Soundproofing House Built in 1920

1/7/2022 at 9:12:50 AM

Exterior walls will always be cold to the touch even when insulated properly. Insulation in the form of bead board can be applied and finished with drywall. In the 20s the construction would be dependant on mostly air pockets. Bridges were placed between the studs at about 4' which stopped air flow.

Sound proofing from upper noise may be non existent. However one could attach metal channels to the ceiling and then finish with drywall. The Chanels help stop sound transfer by disrupting the sound flow. Simply applying drywall to the ceiling would be of little or no benefit. You need the break of the two solid materials.

I totally agree with Johns comment. I was only making economical suggestions that could help somewhat. A 100 year old home is still a 100 year old home. That's part of its charm.

1/7/2022 at 12:15:46 PM

No idea what the sound transmission requirements were in the '20s, however current Code requires a minimum STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating of 50 (dating back to prior to the 1980 Code which is the oldest one I am familiar with).

The Code includes tables with various assemblies (over 100 assemblies) and their fire and sound ratings. As the previous respondent suggested, resilient channels together with drywall is what would typically be required to achieve the rating. When the house was converted to apartments part of the permit process should have involved meeting current STC ratings.

The sounds you are talking about (impact sound transmission) are not addressed by the Code. Also, flanking paths of sound transmission (such as through wood members or ductwork/penetrations) are problematic and require that a higher rated assembly and other measures be incorporated to offset these transmission paths.

1/11/2022 at 12:45:56 AM

I have worked on many, many 100 year old houses. Unfortunately you will never fix the issue without tearing out the walls and floors and re-doing with proper acoustic insulation and/or rated sound proofing drywall. The construction of these types of building were not made for any modern quick fix's to work. in the day they did not care about such things, made walls 2x4 most times and rarely insulated the exterior walls even except with air separation gap or grass in paper or sawdust in first 6 feet. You will just end up throwing piles of money at it with some of the suggestions and still leave you with a less than satisfactory result. Proper soundproofing needs to be done at the time of construction or at a time of a major remodelling in any building but especially in a house that old.