Sound insulation around pocket Doors?
BickP
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
Framing an interior bathroom that will have the pocket portion of a pocket door as part of the wall. Would like to sound insulate but not sure what to use.
– Thought about the 1/4″ foil insulation but don’t think the drywall will lay flat with the rest of the wall which is just studwall.
– Considering 6 mil plastic but worried about moisture and don’t know how much sound the plastic would hold anyway.
Does anyone have suggestions?
Replies
Don't know about the frames you are using, but all the pocket doors I have seen have at least 1/2" or thicker frames which you screw the drywall to , I'd suggest cutting some dense foam to fit in between those frames, gluing it to them and when you put the drywall in place apply some additional glue to fasten the foam to the drywall.
Robert
Edited 5/26/2003 5:28:16 PM ET by RVANDERPYL
neither of those will do anything for soujnd insulation in any wall but even less in this wall. opennings and penetrations are the worst enemy of sound insualtion. A pocket door provides all the opportunity sound waves need to travel through, around the door at the edges.
Other than that, sound can be dampened by dense materials and soft or irregular surfaces that absorb and break up wave patterns.
If you can design this wall to be thicker with layers of homasote and sheetrock, and carefully install the door to have snug fitting stops, you have made progress.
Excellence is its own reward!
I'm struggling with space between fixtures and inspector approval. Have already had to drop vanity depth to 18", 19" with top and this wall is behind the vanity so another layer is impossible.
What about the foam insulation mentioned above, then covered with 5 or 6 mill plastic that rounds the corner and is sealed with silicone under the next piece of drywall.
BTW what is homasote? I'm a DIY second home builder and have come across that word yet.
Homasote is a sheet product made of cellulose. When saturated with asphalt it is the sheething you used to see on outside of exterior walls of houses being framed. Unsaturated, it is a soft grey colour, like paper mache`.
That or foam might absorb a little sound when glued to the spaces betaween sheet rock and the door void, tho I'm not sure how you would get it there.
A regular swing door provides better sound insulation and is the better privacy choice for bathrooms. A lot of guys here dislike pocket doors but I like them - just not on bathrooms. Everyone nearby can hear the farts..
Excellence is its own reward!
Too late, the framing is in. There's guest rooms on both sides of the bath with pocket doors leading in from both sides. Maybe I shouldn't be spending so much on that quiet fan. Not to worry though, that bathroom is next winter's project.
Today's project is right next door. The main bath will have a single entry swing door at one end, but at the other end (facing and backing the toilet), are walls that hold the pocket portion of the other bathrooms doors.
I think I've talked myself into the solution. Because of Joist issues below I had to place the toilet flange far enough from the wall, that I had to build out the wall with 2x4's ripped to 3". At the time, I didn't mind becuase it will allow me to stick in some insulation to cover the pocket portion.
Could do the same on the other side, but only build out using 2x2's, keeping it the 2'8" of the door. Stopping there will give me the insualtion I need, but will allow me to stop short of the vanity, where I'm getting into space problems.
Thanks for getting me thinking. If there are other ideas, they are welcome.
I have twin pocket doors between our master bath and bedroom. I had the same concern about noise that you had and looked around for a cure. The immediate cure came by doubleing up the drywall with two layers of 5/8. When it comes down to sound abatement, all the fancy stuff on the market often doesn't do as well as just plain density in the form of drywall.
The remaining problem then became the noise that would transfer through the hollow core doors. They turn out to be a couple thin layers of Maysonite with an airspace in between. The door transmit a lot more noise than a standard wall does. We anticipated this and went with solid frame and panel doors, and the combination did the trick.
The pocket frames I used were preassembled and seem to have reasonable quality hardware. They're doing ok in the other rooms, but the doors are the cheaper / lighter doors. How has the hardware held up with heavier doors?
Pocket door hardware is rated according to the weight of the door. A pine panel door you could probably hang with regular (not cheap ####) hdwr, a solid core flush door would be pushing the regular limit. The tracks are about the same, but the rollers are heavier duty. Check out the manufacturers info.__________________________________________
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Unless someone wants to add more, I'm going to consider this post closed.
In this project, have 3 bathrooms with pocket doors, and one with a swinging door. The latter also has the pocket cavities of 2 pocket doors. That bathroom has been the subject of this string of notes.
The outcome:
- To cover the cavities on one wall I ripped 3 2x4's to 3" and built a false wall. Did this becuase of DW problems with the basement trusses. Behind the false wall and over the pocket cavity I stapled up 6 mil plastic then stuffed with unfaced FB insulation.
-On the facing (pocket cavity) wall, I doubled up the 1/2" drywall with lots of glue. Once done, I realized I forgot the cavities above the header and wished I'd put insulation in there. (Do the pros make stupid mistakes like that, I wonder).
For the doors on all bathrooms I'm going with pine panel doors per the prior post to make sure I don't overstress the pocket hardware.
Thanks for your input.