QuietRock, THX Certified Sheetrock

July 5, 2006

THX CertifiedWhen I read the tag line “First THX Certified Sheetrock” I have to admit I found it a bit humorous, not the fact that sheetrock can indeed lower the noise floor and provide varying degrees of soundproofing. What I found humorous was envisioning how others would receive THX certification of a building material.

Regardless of what you think about THX certification, QuietRock does indeed appear to offer an intriguing alternative to resilient channel construction and PVC based noise barriers. I might be getting ahead of my self here however.

Why would anyone even care about the noise rating or acoustical properties of sheetrock? Many custom home theaters are being built with the acoustical properties of the finished room in mind. Some of the specific goals in mind with these projects are:

• limiting the amount of sound that escapes your home theater
• Preventing exterior noises from entering your home theater
• Improving the acoustics within your home theater

QuietSolution claims their 5/8” thick QuietRock sheetrock is acoustically equivalent to 8 layers of standard drywall. That’s quite a bit of noise dampening from one piece of drywall. This amount of dampening combined with the proper acoustic room treatments (or panels) inside the theater, isn’t far off from the total-solution package I offer for my clients. Needless to say I’ll have to give QuietRock a closer look.

QuietRock also has one other important benefit versus previous soundproofing materials, it installs just like standard drywall without the need for special training or application methods. So in theory the acoustical needs of your custom home theater could be met by the same dry-waller that was going to hang your standard sheetrock.



Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under Home Theater Construction


Comments

  • carl
    Just finished installing 525 in my home studio. And, unfortunately, I have to say that I would definitely not recommend it. First of all, every sheet (and I mean every single sheet) came off-the-palatte straight from the manufacturer with tears in the paper on both sides, so finishing the job was a hassle. Also, as mentioned in an earlier post, it is definitely not score and snap as the manufacturer suggests (I even called them to be sure), which just about doubled the installation time. Finally, in the end, the sound protection isn't as good as I had in the old version of the room which was soundboard under drywall--which I could have re-done both easier and cheaper. Don't waste your money.
  • vinman123
    Used quietrock "quiet solution" 525 and 527 in my home theater installation. Did a pretty good job at sealing with quietglue and also used quietseal. My project was used over existing drywall on sidewalls and ceiling. Also two walls where stagger studs "dividing house". Overall it helped a bit but nowhere near soundproof. Would I use it again or recommend it. Probably not for the cost of total project. The board wasn't easy to cut as stated above.
  • J Kaye
    Old thread, google dropped me here.

    It *might* be suspect that someone who works for a manufacturer and offers a strong opinion about the viability of his soundproofing product vs. the one mentioned in the thread, admits that he's not familiar with NRC 15 minutes later.

    Full disclosure: I work for a distributor (not manufacturer) and we chose to go with QuietRock after evaluating all alternatives. We think it really does offer the lowest total cost assembly for achieving walls with a reliable STC 50+.

    Ash is entirely incorrect about how QuietRock STC's are achieved - especially on the point about "doubling up on both sides".

    As for Celotex - I have a sample of this material in my office. I see no reason why it would perform any better than Homasote - somewhere around STC 38 for a typical assembly. If you DO go to their website, you see they have no testing data for a wall assembly to support their STC claims. Usually there's a good reason for that.
  • B.Greenway
    Hi Ash, here’s a page I found on noise resilient channel:

    http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/channel.htm

    Hope that helps.
  • Ash
    What exactly is NRC? Can you provide a website or more information to someone that is not knowledgable. Thank you
  • Ash
    I work for a company called Knight Industries, who makes a sound deadening board called SoundStop. If you compare apples to apples, SoundStop is just as good if not better than Quietrock. Their claims are not exaggerated, but are twisted in a way to make customers think that they can reach high levels of STC easily. How that is reach is by doubling up with the board on both side, use metal studs, insulation between the studs and drywall. Check out SoundStop and see for yourself.
  • Patrick Riggs, M.D.
    keep me apprised of all products. I will be building a new home ~ 6,000.00 sq feet in one year. I am doing reseach to ensure that I utilize the best products available. You produst "Quietrock" interests me greatly; if the specs are as stated, i will use it throughout my house, not just in the media room.
    If you know of other vendors with products that would improve the quality of my home you may share my email address with them. Thanks, P. K. Riggs, M.D.
  • James
    I'm a remodeler and focus more on sound isolation services in residential and commercial applications. While Quiet Rock is a reasonably good product, it is not without its problems.

    The 525 is not score and snap, as they claim. There are two layers of material, and you just cannot snap clean.

    You pay $120 a sheet and there will be significant waste in any job.
  • I am about to install the new Quietrock in my showroom next week. I'll be certain to give you a report. The old Quietrock was a lot more difficult to work with, because it had layers materials that wouldn't cut with a knife or rotozip. The new stuff is supposed to be similar to regular sheetock.
  • Herb
    FWIW, I spoke with one of the QuietRock guys at ASA 2005. They're quite proud of their product, and they're very forthcoming with their technical data. I'm always wary of performance claims given by the producers of noise mitigation products, but QuietRock has NRC do their testing, so I'm less skeptical than I normally would be.

    FYI, they were giving out 1-inch by 1-inch samples of their various sheet rock samples at the conference. It's a sandwich of gypsum with one or more layers of steel. It's pretty solid stuff.

    If you ever have a chance to use QuietRock, I hope you write about your experience. I had one potential project that was considering it, but things fell through at the last minute.
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