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Creating sound insulation yourself - here we explain how
A short overview: For sound insulation between rooms, convoluted foams or pyramid foams are of little or no help to you. Such foams are suitable for reducing the reverberation within a room and for improving room acoustics. However, in order to insulate sound effectively, you need special soundproofing products. You need exactly the materials you find on this page.
These are heavy foams. The lower the frequency and the louder the sound source, the thicker and heavier the foam should be to absorb as much as possible. For sound insulation we recommend our light-grey ester foams or flat, adhesive foams or our particularly heavy composite foams. Read HERE how these types differ from each other.In combination with our bitumen mats you can additionally increase the insulating effect. You can find out more about this below. We explain the most important fundamentals and explain very specific practical cases. Take 5 minutes and you will understand how to insulate sound properly.
Difference between insulation and absorption
Sound insulation is the insulation of sound across rooms. Sound absorption, on the other hand, is the reduction of reverberation and noise within a room. You can achieve this with convoluted foam or pyramid foam, for example. These absorbers are mainly used to improve room acoustics. However, foams with a higher density are more suitable for effective insulation.
Why are foams used for sound insulation?
The possible applications for sound insulation are immense.There are increasing sources of noise in our environment.No matter if it's the neighbour next door or the disco nearby, street noise or loud devices like compressors, pumps or engines.Good sound insulation is required everywhere.And unfortunately there is often incorrect information on the Internet on this very subject.
For example, profiled acoustic foams such as convoluted foam or pyramid foam are suitable for sound insulation in a wide variety of places. These two variants are mainly suitable for sound absorption - so you reduce the noise level and reverberation mainly in the room in which you are located.
Of course, it insulates a little bit, but there are products that can do this much better. In this category you will find foams with which you can insulate sound from the outside. For example, you can insulate walls and ceilings so that nothing – or less – can be heard in adjacent rooms, or doors and windows or, as mentioned above, equipment of any kind. The products we offer here will now be discussed in more detail - of course you will also find further information in the respective product descriptions. You can also read our guide which explains the difference between sound insulation and sound absorption.
How does noise develop and why does it penetrate walls or materials?
Noise is nothing more than sound waves moving through the air. A distinction must be made between structure-borne and airborne sound. Airborne sound is the sound that moves in the air and, for example, hits your ears and can then be perceived. The higher the volume and the higher the sound pressure, the more unpleasant it is. And here's something important: When airborne sound hits objects e.g. a wall, it is converted into structure-borne sound at the boundary between air and surface. Thus it makes the body vibrate - you'll be aware of this from subwoofers and their moving diaphragm for example. Depending on the energy content (sound pressure), it can penetrate objects more or less easily. At the other end – e.g. the wall – the structure-borne sound is then converted back into airborne sound. The mass and inertia of the object is also decisive. A higher weight counteracts the sound waves with more mass and can thus better weaken them. This is exactly why you need heavy foams and not light or profiled boards for sound insulation. Don't let yourself be misled here - unfortunately, incorrect information on this topic can be found all over the Internet.The difference between structure-borne and airborne sound is also explained briefly on our website.
Which materials are suitable for sound insulation?
We have various products on our website. With our ester absorber or our composite foams you are very well looked after in terms of sound insulation and soundproofing - the panels have a high weight and work wonders especially in combination with our heavy foil or bitumen board. Ester sound insulation mats are visually appealing and flexible. They are also suitable for improving the acoustics within a room.
We stock these panels in various thicknesses. If you want to achieve particularly strong insulation (e.g. for the bass range such as in the recording studio), you should accordingly select thicker panels. Noise insulation can be further optimised if you use our sound insulation mats in combination with bitumen panels. Simply glue our bitumen panels to the first layer of foam. For maximum noise insulation, you can apply an additional layer of foam to the bitumen mat.
Composite foam is even more suitable for insulation than ester foam, as its weight is even higher.We have also described the difference between composite foam and ester foam - just click on the blue words.All our soundproof mats can be glued to walls or ceilings quickly and easily.In the video you can see our composite foam and the bitumen boards that can be joined to form the "sandwich" mentioned above.
