Anyone do DIY Room Treatment?

MulliganStew

Anybody have any knowledge or dealings with getting owens corning 703? Im thinking of making bass traps and or a simple panel system for a semi-portable makeshift vocal booth. Im not sure how hard (or more importantly cheaply) it is to source the stuff here in Ireland. Anyone have any luck with diy treatment? Im not sure if anyone knows a more readily available insulation in ireland? Professional treatment will never be an option or a necessity for want I want to do (thank god), so Im obviously on the small budget side of things.

progsound

Rockwool will do the job rw5 or rw3 should do the trick oc703 is a bitch to come by here, your local builders providers should have rockwool

Edit: handy tutorial vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyYUpkpL0gw

madtheory

It's very easy to do. Several threads on here already. RW3 is pretty much exactly the same as OC703.

Echoplex

Getting hold of suitable materials is always the hard bit. Get the right ones and the job is easy.
Try to find an Industrial Supplier, one who deals with HVAC, Factories etc.
In Cork, Christy O Keefe has all one needs. 021 4311327
He cuts RockWool to size if required. He makes his own 100KG m^3 batts, faced with FRK if you wish. Worth going out of our way to support this guy, times are tough in that industry.

703 is a fine product. It is a very good balance of weight, stiffness, and of course acoustic performance. It is impossible to get hold of it in small quantities for a reasonable price in Ireland.

Isover High Performance Duct Cladding seems like a very close approximation to 703. It comes with FRK on it. It is just about stiff enough to do light wall panels without a frame. It would sag in an overhead Cloud though.

I have never found a dense fibreglass panel like 705 in Ireland.

However RockSilk RS100 is a reasonable equivalent. Stiff, easy to work with. Good performer. Not particularly itchy.

RS60 and 40 can be used when the stiffness is not required.

While they work just fine, I find the RW products very floppy and willing to disintegrate.

There can be confusion about density, thickness, performance.
Strangely thicker traps benefit from less dense, usually much cheaper, materials.
There is a wealth of DIY information at www.studiotips.com

DD

madtheory

I stand corrected

Echoplex

Hi Tomás,
Winstanley, the Interference Studio in Schull, was designed by myself and Justin Forbes. We ordered a whole truck of RW3 literally. Some variant, RW45 or Flex something or other arrived. They claimed it was the the same thing. We freaked at the time, but pragmatically had to accept it. The whole ceiling frame was filled with this stuff. A nice thick cloud, held up by chicken wire, covered in felt. An airgap all the way to the slates. Concrete painted floor. It works brilliantly. As it happens the RW45 was probably a better choice than the RW3 at that thickness.
It's all good.

Acoustic treatment yields great rewards. I only wish more would believe and do it.

Fabric is an issue. Murphy Sheehy in Dublin should have something useable, coloured hessian perhaps. They would also have Polyester batting.

Upstairs (can't remember the shop name) in the Savoy Centre Cork have Polyester also.

However for the real deal http://www.fontington.ie/index.php
Camira is excellent, fire rated, equivalent of Guilford of Maine
Take a look around this site. I seem to remember spotting some sort of mesh fabric, exactly what is needed to hold in or up, the floppy ones.
You can see pics of Camira in action at Peter Maher's rather superb Middlewalk studio.
By the way, he is selling a large quantity of high quality Auralex foam tiles.

For the fully pro look Fabric is attached and stretched over the treatment.
You need special plastic tracks to do this. Hard to find but.....
the unfortunately named Paddy Downer has Fabric Wall at
http://www.downerint.com


The material suppliers often have no little or no idea that these products have acoustic, studio uses. It would be good to let them know, so that 'our' type of product remains in stock. I would encourage anyone contacting Christy O Keefe or David Byrne at Fontington, or Paddy at Downer International, to let them know what we are at.
I would also appreciate a mention that the recommendations are coming from me Dan FitzGerald www.irishacoustics.com

DD

Enda08

MulliganStew wrote: »

Anybody have any knowledge or dealings with getting owens corning 703? Im thinking of making bass traps and or a simple panel system for a semi-portable makeshift vocal booth. Im not sure how hard (or more importantly cheaply) it is to source the stuff here in Ireland. Anyone have any luck with diy treatment? Im not sure if anyone knows a more readily available insulation in ireland? Professional treatment will never be an option or a necessity for want I want to do (thank god), so Im obviously on the small budget side of things.

