Structural Dampening for Soundproofing

As of this posting, we are working on research in our New York facility to test the effectiveness of a product called "Green Glue" This is a dampening agent that is applied wet between 2 layers of gypsum (drywall). The theory, which my NYC contractor likes is simply this, if you dampen the floor joists from either the top or the bottom unit in a multi level dwelling, you will have most of the soundproofing licked. In other words, the sound of impact noise, (footfalls) will be dramatically reduced once the floor joist assembly is dampened. This goes against many of my beliefs about soundproofing, beliefs such as you need added mass for soundproofing.
The contractor has years of field soundproofing experience and his feeling has always been to dampen the joist or stud structure prior to adding any mass or absorption agents.
We here at Soundproofing America as very interested do see the results of using the infamous " Green Glue".
When utilizing the added mass approach you are able to block the majority of airborne noise, but impact noise which is structurally borne is an entirely different animal. The dampening of the structure supposedly will alleviate a lot of that structure borne sound simply by changing the resonant frequency of the 2 drywall layers. It indeed sounds good in theory, but as my contractor says, " The proof is in the puddin'" I will update this weblog and keep our readers posted on our results. This could revolutionize the soundproofing industry and Lord knows it needs a little revolution. Thanks for reading and learning together.

As Always,

Dr. Bob
e-mail: dr.bob@soundproofingamerica.com
Call Toll free (877) 530-0139