In our online consultant, we have explained many standard topics in detail, as we are constantly asked a number of questions. Take a look inside and learn how to insulate walls and ceilings, windows and doors, encapsulate and insulate equipment (e.g. pumps, compressors, fans, etc.) or how to insulate a recording studio, or a party or rehearsal room. Our foams are ideally suited for this purpose.
Sound insulation of walls, ceilings, doors and windows
One widespread problem is insulating sound to/from the neighbour's property.This is the case if the neighbour is too loud, or you hear their television or music – though also in the opposite case, in which you yourself are too loud and want to protect your neighbours from the "noise" you produce. Our products are also suitable here.In addition to the materials described above, we have also developed a set especially for this problem with which you can subsequently insulate walls and ceilings.
The wall insulation set consists of special bolts which are screwed to the wall or ceiling and are also decoupled by means of our partition tape.
The partition tape is simply glued between the bar and wall/ceiling so that vibrations can no longer be transmitted, and absolutely no weak spot remains. The foam sound insulation, which is also supplied, is laid between the bars. All you need are some sheets of plasterboard, which you can get at DIY stores. These are simply screwed on, and a new wall – with good sound insulation – is ready. For details, click on the category above.You will find alternative options in our detailed guide "Insulating walls and ceilings.We also have advisors if you want to insulate windows or doors.And even for the insulation of the party room, rehearsal room you will find help from us.
Sound insulation and insulation of machines of all kinds
With our products you can also effectively dampen the sound of appliances, pumps, compressors, cogeneration units, etc.To do this, you can either insulate the inside of the devices yourself if there is enough space, or you can build studding around the respective device and then insulate it from the inside with foam.
You will find suitable advice for both applications in our online guidebook called "Insulating machines of all kinds".There we offer you numerous solutions which you can implement with our products.
Installing and cutting foam sound insulation
Since high-mass foams should be used for sound insulation, this naturally goes hand in hand with a higher weight.Compared to acoustic foams, which only reduce reverberation and noise in rooms, installation is somewhat more complex in the case of thicker sound insulation.In many cases it is sufficient to glue these sound absorbers over their entire surface with our adhesives - preferably assembly adhesives.
For thicker panels, and especially if you additionally stick a bitumen layer between the foams or onto the foam as described above, additional mechanical fixing may be necessary. For example, the foams can be additionally supported with wooden struts or grilles.
Many customers also use our adhesive only as a fixing aid in order to subsequently achieve mechanical fixing. Depending on the installation location - ceiling or wall - different forces also act. This means that much more adhesive is needed on the ceiling than on a wall. In most cases, however, mechanical fixing is necessary, especially on the ceiling.
If, however, you want to insulate doors or windows, it is sufficient in principle if you simply jam the sound insulation into the window shaft or position it in front of the door - bonding is not absolutely necessary here. In the case of machine encapsulation or insulation from devices, however, installation is often unproblematic.More information is available in our two guides "Cutting foam" and "Installing foam".
How much dB can be prevented with sound insulation
We cannot tell you in advance - except with our wall insulation set - how much dB can be insulated. This depends on many factors (basic volume, frequency, existing building materials, cables, sound bridges, etc.). We can only tell you that the thicker the panels are, the more insulation can be applied. In our online guide we have listed panel thicknesses with which customers have had good experience with sound insulation in various areas. Here is a table to give you an idea of how many dB different soundscapes have in the environment. You can see that even the smallest dB changes present significant changes in the noise level (the scale is logarithmic).
|
Noise source or situation |
Sound pressure level |
|
Hearing threshold |
0 dB |
|
Quiet room |
20 - 30 dB |
|
Normal conversation |
40 - 60 dB |
|
Television at room volume |
60 dB |
|
Car engines |
60 - 80 dB |
|
Main road |
80 - 90 dB |
|
Hearing damage in case of long-term exposure |
from 90 dB |
|
Pneumatic hammer/disco |
100 dB |
|
Jet |
110 - 120 dB |
|
Hearing damage in case of short-term exposure |
from 120 dB |