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread here but it's a handy resource that I'd like to add to. I just ordered a bale of 50mm x 600 x 1200 Owens Corning 703 sheets from these guys in Dublin...:D http://insulationireland.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=51
Michael was A1 on the phone for such a small order & at less than €15 per square metre it seems good value for the real deal in acoustic insulation. If it's as good as it's supposed to be, I'll def be back for more ...and no I'm not related

leitrim_lad

Sorry for bringing up an old thread but im just wondering would anyone have info on a supplier in ireland of Owens Corning or equivalent? InsulationIreland doesnt seem to be in business anymore. Thanks.. Leo

peter05

Hi Leo,

Your nearest builders provider. Its not hard found it is pretty common.

There are two available batt roll and slabs.

Just ask for RW3.

Best
Peter

Echoplex

OC is not well distributed internationally. Other products are just as good. e.g. Knauf Universal board or Isover High Performance Duct Cladding.
DD

leitrim_lad

Thanks Peter and Echoplex. Ill have to check out the Knauf Universal board and Isover High Performance Duct Cladding. If i do decide to go with the rw would anyone have any recommendations on weather to go for the rw3 or rw5? My room would be a small to medium size room. From reading alot on gearslutz etc and what i can make from it they suggest going with the more dense the better (the rw5 been 100kg) and mixing up the frk side facing out and in to help reflect a little mid/hi frequencies..

Thanks
Leo

MulliganStew

I recently had to go through the whole "sourcing" headache. Literally spent days. So here is exactly what you want and where we bought ours.

https://buildwithme.ie/insulation/rockwool/rockwool-prorox-range

With rw3 vs rw5, as far as I remember its a much of a muchness, rw3 is perfectly capable. RW5 has apparently a lot of weight, which is a consideration if suspending the bass traps.

Remember, regardless of the brand, - density is the important part. As long as you source rigid fiberglass with the same density as RW3 or RW5 you're golden.

Also - make sure its rigid, as if not you'll have a nightmare. And you want your bass traps to be at least 4inchs thick. Preferably 6inches.. So - for example 100mm is good, but you could also get 2x50mm and stack them together.

If cost and space are no obstacle, you can do whatever, but for 99% of people, if you have the right density of rockwool (which RW3 and RW5 are) it just becomes about space and cost.

Also FYI - all those million gearslutz forums are slightly out of date with branding - to save you further headaches - "Earthwool" is simply a rebranding of "Rocksilk" (same company, same product) which you'll also see as a suggestion.

There - hopefully saved you a couple headaches! The RW3 is what we got, and was easy to work with. Seriously - be wary of the RW5 weight vs percieved benefits.

Good Luck!

GTE

The FRK is an advantage in bass traps, so you don't suck up too much high end but your first reflection zones shouldn't have any FRK. Isover acoustic batt is great for the reflection points, just maybe a tad more expensive then I would have expected. The Prorox stuff looks cool.

For my room, I didn't need FRK at all. I superchunked the corners with Rockwool Acoustic Roll and did first reflections with Isover Acoustic Batt. I was even able to make gobos with spare Rockwool. By using string and a staple gun, I was able to make a crude but tight net to stop the stuff from sagging.

Goodwins has a good online site to help you keep a track of materials in a shopping cart and you should be able to price check with local suppliers and price match where there is a big difference.

The Master

I got my rockwool slabs and rolls in Goodwins.
Not a bad price and was handy to get it all delivered together

leitrim_lad

Thanks a million for all the replies.. ive decided to go with a mix of rw3 and rw5.. Ive just another quick question.

What timber did ye use for the walls ?

the rw3 and rw5 is 50mm deep and i was thinking about getting 2x2 rough timber but it comes in at just under the 50mm (around 48mm).. I was thinking about going with this with the hope the insulation would compress by the 2mm and not bulge to much out of the material on the front. The other option is 3x2 plained..

GTE

leitrim_lad wrote: »

Thanks a million for all the replies.. ive decided to go with a mix of rw3 and rw5.. Ive just another quick question.

What timber did ye use for the walls ?

the rw3 and rw5 is 50mm deep and i was thinking about getting 2x2 rough timber but it comes in at just under the 50mm (around 48mm).. I was thinking about going with this with the hope the insulation would compress by the 2mm and not bulge to much out of the material on the front. The other option is 3x2 plained..

Depending on your fabric, the stretch required should sort out any slight issues with insulation being deeper than your timber. Most of my panels were 10cm thick, with the wood being just under 10cm despite being advertised as such, it was fine in the end.

Just decide on a measurement unit and stick to it, it will get very confusing very quickly if you're swapping between inches and cm etc., he says from experience!