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Isolating a wall to my roommate

SaladDressing

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Hey there,

I recently moved into a shared flat. The problem is that the wall to my roommate's room does not insulate noise at all. I'm quite nocturnal and often stay up late at night with friends in voice chat, while she wants to go to sleep earlier. Even when I almost whisper she hears it clearly in her room, although she even sleeps at the other end of the room.
That's why I thought I'd buy some acoustic foam. Here is a picture of the wall.
I have been doing some research so far and thought about a basotect set like this?
Would that be enough or do I need more? It shouldn't cost a fortune, but I don't want it to look stupid and "destroy" the look of my room. My absolute budget is around 100€.

I look forward to your help!
 

Speedskater

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There is a vast difference between sound absorption (sound reflecting off the wall) and sound transmission (sound passing thru the wall).
Those are absorption products. Reducing sound transmission requires treating every square meter with heavy building material products.
* * * * * * * * * * *
the sticky threads in this forum are about what home theater people did:
https://www.avsforum.com/forums/dedicated-theater-design-construction.19/
 

detlev24

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I am sorry to disappoint you, but noise isolation is a totally different story to acoustic room treatment for music - or for speech. Sound isolation has to do with the construction of your room...

Save the money, as the effect would be negligible and Basotect is quite expensive. You would require to cover the entire surface area of your wall with thick materials - at least as thick as a mattress - to get some damping to the other room.

It would be more feasible to convince your flatmate to use the kind of ear protection [in-ear buds] for sleeping.
 
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digitalfrost

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You need to double up the wall and insulate that. You should be able to get some premade kits with all the material that just requires some wood cut to size to complete.
 

pozz

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In acoustics you have to address what are called "flanking paths".

First step: buy weatherproofing (rubber, not foam) for your door. Make sure the door's sealed or closed to sealed when it's closed. Those small open edges all around, if you calculate the area, amount to a large hole.

The other main transmission path is ventilation system. There is not too much you can do living in a flat, but you could look into putting a thin layer of absorptive material (like 1" foam) on the immediate inside of the vent. If that's even practical or possible. I would probably not do it myself (laziness, and the possible decreased airflow could be bad).

With bass, you are mostly out of luck. It's transmitted through walls, foundation, studs and joists (they actually flex with the bass). Take your sub, if you have one, off the floor and put some small isolation material under it so at least some of the energy is not transmitted through the furniture (nothing expensive, most is not even effective at bass frequencies).

Out of these, the most important is the first step for door and any other openings. This is taken really seriously in studios, like applying putty to outlets to seal air flow from anything except the ventilation system. But just try the weatherproofing on the door and see where that gets you.
 
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SaladDressing

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First of all thanks for all the answers!
That is really dissapointing to hear. I sadly don't really have the means, money and tools to just install a dry wall. I am going to look up the kits that @digitalfrost mentioned, but I don't have much hope.
Thanks!
 

Dmitri

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One thing my parents did years ago to tone down street noise was to build another wall parallel to the existing one, with studs alternating with original wall, and freefloating...no attachment to the existing one. I suspect it was insulated. Extending the door jamb would be necessary, and a solid core door replacing the typical hollow core.
Sorry...wrote this prior to your post. It’s a tough situation.
Cheap fix, if your roommate is amenable...gift her a bulk pack of foam earplugs...;)
Good luck!
 

Wes

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you rent so you cannot rebuild the wall (I assume)

you could likely get away with injecting a spray foam into each and every wall cavity, then filling the holes, and repainting

or you could construct a 'fake' wall just inside of the real one...
 
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