Soundproof Existing Plaster Wall

Soundproof Existing Plaster Wall

Building Temporary Internal Walls?!?

I’ve just moved into a warehouse conversion and I’ve got to build the internal walls for the bedrooms. I got a couple of builders in to give quotes and they where astronomical considering the relative simplicity (coupled with the fact I’ll only be here a couple of years) of the job so I I’ve decided to do it myself.

The biggest problem is that I can’t damage the floors at all. Can anyone give me any advice about how to fix it safely to the concrete ceiling and pre existing walls without drilling into the floor?

I had an idea to use reclaimed wooden pallets with insulation stuffed in and sandwiched between plaster board. It seemed like a cheap simple and quick option but Is this practical/safe?

Finally what are the best methods of providing descent soundproofing?

Sorry mammoth question I know but it would be a great help if you can answer any aspect of it.

Ah, well, you’re finding out why houses cost so much to build. The pallet idea makes no sense whatsoever to me. Pallets aren’t tall enough to make a wall, so you’d have to use longer lumber to fasten them together, and if you did that you might as well use the longer lumber to make the actual walls in the first place. All the pallets are going to do is add weight without adding anything else. And good luck finding enough pallets all the exact same dimension.

Seeing as these walls aren’t weight-bearing, you might save a bit of money by using 1×4 instead of 2×4, but maybe not much. See how prices are where you live.

It would be helpful to know how tall these walls have to be. If you can fasten to the ceiling, that helps. You could drill into concrete and attach a top plate there, or use really big L-brackets to attach wall sections to the ceiling, but you still have the problem of holding them steady at floor level. If they’re fastened firmly at the ceiling, you could drive wedges under the bottoms here and there to wedge the bottoms firmly, but that might mark a floor, depending on what it is.

I think your best option is to build walls a bit like how they do for film sets. They are kept upright, if they aren’t part of a room with four walls which will hold each other up, by putting feet on the walls. That is, having a piece of lumber fastened to the bottom of the wall which projects out at the bottom, at right angles to the wall itself. Then you fasten another piece to that foot to connect it to the wall higher up, say a few feet, forming a triangle with the wall, the foot, and the other piece. I tried to find a photo or drawing of this but couldn’t. You might have to check for books on set construction at the library, or beg your way onto a film set or into a theatre to see examples. Email me if you like and I’ll try to send you a drawing if this explanation isn’t clear.

You could also help hold the walls up by designing them so that there’s another wall forming a T at each end. With a little planning and proper layout, this method might give your walls decent stability all by itself. They wouldn’t be as sturdy as real walls fastened top and bottom, but as long as 20 people don’t lean hard on one wall all at once, they would accomplish your purpose.

To muffle sound more than the drywall will do, your best bet is probably to stuff the walls with regular fibreglass insulation. It’s cheap and easy to use. Most normal houses don’t even have it, and they don’t transfer sound all that much. It’s also important to make sure there are no gaps between the tops of the walls and the ceilings. Sound finds its way through holes. You might consider covering the walls with thin plywood. Check prices on that vs drywall. It’s certainly easier to handle though harder to paint to look nice. That plus fibreglass might work for sound insulation, but you wouldn’t necessarily save money doing that.

Sorry, that was kind of long, but it’s an intriguing problem.

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