Best Practices to Follow for Acoustic Insulation of Interior Walls

Irrespective of the kind of building one is talking about – be it residential or commercial, the acoustics of its environment plays an extremely important role in making the occupants feel comfortable and also of course, for their overall well-being. A lot of people are surprised to know that it is really easy for sound to travel through wood frames and the drywall layer that generally acts as the connecting point between your next-door neighbour. Know when it comes to construction, and looking at things from the point of you getting the right acoustics, planning with the right kind of construction assemblies and also acoustic insulation materials is the way forward. 

The best time to generally get the installation done and make your construction soundproof is when it is just being built since it is easy to add any kind of sound roofing, be it acoustic floor insulation or a wall or ceiling one, without having to rip into the drywall.

Even though it stands to be argued that if you have proper insulation done along with mass, walls generally do help in blocking out most noises, however, it is not enough. It is a fact that even though offices that are closed will give you the illusion that there is privacy, however, noise generally does find a flanking path through spaces that are open but much less obvious. For example, even spaces that are created by your air-conditioning systems or light fixtures, render the insulation of sound less effective than you think it to be.

Similar is the case with ceiling tiles and wall assemblies wherein if you are not doing proper soundproof insulation, there will always be some transmission of noise between rooms. Therefore going for comprehensive solutions that involve the conjunction of materials like rwa45 75mm or other product ranges that are provided for the specific purpose by Rockwool insulation can aid proper planning, through which effective results can be achieved.

Elaborating more upon what is meant by comprehensive acoustic wall insulation, it is generally recommended that the wall that you’re trying to construct should be of full height, or should at a bare minimum have wall assemblies, that can be modified with the usage of plenum barriers, and can provide you with additional noise-cancelling advantages. 

Why we say this is because when you look at construction from the perspective of acoustics, generally a full-height wall will be preferred in terms of design in almost all kinds of renderings. They of course are necessary when you need to comply with STC ratings, in an environment where there needs to be some sort of guideline followed. Hence, in addition to using products like Rockwool Flexi, this is the design consideration that needs to be followed.

Now coming to the point of acoustic insulation of interior walls, one basic fact is that every room is different and generally ends up reacting to sound frequency differently. The thing that makes a difference apart from using materials like Rockwool rwa45 is that you check all these assemblies properly intending to check the room for acoustics so as to assess what is the current standing on the design and how you can effectively cancel out the noise.

We all understand that when you require any kind of speech privacy, insulating your walls is essential, as it will end up creating the level of mass that is necessary in order to cut down on the airflow. Having said this, however, not all acoustic wall insulation products, act equally, which means that you will have to find yourself the right solution for your design, it could be using a Rockwool rwa45 acoustic insulation slab it could be any other product that your contractor feels is the right choice for the design.

There are generally two kinds of considerations that you look into when you’re thinking of getting your interior walls soundproofed. The purpose of your soundproof installation needs to be assessed which would either be:

• Trying to cancel out all the noise and sound and offer speech privacy, or
• Trying to enhance the quality of sound that is emanating in your area of stress which would be the intelligibility of speech.

Another important thing that one needs to know is that when you do soundproofing for walls, you end up using a denser insulating material such as Rockwool rwa45 100mm Wickes which generally increase in the map of the wall that makes it easier to reflect the sounds or what people call trapping a sound within a given area. This is in contrast with materials that are used for sound absorption which are generally lightweight and have more porosity and make sure that the noise is not bouncing inside the given area. 

Why we are telling you this, is so that you understand if you are just looking for privacy of speech then blocking or insulation would be sufficient – however, if you are looking for clarity of sound and intelligibility of speech then you would have to go for a process where you need both inflation and absorption that means that using materials such as Rockwool 100mm slab along with the sound of shops and materials would be the way to go forward.

In order to prevent any sort of sound from transmission, a great practice is generally using what is known as air gaps along with acoustic insulation. These gaps generally assist in what can be known as the decoupling of the components of a wall from each other which makes it difficult for sound to transmit through completely from any sort of wall assembly. 

So there you have it here are some of the best practices when you’re thinking about soundproof insulation of your interior walls. Keep these in mind when you are thinking about getting more privacy in your space, as these tips will give you the perfect mix of speech privacy and intelligibility that you are looking for.