John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi

I just found this site tonight and I've been reading for over an hour - there's some great stuff here!

My question is this: Has anyone used this product?

http://www.foambymail.com/VolaraSP.html

They call it volara - I'm sure it goes by other names too. I'm certainly no acoustic expert, but it seems to me with an STC rating of 24, it could serve as a good replacement to putting drywall, say, on the inner of a double wall. Also, being able to glue it rather than nail I think would also improve the STC.

Comments? Expert advice?

Thanks,

Jason

This is another brand name for Mass Loaded Vinyl, or MLV for short; it's always high priced, and although it can work in some cases it's never cost effective; if you figure out their price per square foot, then multiply by 32 to get the cost for a 4' x 8' sheet, it runs $19.20 - in my area, 5/8" gypsum wallboard runs $6.70 a sheet; For slightly more than the cost of one 1/8" layer of MLV, I can buy THREE layers of 5/8" gypsum, which would have an STC of roughly 38 - even ONE layer of gypsum, at $6.70, gives an STC of 28 - like I said, not much of a bargain - the only exception I see is if you have VERY limited room to add layers to a wall - even so, 3 TIMES the cost for the same isolation - no thanks... Steve

So it sounds like the negative is from the cost perspective, but it does what it says that it does.

Thanks! That's helpful.

Jason

Right; unless you can't stand another 5/8" on a wall, you can do drywall for about 1/3 the cost and same performance... Steve