All right……who can give me the proper composition of a party wall in a multi family condominium dwelling? Does it differ in construction from a basic multi family rental dwelling…ie Four Plex. Also I have heard that it differs as to classification as a Town House. I have attempted to research Building Codes to no avail.
Simple air-sealing measures and spray-applied sealant lower energy bills and increase comfort without the need to tear the house apart.
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I can think of five or six methods but it does depend a lot on your local area requirements.
This site is a place you can poke around for hours for self education.
http://www.gp.com/gypsum/assemblies/assemblies.asp?cat=1
Excellence is its own reward!
We used to do a two layer party wall 5/8 on all four sides . Had different problems with different local building depts. All we use now is 1 inch shaft liner 2 layers ( one for each unit.) Run it from bottom to top (Roof line ) Have had no problems with this system . see www. americangypsum.com/products/sliner.asp
P.S. the stuff ain't lite in wt.
Edited 9/12/2003 7:45:24 PM ET by G80104
put paper egg containers tween the walls
The way we regard death is critical to the way we experiance life.
When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.
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Why do people do that? That's what I found in the ceiling of my finished basement. The only reason I can think of is to absorb sound but I don't think it works.
Tom
Its an old technique or newbie musicians that need a sound studio....and it DOES work very well.
Be well bro
andy The way we regard death is critical to the way we experiance life.
When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
That depends on what you are trying to do. In this case, he is looking for party wall design which considers first importance to be fire spread.
Since egg cartoms are great kindling, adding hem to any wall design would change the flame spread capabilities for that wall design and increase the liabilities for the builder and owner.
But if you had a single family residence and wanted to do acoustical buffering to keep the complaints from enighbors down, it would "work" to some degree.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
My understanding of the egg cartons for recording studios is that, if mounted against the walls and ceiling, they work due to the fact that there isn't a solid flat surface for sound to echo off of. So, they aren't used as much for sound proofing as they are for acoustics to reduce echo and deflection.
I can't speak for their sound dampening characteristics inside an enclosed wall, though.
You're right there, they ac as a buffer within the room the sound originates from.
I lived long ago and far away in the lower floor of a building where the owner was upstairs. He was paying me to convert the lower space to an apartment for rental and I was living there while doing it in trade.
The original design had large fir floor joists about 4'OC and 2x6 T&G ocer that for the floor/ceiling combo. Needless to say, I heard every footstep he made and he could here my radio or other conversations.
His solution - staple up egg cartons and then some sleeper/furring suspension for the SR.
Things got a little quieter with the egg cartons up. Very minor diff for me hearing his footsteps. But he claimed that it reduced my radio sounds considerably.
So we rocked the ceiling in and I swear, his footfall noise got worse. He still thought that it reduced the noise he heard from below though..
Excellence is its own reward!
actually I was kidding (who me?).
They make insulation specifically for this purpose as I'm sure youre well aware of.
I'd also use X rated rock (he did say party, right...lol?).Its thicker and more absorbent as well as a good fire hour rating.
Be X rated
andy The way we regard death is critical to the way we experiance life.
When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Depending on what code your area enforces and what the engineerarchitect of the job designs will dictate the proper assembly wall. In our area it would be a masonry wall rated at 2 hours with no penetrations up to the roof decking and fire-resistant plywood on the underside of the roof diaphragm.
Call your local building department as they base their approval of the design based on occupancy of the structure.
Mike