Abstract

Wood stud construction is common in residential and hospitality buildings in some parts of the U.S.; however, there is a deficiency of field-tested sound insulation performance of partitions constructed with wood studs that are spaced closer than 16” on center. This study presents the sound isolation measurement results of a set of fifteen partitions within an existing facility that has been experiencing repeated complaints of poor acoustic privacy between horizontally adjacent spaces.  The tested partition types varied between single stud, double stud, and single studs with resilient channel constructions.  The walls had four materials of varying combinations applied, including 19/32” OSB, Type X gypsum board, proprietary enhanced gypsum board, and proprietary mass loaded vinyl.  It was shown that the partition with enhanced gypsum board performed better than the same partition with Type X, the double stud partition performed lower than expected, and the addition of mass loaded vinyl to both double and single stud partitions did not affect the ASTC rating, among other findings.