Penoplex soundproofing ceiling

The life of a modern resident of a big city is a frantic pace and a continuous series of events bordering on stressful situations. It is understandable and natural that the desire to return home to stay in comfortable conditions, in order to be in time for the coming morning, to restore its own strength to the maximum possible extent, and to put in order the psychoemotional state. It would seem that it can interfere if there is own housing, a strong family with good relations, a settled life?

Unfortunately, very significant "adjustments" to this evening idyll are able to bring in neighbors, especially those living on the floor above. And this may not be "violent" youth companies with never stopping "holidays" and fun. Very often, the reason for the worries is the most common family, in which, in addition, there are young children. Just the design of many of our multi-storey buildings is so imperfect that the sounds of footsteps, fallen objects, rearranged furniture, working TVs, and even people's conversations are clearly transmitted through the overlappings, especially if they suddenly switch to "high tones."

Quite a natural reaction is the desire of the owners to protect their homes as much as possible from such inconveniences. The search for variants that would have been simple and short-lived in execution was started, did not attract serious material costs, and at the same time were effective. Perhaps once hearing "the edge of the ear" about the miraculous qualities of extruded polystyrene, a person drives a search engine into the search engine - Penoplex soundproofing of the ceiling - and gets an array of information that seems to confirm his expectations. But is it really so?

What do some websites recommend?

A lot of articles tell how you can get rid of noise by yourself, quickly and inexpensively, by applying penoplex plates. But if you look closely, all these publications are like "twin brothers."They paint the process of installing a penoplex on the ceiling and promise that such measures are sufficient to make noise from the upper neighbors cease to be cause for concern.

Indeed, if you believe this word for it and choose this option of noise protection, then the process itself is quite simple and understandable, it can be eaten up on its own.

• The surface of the ceiling is cleaned from unstable peeling plaster( if any), wallpaper or bubbling paint coating. Ideally, the best way is to reach a clean floor slab - on it the extruded polystyrene plates will be kept easier.

You can use spatulas, hard brushes, water wash and other methods that are most convenient in a particular situation. As a result, a clean, clean surface should be obtained.

• The ceiling covers all defects in the surface of the slit, cracks, potholes and chips. Particular attention - the joints between the slabs of overlap - there are often flaws.

How to fix the defects of the ceiling surface?

Any ceiling finishing involves preliminary preparation of its surface. How to conduct sealing joints between slabs - read the special publication of our portal.

• In order to prevent the appearance and spread of mold and simultaneously increase the adhesive properties of the ceiling surface, it is processed, preferably in two layers, with a special primer with antiseptic properties.

Priming is usually carried out with a roller, and in hard-to-reach places( at corners) - with a brush.

• After the surface is ready, it is possible to attach to it extruded polystyrene foam boards - penopolix.

The precise geometry of the plates and the presence of special lamellas make this process much easier. To fix them to the ceiling one of the adhesive compositions is used. It can be a dry construction mix of a specific purpose - just for styrofoam, or glue foam in plastic tubes, which are applied with a gun.

Depending on the type of glue, it is applied to the back of the panels in different ways.

So, the glue mortar, prepared from a dry construction mix, is laid out pointwise with slides( item "a") or spread evenly on the surface with a notched trowel( item "b").When using a special polymer adhesive, it is enough to apply it with stripes along the perimeter and additionally - in the center parallel to the long side of the panel( item "c").

foam board After applying the glue, a pause of 2 to 3 minutes is made, and then the panel is pressed firmly against the ceiling surface in the right place. In this position, the plate is held for a minute - this should be enough for its initial fixation. If necessary, the length of the clamp can be slightly increased.

• The final fixation can be carried out using dowels "fungi".Under which directly through the foam in the slab overlapping holes are drilled. Usually 4 ÷ 5 plugs are sufficient to fix the standard panel.
• This is continued until the entire ceiling plane is completely closed. When installing subsequent panels, the locking parts of the panels are laminated. To obtain a completely monolithic coating, the seams between the installed slabs are filled with a mounting foam, the surplus of which is cut after it has solidified.

As a matter of fact - on this process of installation of a layer of a penoplex can be considered complete it will only be necessary to solve the issue with finishing. Such a ceiling can be plastered by applying reinforcement with a fiberglass mesh. Another option - to decorate it with decorative panels or "sew" with plasterboard, on which it is already possible to perform any finish.

It would seem that everything is simple and logical. It becomes even unclear why this method is not widely available?

And, it turns out, the whole point is that such a ceiling cladding with penoplex does not have any relation to high-quality sound insulation. To understand this, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the physics of sound transmission in a multi-storey building and the properties of the material itself.

And why not do it all the same?

