Best acoustic insulation?

[Deej]

I Have been asked to make an insulated door for someone.
He wants it insulated for heat and sound with sound being the higher priority.

Anyone have much experience with this?
Preferably needs to be something thin.

 

[MMUK]

I've always used 100mm thick Mikafil when I've built recording studio booths. If it's good enough for the likes of EMI then it must be OK.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've seen 10" of micafil put between a ceiling and a floor specifically for sound insulation. It made very little difference.

 

[blackrodd]

Success will be somewhat dependant on the nature of the building, if it was constructed to be sound proof. sound is carried through the air, as well as mechanical, vibration. polythene sheet, each side of a wall will stop most of this airborn. Any internal partitions should be glued on perimiters to a tentis type board (insulation board) sole plate, also glued. Any mechanical fixings, nails, screws etc kept to a minimum.
I have fitted loads of sound resistant and fire resistant partitions in hospitals, supermarkets, night clubs public rooms and also environmental partitions, mainly in metal stud.

should you need any data get a look at British Gypsum's white book. Architects use the data in it. Perhaps start at 65mm metal stud wall with a head deflection for sound and fire resistance. 400 mm ctrs deep track head and cill I think it's in the blue section, page 400 on.

Regarding the sound resisting door The simplest way would be to hang a pair of doors, 1 each side of the wall, if possible, obviously opening outwards. The small air gap would help to stop the sound by acting like double glazing, door stops would need a layer of a good density foam for each door and adjusted a snug fit. good draft foam could be good enough. cheap doors would probably be as good as you need as they are not of dense construction. regards Rodders

 

[Chrispy]

Lead sheet makes a very good sound barrier, of little help I expect though.

 

[rafezetter]

In response to a similar - but unrelated sound deadening question I had, I did some reading on relative qualities for sound reduction in materials and found that a very good possibility would be concrete board as it has a higher mass:density ratio than MDF, which is normally regarded as a good sound reducer.

Although this does not work for all possible frequencies, so laminating it with other materials like rubber and thin ply will help as they each "catch" different frequencies.

If you were able to make part of the door using the above sandwich and add a thermal insulation barrier of some sort inside an outer cosmetic frame of some kind I think you'd have a very effective solution.

Fire doors have good sound reduction abilities - at least it seems to be the case for everyday normal sounds, but I have no idea about what sounds are involved and I also don;t know how good a thermal barrier a fire door is (in terms of keeping heat other than fire IN) either.

wickes sell soundshield board for this purpose:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/224657/?source=123_75

 

[marcus]

Assuming that the rest of the construction is reasonably soundproof (if not doing the door will make zero difference), the only thing that really works well is mass, which is why fire doors work quite well. Just build it heavy. Laminate multiple sheets of mdf together to get the thickness you want maybe. You can get some heavy soundproof membranes from soundproofing specialists which you can sandwich between the layers for even more mass. Should be a reasonable thermal insulator too. I've done this and it works pretty well, but to reiterate if the frame and walls aren't soundproof to it will be a total waste of time.

 

[marcus]

Forgot to say, if you are serious about the sound reduction you will need some seals al around the edge, it's amazing how much noise leaks through small gaps....