RMD

I've heard QuietRock in action, and it's pretty impressive. The company publishes STC ratings which back up their claims.

See: QuietRock Soundproof Drywall

The big downside is that it's really, really expensive.

Also, as far as getting on "speaking terms" with my upstairs neighbors, it's pointless. For one thing, I can easily hear even "normal" levels of conversation. So even if they decided to not be jerks, I would still hear everything.

These people have a party until 4am nearly every weekend. When I call to complain at 4am, they act surprised. Every. Single. Time. They do it to spite me now.

My only other option is to have them evicted. I own 38% of the building, so just need one other unit owner to agree, and their lease can't be renewed. If I can't come up with another solution, that's what will have to happen.

But, as I said, even if that happens, if somebody new moves in, it will still be loud.

Wuzzat?

That's a good link; you're buying decibels of attenuation and with this link you can see how much difference each product makes.
QuietRock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But I'd feel better if I could see the STC 80 test spec's. I'd think it should be traceable to NIST.
http://www.greengluecompany.com/understandingSTC.php
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7181891/fulltext.html

If you can get the dbs of attenuation, plot them vs price and see if there is a breakpoint or knee in the curve where you get especially good attenuation per dollar spent.

Nestor_Kelebay

RMD:

I'd go to the places that sell and/or install the stuff and tell them you're thinking of buying it, but you'd like to talk to some "satisfied customers" first.

The bottom line here is that people who've had it installed in their own house are going to be more honest with you than anyone trying to sell it to you or install it for you. The former don't have a vested interest in influencing your purchase decision.

Ted White

You can easily replace pre-damped drywall by field-installing damping material instead. The results are much higher and much cheaper. Less waste.

One Sheet = 8 is a marketing talking point only. Never demonstrated in the real world.

Foam is the worst material you could deploy, as it will likely couple the two surfaces and conduct vibration.

__________________
Ted White

http://www.SoundproofingCompany.com

RMD

What do you recommend for damping material, and if you had to guess, what would you estimate a 180 sqft ceiling (with 2 pot lights, a ceiling fan, and a smoke detector) would cost to redo?

The quotes we've received seem totally astronomical.

Ted White

When I hear about such high quotes, it's often from a contractor that just isn't sure what to do, so they quote high to cover themselves.

Ballpark:

Labor to remove drywall existing: $100
Fiberglass Insulation: $100
Resilient clips and Channel: $125
Damping material like Green Glue: $150
Double drywall, including waste: $100

Labor for above: $500. So a total of $1200 to $1500 I'd say.

The trick is to have the contractor completely understand the scope of work and have him understand that you understand the scope of work as well.

__________________
Ted White

http://www.SoundproofingCompany.com

Nestor_Kelebay

Apparantly, this Quietrock costs $120 US per sheet. It consists of a sheet of lead sandwiched between two layers of drywall. Maybe the high cost estimates are because you can't cut this stuff like ordinary drywall; you have to cut it with a saw of some sort that will cut through lead (like a jig saw with a metal cutting blade). Also with a sheet of lead inside it, then the stuff is going to be a lot heavier than ordinary drywall, and that would add to the cost of installation as well.

Ted White

There is no lead in quiet rock. Standard drywall or cement board is used, same as you can buy.

QR530 uses a sheet of thin steel to allow for a second damping layer. This was abandoned when they started to make the QR525

The steel requires a circular saw to cut without delaminating.

__________________
Ted White

http://www.SoundproofingCompany.com

DavidLuke

QuietRock costs $40 for the 510 model. Lowe's sells quietrock for $43. It's mentioned in the site aswell. If you are doing it yourself a layer of drywall, and then a layer of quietrock and some glue should not cost much for an entire room. The other models have sheet metal in it but that will be hard to cut.

Ted White

Hi David,

If anyone is contemplating pre-damped drywall, consider:

Any pre-damped drywall is simply layers of standard boards and damping compound. There is simply no mystery to the materials. So the decision to use these pre-damped boards comes down to:

Price (less is better)
Mass (more is better)
Damping (more is better)

Generally you will always be able to field assemble a more massive, more damped and less expensive panel. An additional plus is that field assembly will allow you to overlap seams between the drywall layers.

As a side note, while I respect QUiet SOlutions for providing test data on their high performance panels, I wonder why the same acoustic test data is missing for the lower cost panels. If you tout something as acoustically beneficial, you need to provide the lab data (it exists).

__________________
Ted White

http://www.SoundproofingCompany.com