Hey, so I got one of the walls in my apartment soundproofed. The people who did it were a company but I am not sure they did it right. Here's why. I got some foam like the one in the picture and put it on the whole surface of the wall. Thing is the people who did the work put the foam with the creases facing the wall and over that a layer of acoustic rigips. I want to know whether having the creases facing the wall and having a layer of rigips over it does anything or it's pretty much useless. thanks
>>931440
It is not useless, just less effective
Correct, the nubs are there to deflect sound waves in different directions. The flat side will deflect but not break-up the waves quite as effectively
Did the company politely explain that acoustic foam is not for soundproofing, and only installed it after you insisted that you knew better? That might explain why they stapled it to your wall haphazardly, they figured you wouldn't care.
>>931440
>so I got one of the walls in my apartment soundproofed
No you didn't.
You got taken for a large sum of money by ignorant people who were just pretending to be pros or they were just straight up dishonest people.
Acoustic eggshell foam is designed to absorb sound energy and keep it from reflecting back into the air space in the room. It does this twofold. By absorbing some of the energy into its mass and structure, and as the other anon pointed out, by breaking up the waveform as it returns by deflecting it chaotically.
It has the effect of deadening the sound and flattening it out. For instance a clap becomes a slap of skin on skin but loses its characteristic feel. Studios and audiophiles use this stuff to get a more accurate representation of the sound.
The foam eggshell however does little in the way of impeding the transmission of lower frequency sounds through walls. It is a product to increase the sound quality of the sound in the room in which it is installed, not to isolate the space from other adjacent spaces.
The sounds you hear through the walls in your apartment are biased to the lower frequencies which are more readily transmitted by the wall's resonation. The single best way to isolate lower frequencies is by disruption and mass.
Examples of this are large bookcases full of books and miscellany, or thos free standing closets full of your clothes and jackets.
Sound loses its energy by transitioning from medium to medium and by the thickness and density of the mediums it goes through.
>>931479
Hey, just the kind of information I was looking for.
Do you know if there's some kind of product I could put on my door? I share a house and my door faces the living room. I already have bureaus and shelves against that wall, but there's still the door.. Even at entirely reasonable volume levels the entertainment center out there disturbs me more than I'd like. I'm thinking of something like a heavy mat I could glue to it or hang on it.
>>931479
Thanks. It's what I thought. Yeah, I figured they were idiots. I'm thinking of dismantling the whole thing now and only leaving the acoustic rigips in place and put the foam on the other side with the ridges facing me. Though that would take some work because they screwed the rigips into this steel frame that's in turn stuck to the wall with some rubbery joints. I also painted the wall so I'd have to dig into the plaster over the screw heads with a screwdriver to get them out xd. Thanks for the explaining though. If there are any other opinions, please let me know, everybody.
>>931510
Seal around the edges would be the first thing, then add more mass.
>>931510
If you can, put a foam strip around the door seam so theres at least somewhat of a seal.
When I had an apartment I took
>three long nylon straps
>two sheets of rigid foam insulation
>two twin size sheets
>blanket
I cut the foam sheets to fit the door nice and snug in the door frame on the outside. Wrapped it up in one of the sheets and taped it up on the back to secure it.
Cut the other foam sheet for the inside of the door to overlap some of the doorframe and wrapped it in the quilt and sheet.
I attached them to the door with the three nylon straps. Made a huge difference
have you considered attenuating the noise at the source?
http://www.masonchang.com/blog/2013/12/29/loud-neighbor-moar-sound-insulation
Not sure how much you spent but google pays dividends. The link isn't me but if your willing to pay a bunch of hacks to work for you, you should be armed with some knowledge.
If you own the place do it right , otherwise save your money for your own place in the future.
