavy, flexible sheet that adds mass to a wall, ceiling or floor so less sound gets through. Most of it comes from a handful of factories, so the same vinyl is often sold under several brand names, and the marketing claims vary far more…
Noise Between Walls Noise between walls usually means one of two things. Either something inside the wall is making a sound (a knocking pipe, a ticking duct, a mouse), or sound from the next room or the neighbors is coming through the wall. The causes and the fixes are completely different, so the first job…