Have you ever wondered “what’s the difference between soundproofing and sound treatment?” When dealing with noise issues in a room, it’s important to first identify the problem and then find the right solution to address it effectively without wasting time and money.
If your main concern is with loud sounds entering or leaving a room that you don’t want to hear, then you’re dealing with a soundproofing issue. On the other hand, if your issue is with speech clarity, echo, or a noisy environment, then you’re likely dealing with a sound treatment problem.
Learn more about how acoustic treatment can help your environment.
What’s The Difference?
Imagine it’s the middle of the night and your next door neighbour has decided to play their music turned up to 11, or practice their drum solos, and it feels as if they are playing right in your living room… At this point you would be wishing that your builder had spent more money Soundproofing the walls in your home. Now, imagine that you are at a new local restaurant with your friends and you are having a hard time understanding one another. It is likely that the low intelligibility is a result of all the excessive noise caused by the sounds that are bouncing off the hard reflective surfaces in the space. In this instance, you would wish that Acoustic Treatment had been used to help cut down on the extra sound reflections and lower the noise level.
While they may seem like similar concepts, to deal with these two sound issues you need different products and treatments.
How do you Soundproof?
With our noisy neighbour example, we want to interrupt the sounds coming in and out of our room using sound blocking products, which are usually heavier, denser and more rigid than normal building products. Those products have been created with sound blocking in mind and are very effective at their job. Soundproofing will often involve rebuilding walls or whole rooms, adding extra layers or more efficient sound blocking drywall and filling wall cavities with sound absorbing insulation. For these reasons, Soundproofing can be a very expensive project to undertake.
Soundproofing with Primacoustic
Primacoustic has a wide range of products designed to improve sound absorption but there are a few products that can help with soundproofing.
PrimaBlock Loaded Vinyl Barrier is a flexible material that can be sandwiched between layers of drywall or suspended in the airspace between wall surfaces to reduce sound transmission and bleed through walls, floors and ceilings.
Paired with the TelaScapes fabric track acoustic system, PrimaBlock makes for a legitimate sound-proofing solution that can be done on the existing wall.
When Do You Choose Sound Treatment?
In a space that is overly loud and difficult to hear, we’d be looking into reducing the level of sound by decreasing the sound waves that are being reflected around the room. A good solution is to use products that absorb sound waves, like high density glass wool or recycled PET acoustic panels. These are designed to dissipate sound within the fibres and thus soften the sound of the room. Sound Absorption products are usually easy to find, fairly light-weight and can be installed relatively easily.
All Primacoustic panels are Class-A fire rated to be used in any public space. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
How Primacoustic Helps
That is the quick explanation of how to differentiate sound-proofing VS. sound treatment in your space, whether it be for your home, recording studio, or your business. Here at Primacoustic, we are here to help advise and provide you with the perfect solution to whatever sound issue you may be facing!
