Green Glue with wall tiles for soundproofing?

Question

Wall Tiles https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B016UPADF0/

I'm thinking of adding soundproofing to my home's bedroom using these tiles and Green Glue. There is only 1 shared wall + door between this bedroom and the rest of the house.

My hope is the soundproofing comes from the Green Glue (not the tiles) which is supposed to adsorb sound and exchange it for heat: https://www.greengluecompany.com/ The tiles are only there to support the Green Glue, and for aesthetics.

Would that work? Any risks? Would you say I still need to add extra soundproofing behind the drywall?

The goal is to keep sounds inside the bedroom. So, for example, it won't travel to other bedrooms and wake people up. Sounds I'm trying to damper are TV or.. erm.. being with the wife.

Answer 1

I'm skeptical that these panels will help with soundproofing. I didn't see anything in the description of the material that called out it's soundproofing characteristics and it does not seem to be thick enough to do much. Per the questions section at the URL you posted for Amazon:

Question: How thick are these?
Answer: Hi Steve. The panels are only 2-3 mm on the flat areas of the panel and hollow in the back. The embossed areas come out about half inch. Thank you

You need to assess where the sound you are hearing is coming from and determine the best way to block or absorb that sound.

Here is an article that covers tips on soundproofing. The article makes the point that most of the sound coming into your room will be from the windows and offers suggestions.

Answer 2

Whatever you are doing with the green glue is fine but the most important thing is to take all of the drywall off the walls and pack the cavities with mineral wool insulation - jam packed. This will outproduce anything else 5 times over.

I mention this because as another poster said you will need to add another layer of drywall for the green glue so you might as well do it right. Note that adding another layer of drywall effects door and trim and closets. So quite a big undertaking.

I would also add is that most sound goes out the door cavity. Two really easy things you could test to reduce sound:

1. Hang thick yoga mat over the door - as close as you can to it. I have even seen people cut out the door knob in the mat. Also a towel at the bottom of the doorway to cover gap.

2. A thin big pillow behind TV. A lot of the bass from the TV sound travels out the back. You can get rid of this volume in other rooms by dampening it right by the TV.

Answer 3

GreenGlue (GG) is not an adhesive, so it will not suffice in securing the tiles to the wall. Instead, you will need a double layer of drywall for this. The GG will be sandwiched between the two layers and the panels will be applied to the second layer per their own directions.

Assuming you already have the first layer, get yourself some additional 1/4" drywall panels. Apply the GG to the back of these panels per the directions, find the seams of the existing drywall panels, and stagger the new panels over them. Remember that drywall in home applications is horizontal, not vertical, so you will need to do some tricky drywall cutting/snapping to stagger the new panels. In the off chance that the existing drywall was hung vertically, staggering will be much easier. You're not done yet, though, because you will have gaps between the new drywall panels that will need to be filled with sound-dampening compound. A single tube of accoustical caulk should fill in these gaps (I've used QuietSeal, but GG makes their own as well). You will likely not need to mud or tape the new layer of drywall since you're going to cover it all up with these tiles.

Lastly, I will advise not to forget about flanking paths. You can soundproof a wall, but, if there is space beneath the floor (crawl space or another story) or above the ceiling (attic space), sound could flank below and above the wall you soundproofed and reach the room on the other side depending on the noise level. Edit: I just read the new info you added. This application should help contain noise generated by television and sweaty surfaces of skin slapping together.

So there's obviously a lot more to soundproofing than meets the eye. If you go my route, you will need to learn how to measure, cut/snap, and fasten drywall, but there are a lot of easy tutorials on how to do that.