Please help....was the soundproofing done badly?

[storn]

Hi all,

I called in a builder to soundproof two party wall in our house. He did the timber frame and filled it with http://www.wickes.co.uk/General-Purpose-Insulation-Slab/invt/161197
He then screwed on thick plasterboard sheets and passed on some plasterboard mix.

Basically there is a reduction but not that much. I can even still hear the neighbours if they talk a little loud and the loud music isn't much different to before (just less bass vibration upstairs) There is a little improvement but not as much as I hoped.

Can you tell me if he had put in resilient bars and perhaps some extra material if the noise reduction would have been much better? Is there anything that can be done now? He is coming to paint next week so I want to tell him that there isn't such a big difference from before.....

[Randy S]

I hate to be the one to deliver bad news but, you have made a critical mistake. So picture every piece of drywall in your home as a speaker, picture every screw holding the drywall in as the speaker wire and look at all the frame work as the amplifier. This is the true fastest path sound will take and if you dont decouple from the structure you will always have a path for sound to easily travel.

As far as going forward, you need to decide now what approach you want to take. Either take it back down and correct the mistake or add a "Band-aid" to the surface.

The best course of action that will deliver the best value of reduction would be to take it back down and "Float the wall on clips and channel. If you choose RC-1 then make sure you also add isolation padding tape to improve the RC performance.