Choosing the Best Insulation for Soundproofing Your Home

When you hear the term home insulation, the first thing that comes to your mind is protection from heat. Most homeowners will plan early about the insulation they need to keep their houses fireproof.

During the summer when the temperature outside rises, the room temperature naturally goes up. Adding this rise in heat to the heat produced by home appliances, you will be sweating every day of the summer. Even with an air conditioning system if you do not have a properly insulated home, things will go south when the heat rises.

The Need for Soundproofing

Another aspect of insulating which you must give importance to is keeping your homes soundproof. Acoustic sound insulation is as important as keeping your home safe from fire hazards and living peacefully.

Soundproofing is always the top priority in spaces like auditoriums, halls, and studios which need to have high-quality acoustic insulation. For example, sound recording studios require an environment that has very little noise to achieve a high degree of sound quality. So they use high-grade acoustic insulation panels to keep the noise out.

Even though you do not require that same range of insulation, some level of acoustic or sound insulation is a must.

Source of Noise

There are multiple sources that can cause noise pollution inside your house. For instance, if your house is near a busy street or an industrial area, then you have to live through traffic noises or sounds from the factories.

Similarly, sounds inside the house can also cause trouble. From sounds of people walking upstairs, wooden floorboards creaking or machines whirring, there are enough noisy sources inside as well. So what can you do to avoid this situation? The answer is acoustic insulation.

You cannot sleep with all these unwanted sounds around. If you have kids, then their sleep and health can also be affected. You do not want babies waking up in the middle of the night, do you? So it is the best option to go with an acoustic insulation panel for your walls.

Selecting the Perfect Insulation

But just any acoustic insulation will not be enough for your requirement. So before you decide to spend your entire budget on Rockwool, you need to know if it will suffice the insulation for your entire home.

Walls can be easily insulated using batts made of fiberglass or Rockwool. you could even opt for a loose fill which might have a higher initial cost and installation time. Similarly to soundproof the floor you can use acoustic floor insulations.

Here are two of the most popular insulation materials available in the market: Fiberglass and Rockwool insulation. These differ in availability and insulating properties. That means prices will vary too.

Fiberglass Insulation

This is one of the most common insulating materials in use. It is made up of fine glass particles, hence the name fiberglass. This is available as boards, loose fills, or rolls but has some notable demerits.

Since the particles are loosely packed by a liquid binder, the particles can fill the air inside if not properly sealed after installation. Breathing these particles can cause mild respiratory issues and also itching in the eyes.

Rockwool Insulation

Rockwool is one of the best solutions for all-around insulation of your home. The high thermal resistance makes it the perfect choice for even industrial use. It is also called mineral wool because it is made up of rock-based minerals.

They have even come out with the Rockwool pipe insulation for plumbing and HVAC systems for your home. The mineral wool is superior to most alternatives, including the fiberglass and cellulose insulation techniques.

There is a special variation of Rockwool insulation that can even withstand 1000 degree Celsius. With a high R-value (thermal resistance rating), there is very little chance of a fire hazard. Rockwool insulation is also hydrophobic, which means you will not have to spend on repairs due to water damage.

But what makes it worth the cost is its acoustic insulation property. Since the mineral wool fibers are so closely packed it has high density, so the sound waves will not pass through them.

Rockwool Flexi is a variant that is suitable for tight spaces like intersections and crevices. This is because it has a normal edge and a flexible edge on the other end. This makes it the best option for acoustic ceiling insulation as well.

Conclusion

The above information will give you a clear idea of the necessity of acoustic insulation. You can select one of the above-specified materials or go for alternate options like foam boards or expensive spray foam. Spray foam can also be used in the ceiling as they need to be just sprayed into a cavity and it will take its shape. But unlike the other options, it has a higher cost because you might need more quantity of spray foam to fill walls compared to say fiberglass.