The space is to be furnished to connect with an apartment in a multi-family building and become living space. It is located on ground level without an underlying basement, concrete floor (slab on grade?) built about 55 years ago.
The walls might be slightly less insulated than the apartments, but the space is within the residential building.
I need three different functions for the various walls, but all will have 4.5 cm studs and 16 mm plywood sheets on them.
1. Against the stairwell, I MUST insulate to meet the building permit's requirements for sound and fire insulation (separate fire zone). I understand that 4.5 cm studs, mineral wool in between, 16 mm plywood, and on top of that 13 mm gypsum should suffice.
2. Against the outer wall, I want to insulate to retain the heat a little better.
3. The partition wall against the apartment is load-bearing and made of blasted stone, and here I will install studs and plywood to get a wall I can nail into and to make it easier to run electrical wiring.
I have many questions...
a. Do gypsum boards serve any function other than fire protection?
Can I skip them on the outer wall and the inner wall (2 and 3 above)?
b. If I'm possibly going to tile on some wall, do I need gypsum boards as a substrate? Or is it just as good directly on the plywood? I will have a moisture barrier in any case.
c. Can I use metal studs, attached only to floor and ceiling, and wooden studs attached to the metal studs with 60 cm centers? And thus not attach the wooden studs to the wall at all (ceiling height 2.35 m). It should be better with metal studs than wooden studs directly on the concrete floor? And it might muffle sound somewhat if I don't attach the studs to the wall, even if I don't leave a cavity. Structure-borne noise is what is most heard in this house.
d. Or are metal studs required to meet fire regulations against the stairwells?
e. Against the partition wall, is there no reason to use mineral wool? Studs and plywood sheets should suffice?
The walls might be slightly less insulated than the apartments, but the space is within the residential building.
I need three different functions for the various walls, but all will have 4.5 cm studs and 16 mm plywood sheets on them.
1. Against the stairwell, I MUST insulate to meet the building permit's requirements for sound and fire insulation (separate fire zone). I understand that 4.5 cm studs, mineral wool in between, 16 mm plywood, and on top of that 13 mm gypsum should suffice.
2. Against the outer wall, I want to insulate to retain the heat a little better.
3. The partition wall against the apartment is load-bearing and made of blasted stone, and here I will install studs and plywood to get a wall I can nail into and to make it easier to run electrical wiring.
I have many questions...
a. Do gypsum boards serve any function other than fire protection?
Can I skip them on the outer wall and the inner wall (2 and 3 above)?
b. If I'm possibly going to tile on some wall, do I need gypsum boards as a substrate? Or is it just as good directly on the plywood? I will have a moisture barrier in any case.
c. Can I use metal studs, attached only to floor and ceiling, and wooden studs attached to the metal studs with 60 cm centers? And thus not attach the wooden studs to the wall at all (ceiling height 2.35 m). It should be better with metal studs than wooden studs directly on the concrete floor? And it might muffle sound somewhat if I don't attach the studs to the wall, even if I don't leave a cavity. Structure-borne noise is what is most heard in this house.
d. Or are metal studs required to meet fire regulations against the stairwells?
e. Against the partition wall, is there no reason to use mineral wool? Studs and plywood sheets should suffice?
a) Gypsum boards are good from a fire safety perspective as they contain chemically bound water. Additionally, gypsum boards are an exemplary material for working with surface finishes on...
b) You should not apply tiles directly onto plywood. Gypsum or minerit should be used...
c) To achieve the best possible sound insulation, you should use a track called SKP or ACOustic. SKP has a rubber sheet underneath and Aco has two rubber strings underneath + one rubber string on the flange... The latter is used when dry jointing (Akusitkfog or Latex) is not used, or in combination with dry jointing when making walls with an R'w over 50 dB...
d) Fire requirements against stairwells are EI60, in which case wooden studs can be used as they have significantly better stability than metal during temperature changes. Metal is often used, however, because it allows for faster installation and is easier to handle than timber... I don't exactly know how your wall currently looks against the stairwell, but an EI60 requires double gypsum on 2 sides or 1 gypsum + plywood/side and a 70 stud with dry jointing if I remember correctly... I'll leave the last part open. Check Danogips' website and go to Infocity there for more accurate information...
b) You should not apply tiles directly onto plywood. Gypsum or minerit should be used...
c) To achieve the best possible sound insulation, you should use a track called SKP or ACOustic. SKP has a rubber sheet underneath and Aco has two rubber strings underneath + one rubber string on the flange... The latter is used when dry jointing (Akusitkfog or Latex) is not used, or in combination with dry jointing when making walls with an R'w over 50 dB...
d) Fire requirements against stairwells are EI60, in which case wooden studs can be used as they have significantly better stability than metal during temperature changes. Metal is often used, however, because it allows for faster installation and is easier to handle than timber... I don't exactly know how your wall currently looks against the stairwell, but an EI60 requires double gypsum on 2 sides or 1 gypsum + plywood/side and a 70 stud with dry jointing if I remember correctly... I'll leave the last part open. Check Danogips' website and go to Infocity there for more accurate information...
Thanks for the tips.
The current wall towards the staircase is about 5 cm thick, made of some sort of porous cement that you can drill through very quickly. No wood and the material doesn't seem flammable. And absolutely no sound insulation. The house was built around 1950.
The idea of soundproofing rails was a very good tip, I'll take a closer look at that.
If plasterboard is needed on all walls, maybe thinner plasterboards than the 13 mm I'm placing against the staircases could be sufficient?
The current wall towards the staircase is about 5 cm thick, made of some sort of porous cement that you can drill through very quickly. No wood and the material doesn't seem flammable. And absolutely no sound insulation. The house was built around 1950.
The idea of soundproofing rails was a very good tip, I'll take a closer look at that.
If plasterboard is needed on all walls, maybe thinner plasterboards than the 13 mm I'm placing against the staircases could be sufficient?
Member
· Västra Götaland
· 545 posts
"porös cement" is probably lightweight concrete! Most people on the forum definitely advise against insulating on the inside of exterior walls below ground, especially with plywood and wooden studs. There are many wonderfully long threads on the subject... 