Our Condo Soundproofing Saga: Part Three

I don't know how many of you read last week but if you missed parts one and two, grab a mug of something strong and settle in.  I'll be here when you get back.

So when we had the house all torn up and the drywall dude (DD) heard our pipes choking with air bursts after the neighborhood fire hydrants were flushed, that sent the Mr on a bit of a spiral.  See, when we moved in here, we were basically the last townhomes on Earth that used polybutylene water pipes before they were banned.  They were banned because they would scale up inside, pit, corrode then burst.  Every single time we had a plumber out for this or that in 28 years and they looked up at our exposed basement ceiling the reactions were either 1) recoiling in horror 2) shaking their heads 3) laughing and 4) a combo of all three saying "oh, you've got polybutylene pipes."  There was only ONE plumber at about the 24 year mark who was here to fix something quick was like 'you guys are outside of the point where they had problems as they usually failed the first 10 years and you're way past that so now you're just like the rest of us."  That made us feel better at the time.  Well, when DD heard the air chugs in the pipes, he relayed how a lady at one of his condos (that are made by the same people ours are) had her pipes burst after that.  Thanks a-hole.  What's dropping another $7K to have the whole house repiped?  We'll just brace up for the financial violation which, by the way, with the drywalling and electrical panel being brought up to code put us at $22K in THREE WEEKS.  

It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time with the house already in shambles, the floors and furniture covered and in the middle of the room.  So when that was done, we had 7 new holes to contend with in the living room ceiling and walls.  

A local 5 star rated patch company we were putting all of our hope into was a bit of a condescending schmuck which seems to be a prerequisite for this business.  He was expecting one hole for a whole house repipe job.  I'm not sure what magical land he inhabits where that is possible.  Then we marked three really bad spots DD messed up and asked if he could fix those.  Nope.  He wouldn't do it.  Instead, we got a lecture about how "drywall is an imperfect product" and he couldn't make it look much better.  Sooo drywall looking like they painted over a marble (screw pop), mouse speed bump and seam where three pieces meet is acceptable?  Because those weren't in the "imperfectly" flat pieces of drywall, those were made by human error.  Would you accept it in YOUR house bub?  Me thinks not.  I think it either comes more down to a bro code because these schmucks all seem to know each other and it's like disrespecting someone else's work or he's just lazy.  So just know that going in if you ever get drywall done.  Also know that every single article will tell you you're NOT supposed to see seams or else it was installed wrong or mudded poorly but I guess the internet is wrong.  😒

It was 4 days before he could start and it was the week leading up to Easter.  At that point, we'd been living on a 60x80 queen mattress for that long.  It was my bed, my office and where we chilled every night while avoiding everything in shambles in the living room.  Get in, get out and for the love of God, do it right because I'm sick as hell of people who are doing it half assed or plain wrong.  When he got there, he told the Mr that he talked to his uncle (his partner) and he said that they would fix the areas the first guy screwed up.  

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I'm sorry, we're not used to hearing good news during this process.  When the uncle got here, he looked at the crappy spots from the original guy and was like 'so why didn't you have him back out to fix it?'  The Mr told him he had been out to repair stuff and made it clear he wasn't coming back unless we bought other services from him.  (Re-piping)  He shook his head and got to work.  In the end, the patches were good to go but we had to wait two days to do anything because they wet sanded for the smoothest transition.  

Then we could finally get to the other soundproofing measures we needed to take to help complete the job.  What would those be, you ask?  Quite a bit. 

With adding 5/8" drywall, that meant all switches/outlets would need to be pulled forward.  To do that, you need extender boxes but we actually needed to replace all of our switches and outlets per the electrician.  He said they were all done for speed and not safety and were backstabbed.  To learn what that is and why it's a fire hazard, here's an article about it.  I'll just tell you if you've been in your home for 20 years and still have the same outlets/switches, it might be a good time to just switch them out.  The electrician said it was an easy job to do ourselves but they would charge a lot for so we took him up on that.  The Mr had two or three switches completely shatter and he said they looked like they were installed that way.  Not like it's a fire hazard or anything.  So he got some acoustic putty squares and since we couldn't put it behind the junction box like you can on a new build, he put it inside the empty box as he was switching them out to plug any holes for sound to get in.  It's not ideal but it's better than the gappy hell that likely is lurking behind your switch plates.  We also used it on the back of the switch plates to dampen the sound further which warranted good results.  If you don't want to get putty, at minimum put acoustic sealant around the gaps around the hole as well as gaps around the outlet when installed.

(Sorry for the blur)

We also had sound deadening mats I bought for the closet.  When the neighbor first started banging around at all hours, it would travel up the wall in the closet.  It would sound like he was in it which is no bueno.  In addition to filling empty cavities in the wall with mineral insulation, I used those mats on the built in storage shelves in the closet which echoed with each of his slams.

I laid those down, filled in all gaps with acoustic sealant then put it all back together.  We used beadboard on the front to cover it there and it looks good for a closet and helps tremendously with the sound issue there to the point I don't even hear anything in there anymore.

I got an extra box of those to use on the back of the baseboards when those went back down.  Sadly, the caulking we put into the available gap under the stringer did zero to quell his microwave door slams directly on the other side.  So I at least wanted another measure of sound dampening available if possible, on the baseboards when we had to reinstall those.  I just made sure the 4" strip touched about 1/4" onto the top of the stringer and the rest onto the wall then nailed in the baseboards over it and caulked top and bottom with a thin bead of acoustic sealant.  

One of the issues we also had was his mounted TV that he had to listen to at a loud level, of course.  What used to be a time to wind down around 7pm became a time of extreme anxiety waiting for him to jack it up and we would have to flee upstairs.  Some mineral insulation in a vacant spot where old cable used to run and putty in the outlets helped with this.  However, when we moved the armoires around, I noticed the luan on the back of it where the tv sat was quite thin and prone to vibration.  I got these acoustic pads to help absorb anything coming off of his wall as well as enclose the back and project the sound outward toward us.  I put a sound dampening mat on to test the theory beforehand and it seemed to prove my theory.  At this point, I want any weapon in the arsenal to fight his asshattery.

Once those things were all in place, we could paint and get the place back in order.  It super sucked living in a construction zone for over 6 weeks.  It felt like we were never going to get back to any sort of normalcy.  We couldn't properly assess whether or not all of the money we spent on soundproofing made any sort of difference that we would consider worth it because we were never in the living room.  I knew what I thought based on what I was and wasn't hearing upstairs but the downstairs was where we'd have to really sit and listen.

Stop by Wednesday to see if we feel our soundproofing efforts were worth it or if we wasted a crap ton of money and now want to sob.

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