There’s several method for installing mass loaded vinyl to acquire maximum effect. The conventional of the industry is to install the MLV straight to the stud or joist framing having an industrial stapler or heavy-duty roofing nails that have the large plastic heads. This process is recognized as the membrane or septum method. The MLV works well when added to a wall or ceiling in a membrane fashion, however it can be sandwiched between 2 layers of drywall or other kind of wallboard. The jury continues to be out on what thicknesses of drywall is best. For better frequency diffusion, it is best to utilize a layer of 5/8″ drywall then the MLV as a septum (a sandwich) and then add a level of ½” drywall or Homasote. The dissimilar materials do help in the soundproofing effort especially once we are wanting to get every STC point we are able to get with as little effort as drywall installation dc.
There’s not plenty of information on the Web in regards to alternate ways of mass loaded vinyl installation, hopefully we will have a way to explore this here.
If you should be constructing walls utilizing the staggered stud method, it would be beneficial to actually weave the vinyl in an from the staggered stud assembly itself. The above mentioned picture gives you a difficult idea of how this might look. The important thing to weaving MLV (or any barrier material) would be to seal the vinyl as best as possible. In case of an outside weave (most common weave) it is best to overlap the seams by at least 1″ and seal that overlap with acoustical caulking in addition to a quality seam tape. The weaving of MLV also aids in the defusing of sound waves. This works much like the dissimilar materials except “turbo charges it “.
You can also use the weave on a regular stud wall provided there’s no drywall installed on either side of the studs. (just open studs) This weaving method may be foiled by stud cross members, therefore it is best to possess only vertically installed studs if you are planning to complete the weave. If you weave the MLV on a normally studded wall, there might be issues with the drywall sitting level on the studs. If your studs are 16″ on center, then every other stud will have 1/8″ of increased width set alongside the studs that don’t have the MLV weaved a top of them. To help keep the drywall even on both sides, an audio isolation tape may be honored every other stud that that is not covered with the weaved MLV this will make every one of the stud surfaces flat and even and the drywall will rest evenly on the studs.
From the feedback of our dc drywall installation in the field, we have discovered that the more a wood structure is dampened, the higher the soundproofing will soon be in a wall or ceiling assembly. This is particularly so for impact noise from above. There are numerous ways to dampen a wood frame assembly and some are far better than others. Some contractors used blown in cellulose to be able to dampen the joist or stud structures, but cellulose doesn’t have mass and although it will a qualification, it’s much less effective than using blown in closed cell foam, or my favorite (which requires some ceiling demo) would be to line the cavity areas between studs and joists with a sealed cell vinyl nitrile foam mat (America Mat is a great choice) for maximum dampening. The foam mat would be glued to the studs and the wallboard in the stud cavities (provided you’ve drywall using one side of the wall only). This insures that the wooden structure is completely dampened and if sealed properly will offer extra soundproofing as a result of sealing those cavities. Sealed dead air space is God’s natural soundproofing method, as I prefer to call it. I believe you’ve read lots of the analogies regarding sealed dead air. If you could seal the dead air space and actually develop a vacuum in that space, you’d be amazed at the total amount of sound transmission that could be blocked.