Sound attenuating insulation is added to the nursery to reduce the echo effect of noise.
Clip Summary
Bob talks to Ken Lanoie of Owens Corning about adding sound attenuating insulation to the nursery. Lanoie describes the QuietZone Solserene Ceiling Fabric System used in the project. A Solserene ceiling is made up of three components, with high-density fiberglass boards to absorb sound installed in a track system that holds them in place. The boards are then covered with fabric. Lanoie reviews the installation process of the boards, followed by the fabric covering. The fabric is pulled so tight it looks like a normal plaster ceiling and can follow an architectural configuration, including angles, dormers, and rounded edges. It costs about six dollars per square foot. The system helps reduce the echo effect of noise in rooms with hardwood or stone floors, plaster walls, and other hard surfaces. Bob previews upcoming tasks to complete this project, including finishing touches in the bathroom, natural products for the nursery, and baby safety products, such as gates and outlet covers.
We're back in the nursery and one of the things we want to do here is sound attenuation because it's a room that has a lot of angles and a hardwood floor, and we want be able to absorb some of the sounds like a baby crying.
And Ken Le Moyne's here, from Owens Corning. This is a... what's this called, this product?
This is the QuietZone soul serene fabric system.
The soul serene fabric system. It's basically an absorptive ceiling.
Absolutely. It's made of three main components. There's a track that goes around, but the main sound absorber is this high density fiberglass board with a fiberglass mesh that goes on the bottom of it. And this absorbs sound. It doesn't block it like the hard surfaces. It absorbs the sound that's in the room, softens the space.
No bouncing, it just absorbs it. And then it's all covered up with a fabric.
Right. So it's an acoustically transparent fabric, meaning that the sound will go through it, but it will be picked up by the board. What they're doing right now is they're installing the acoustic fiberglass board up against a hard surface.
OK.
So that's going to be the real, the absorber.
Right.
And once that's in place and the tracks in place, then you're gonna take the fabric and stretch over.
OK, well, this is something that a home-owner can tackle. This is do it yourself, right?
Absolutely. Absolutely do it yourself.
All right. So then the next step is to take all this fabric and stretch it across the material.
Correct. You're gonna tuck it into the corners. Get it up.
Oh, I see. So you tuck it in the backside of that moulding that's on the perimeter of the room.
Absolutely correct, and when you order the material, it comes with , you know, a tacking knife.
With this, this tool.
Yeah, this tool. It's like a putty knife. But, it, the material is grabbed by the back of that a track molding.
So they get it up in place and you can see a lot of the the winkles are already coming out of it now and then later on we'll go back and make it very tight. homes have granite surfaces, marble floors, wood floors, plastered ceilings is a lot of hard surface.
A lot of echo.
A lot of echo?
Yeah, a lot of echo. So this absorbs it on the ceiling area.
So we're just doing a preliminary trim job on the corner over here, but already you start to lose the sense that it's a fabric 'cause it stretches so nicely that it really does look like a plaster ceiling.
Absolutely. It gives you that nice crisp, clean line that you're looking for and it gives a lot of architectural detail possibilities. Dormered ceilings, rounded edges, vaulted ceilings, et cetera.
So you can leave it like that and have that little shadow line.
Or as you were saying a minute ago you could add a ceiling molding or a picture molding.
Crown molding.
Or a crown.
Exactly.
Yeah, change the color if you want it or blend right with it.
Ken, what about the cost?
The cost is averaging about six dollars a square foot.
Six bucks a square foot. And it makes a difference.
It does make a difference.
I can tell.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you Bob.
And that wraps things up.
Next time, we're going to be putting finishing touches on that bathroom including a Corian tub surround.
Also, we'll be looking at natural products to use in the nursery and all sorts of baby safety products.
Gates and covers for outlets and that sort of thing.
Until then, I'm Bob Villa.
Thanks for joining us.
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