I was invited to give a presentation for the design of a luxury home theater room. I was given only a set of plans and a general spending budget range to work within from the General Contractor/ Builder. Beyond that no restrictions or guidelines. I had no knowledge of who the client was. Only that he was a effective executive that was retiring. I surmised this based upon the household plans I was working with. Nice location.
Two of the bigger A/V Providers in SW Florida had been also invited to present. The client desired presentations from all prior to making a selection. I was given the number 3 position to present. As usual my presentation began with details concerning property theater room style, acoustics and sound proofing. As the presentation progressed it became clear to me that the client had an understanding and was extremely interested in what I was saying. His questions suggested a specific understanding of sound and acoustics. I was able to go to a significantly deeper level of discussion and style principles. I continued with my presentation pointing out many concerns I had concerning the plans. Some of those concerns I had were (1) the proximity of the theater to other highly utilized rooms in the house. This would require adequate sound proofing in the theater. #2, The placement of the entry door was also a concern due to the reality that there was limited space (6\") between the frame and room corner. This would affect our capacity to thicken the wall structure and enable room for door trim and molding.
The ceiling height was 14\'. Not unusual for a new luxury residence. But the plan called for non load bearing steel studs for the major wall between the theater and kitchen. I needed to confer with the steel stud manufacturer regarding load restrictions and twisting factor. I had to be sure that the studs would support any additional weight load required. The last thing I wanted was for the wall to commence twisting or collapsing under the extra weight load over time. Not fantastic. Eventually in the course of the conversation I inquired about his obvious understanding of sound and acoustic principles. It was only then he informed me that he was the President, of a Big Industrial Sound Proofing Firm. (for privacy I will not name)
He and his lovely wife had been in the method of retiring and this was their retirement property. It is to be a gathering place for young children, grandchildren, family and pals. So the Theater Room style was extremely valuable to them. He also informed me immediately after that the two other A/V presenters did not even mention sound proofing, room acoustics and room style in their presentations.
Guess who was chosen.
Ok sufficient pats on the back. It was time to get to work.
Following conferring with the Architect and Engineers we made the required changes to ensure the integrity of the wall structure. Based upon the limited space between the door, adjacent wall and the client\'s budget we decided on Green Glue.
I presented two possibilities to the client for consideration.
1) was to go with QuietRock QR-545 THX. The QuietRock was the ideal performing solution. But it also was the most pricey.
2) Green Glue sacrificed some performance but was far more in line with the budget. The numbers worked out far more to the client\'s liking with Green Glue. So Green Glue it was.
Green Glue is a visco elastic material that is applied/spread between two sheets of drywall at a specified rate (58oz per 4\'x8\' sheet of drywall). When fully cured it develops in to a barrier between the sheets of drywall. This outcomes in a considerable attenuation of the sound level transmitted from the theater room to the adjoining rooms of the house.
The great thing about Green Glue in this application was that it only added an additional.75\" to the wall thickness. This left sufficient room to effectively trim out the corner. Green Glue also gave me a solid performance STC 56 rating or a LTC 24.5 (Lupo Transmission Class).
Because my key concern are the low frequency bass notes from 250Hz down, I utilize the test data for these frequencies. The Green Glue solution performs equal to or far better than Quiet Rock QR-530 and Kinetics IsoMax resilient channel.
Bottom line is that the success of your project will often be discovered in the details. Paying attention will usually result in a much better overall result.
Perfect Harmony Designs