The inquisitive owner of an apartment should not be limited to the first recommendations that have come across. Much more benefit can be brought to the "walk" in the forums of specialists in construction issues, and here an unexpected "surprise" can await him. Almost all experienced masters call this method of soundproofing absolutely ineffective, "hack-work", not only not bringing in the apartment the desired silence, but capable of even aggravating the situation. This can be understood and independently, delving deeper into the problem.

How sound spreads in multi-storied buildings

Noise propagation in a multi-storey building goes in two main ways.

• "Air" noise is transmitted by air vibrations. This is the usual range of sounds audible by the human ear - conversations, included TVs or audio centers, playing musical instruments and the like. Penetration of such noises through the ceilings is not so pronounced, since air needs to "swing" a massive membrane, in the role of which in this case the plate acts, which in turn transfers these oscillations further.

However, such a disturbing factor can still be. Often similar problems are solved simply by "administrative" methods - with neighbors it is possible to try to agree in an amicable way about mutual observance of the necessary mode of silence. By the way, it is in this issue that the location of the apartments does not matter - sound waves spread in all directions, and those living from above can not suffer less from the increased noise of the lower neighbors.

• Shock noise is the propagation of sounds of a somewhat different kind. Its source is mechanical - shock or vibration influence on the surface. The oscillations in this case are transmitted to the overlappings, which themselves become both a carrier and a source of noise, directly giving sounds to the premises. Moreover, these oscillations are perfectly transmitted from the plates to all adjacent structures, and with such noises it is more difficult to fight.

These can be the sounds of footsteps or children's jumps, fallen dishes, construction tools, furniture rearrangements, sofa folding. By the way, low-frequency oscillations from, for example, loudly switched on a subwoofer of a home cinema, an unsuccessfully installed washing machine, etc., also propagate in the same way.

• There are also structural noises that are caused by equipment operating in the building - these can be ventilation or air conditioning units, boilers, pipelines, etc. Such fluctuations can have both air and impact( vibrational) propagation.

The transmission of sounds in different types of houses also has its own characteristics.

• Panel reinforced concrete houses, which at one time were massively erected everywhere to solve the problem of the housing crisis in the country as soon as possible, are the most unsuccessful in terms of noise insulation.

It can be said that the impact noise propagates through such a structure unimpeded. The density and massiveness of walls and ceilings are approximately equal, and the sounds propagate without problems in all details, without encountering any particular resistance.

• Brick houses( if they are really lined entirely of brick, and not lined with it) in this respect - the most favorable. Here - massive thick walls and relatively thin interfloor overlapping.

Shock noise is poorly transmitted from a lighter to a heavier design, and the walls themselves are a good suppress of the air spread of sounds. But the "problem of the upper neighbors" does not disappear anywhere.

• In the houses erected on so widely used now technology of monolithic frame construction, the problems of noise isolation are very acute. True, it is much more difficult to "swing" very massive overlapping, but also fluctuations from them to light wall partitions are transmitted practically without losses.

Reducing the "noise" of such apartments is a very complex process that requires a comprehensive approach, and the soundproofing of the ceiling surface only becomes "like an elephant crusher."

And now let's see if penoplex can help in these situations.

Is foam foam soundproof?

First of all it is worth making one remark. The author of the publication does not in any way call into question the highest quality of penopolis, as a thermo-insulating material, which has the widest application in construction. The combination of low thermal conductivity, lightness and high mechanical strength makes it possible to use this material for the warming of foundations and socles, floors and roof structures, facades and road surfaces.

Characteristics	Units	Indices
Compressive strength at 10% linear strain, not less than	MPa	0.18
Water absorption for 24 hours, not more	% by volume	0.4
Water absorption over 28 days	% by volume	0.5
Categoryfire resistance	group	G4
Thermal conductivity at( 25 ± 5) ° C	W /( m × ° K)	0.03
Sound insulation of the partition( GKL-PENOPLEX 50 mm-GKL), Rw	dB	41
Index of insulation improvement fromstructural noise when used50 mm to LTL floor construction	dB	23
Standard sizes		600
mm mm mm	1200
	20;thirty;40;50;60;80;100;120;150
Operating temperature range	° C	from -100 to +75

Penoplex is an excellent material for the insulation of foundations!

Even such massive and seemingly invulnerable structures, as the foundation and the plinth, require thermal insulation. How to conduct basement insulation with foam - in a special publication of our portal.

But that's exactly how soundproofing material it was not invented by its developers. And if to him, and to some extent, such qualities are inherent, it is only with a strictly defined method of installation.

Let's deal with it.

• Will penoplex help protect the room from airborne noise? No, he will not bring much profit. The material though is porous and light, but possesses excellent rigidity and elasticity. Plate extruded polystyrene will rather act as a membrane, which is quite easy to "swing", and it will become an additional "dynamics".

