quantumeffect
What do you think of the limp mass vinyl? I've been thinking about using it around a drum booth but, what I've read about it is that if it is not encapsulated (e.g., sandwiched between layers of sheetrock) it continues to outgas solvent and the smell can be nauseating.
Did you have any issues with it and if not ... what brand did you use (or at least who did you order it from).
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Dave,
I'm a big fan of mass loaded vinyl and attribute all of the soundproofing capabilities of my iso box to it. After doing a lot of shopping around I realized most places are charging about $120 for 100 sqft. In my case, I paid $60 to ship 1 roll, in total I purchased 2 rolls so paid a grand total of $360. I bought my material from
http://soundproofingamerica.us/ because they seemed to be a reputable supplier and they have a location ~60m from my apartment. Soundproofing America will allow you to save on shipping if you can drive to one of their locations and pick it up yourself.
There are a lot of competing products to MLV (just google MLV alternative) that claim to have similar STC ratings but that only weigh a fraction of MLV... be skeptical of these products as you'll pay more for what appears (based on user reviews) a low-quality product. Many STC ratings I've found consider the product in between two drywall panels with insulation, but from what I've read STC ratings for MLV are just the MLV.
As far as MLV giving off a bad smell, I can say for certain that the rolls I bought do not smell. The boxes I built are in the middle of my apartment and I've never noticed even a slight odor. The only thing I've read about MLV smelling bad are some of the "green" vinyl variants that use recycled tires/rubber, so that material may make your space smell like a tire wearhouse. I'm not sure if there are different manufacturing processes that go into producing MLV, so maybe some process will cause the material give off an odor. One of the other main reasons I went with Soundproofing America is that I emailed them directly some of my questions to which they responded quickly. Maybe you could reach out to them?
The question I asked them was: how difficult is it to work with and how are the rolls shipped? MLV is super easy to work with, all you need a razor/box cutter to score the material then it pulls apart very easily. 1 roll shipped wrapped in cardboard and was ~100lbs so there's a potential issue here if you do not have the means to move the material yourself.
Hope this gives you some insights into whether or not it's the right material for your project. One last thought is that if you choose to use MLV, make sure it is sandwiched in between some sort of sound absorber/diffuser (like the blankets in my video) otherwise your drums sound waves are going to bounce right back at you.
Let me know if I can clarify anything,
- Phil