Laboratory studies show that the characteristic structure of the material, on the contrary, can cause a frequency resonance in the range of about 200 to 500 Hz - and this is just the middle of the speech range! Thus, in this frequency range, even "soundproofing failures" are not excluded, that is, the increase in air noise by a rather serious amount, about 12-15 dB.

And what about the manufacturer's data - that the sound insulation( Rw) of the partition using a penoplex is up to 40 dB?Well, firstly, our question does not concern partitions, but overlapping - the ceiling. The indicator Rw in this design is simply not correct to take into account - it is an index of airborne noise insulation, which is used specifically for partitions( walls).Secondly, the index Rw is a very average value that takes into account the entire width of the frequency range of ordinary noise for housing, that is, in the range from 100 to 3000 Hz. Thirdly, the table specifically states that this is a concrete construction - two sheets of plasterboard with a layed penoplex laying between them. But what is permissible on the walls, it is impossible to realize on a massive ceiling slab.

By the way, experts have noticed that increasing the thickness of the penoplex layer does not at all benefit. And if you use a two-layer structure, with a rigid "core" and foam on both sides, you can generally achieve the effect of a catastrophic reduction in sound insulation - the room turns into a resonator!

To reduce air noise, the combination of "mass - sound absorption - mass" is optimal. The powerful external barrier( pos.1) on the side of the noise source partially reflects the sound waves, and it is quite difficult to "shake" it. Further, the vibration energy is largely extinguished, lost in loose and soft acoustic materials( item 2), for example, foam rubber or special types of mineral wool. And the residual force of these waves is not enough to transfer oscillations to the second rigid obstacle( pos.3).It is impossible to achieve anything with any polystyrene foam - it perfectly transfers vibrations from the first partition to the second, since its sound-absorbing capabilities are close to zero.

• Does penoplex help in dealing with percussion noise?

Try yourself to conduct the simplest experiment - tap lightly on a piece of extruded polystyrene foam with a pencil or even a finger. Agree that it's just right to do a drum-it sounds so sonorous even from a minor shock load. Will Penoplex be able to somehow drown out strong blows, the oscillations from which are transmitted through massive building structures? Of course not!

It has already been mentioned that impact noise is reduced by transferring from one detail of the building structure to another as the density and massiveness of the material increase. Well, the density and, accordingly, the mass of expanded polystyrene panels are simply incomparable with the parameters of the slabs. Thus, the slabs placed on the ceiling will not affect the intensity of the propagation of the shock noise in any way, they simply become another transmission link with a high probability of occurrence of resonant phenomena. To reduce such noise, special materials are used that have extremely high density, for example, texaund sheets.

Sound insulation before installing the tension ceiling

Good results can be achieved if you combine a competent design of noise protection and a stretch ceiling. How to conduct soundproofing under the suspended ceiling - in a special publication portal.

But if you put extruded polystyrene on the side of the source of noise, the picture changes dramatically! Pay attention once again to the table - it shows the sound-proof effect of the penoplex when used in the construction of the insulated floor. In this case, the material plays the role of a kind of damping layer, which takes on the impact load. But the ratio of the density of the layers at this location already gnaws on the hand - lightweight expanded polystyrene is simply not able to transfer the impact vibrations to the massive slab of the ceiling and further through it to the rest, rigidly connected with the overlapping of the part. The level of impact noise decreases sharply.

This is perhaps the only justified and physically grounded application of extruded polystyrene foam as a soundproofing device. It will be especially effective if the design of a floating insulated screed is applied, which is nowhere firmly associated with either the slab or the walls.

1 - the walls of the building.

2 - slab plate.

3 - layer, laid out of the plates of the penokleksa. It will play both a role and a thermal insulator, making the floor warmer, and a damper barrier against the propagation of shock noise.

4 - waterproofing layer.

5 - reinforced screed. It has nothing to do with overlapping, because it rests on the foam pad, or with the walls covered( item 6) - separated from them by special damper inserts( pos.7).

8 - the finish of the floor.

So, the best way out will be to try to convince the upper neighbors to perform the floor in a similar way. How real this is is another question. But in any case, it will not hurt to make such floors in yourself, so as not to become a cause of discomfort for those living from below.

What is their conclusion?

Sound insulation of an apartment in a multi-storey building is an extremely complicated procedure. To achieve the effectiveness of such a system, it is best to turn to specialists in this matter - they will help to take into account all the features of the building and sources of constant noise.

But if some "expert" suddenly wants to "foil" you money for, supposedly, soundproofing the ceiling by installing a penoplex plate on it - chase it boldly.

The conclusion is unambiguous - extruded polystyrene foam is absolutely not intended for soundproofing an apartment, except for one single option, which is mentioned above - in the construction of the screed. All the other "improvisations" is a completely meaningless waste of energy and money. This will not only not bring the desired result, but also can seriously damage.

Video: How effective is the foam foam for soundproofing?