John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

I was thinking of building a two-skin walled studio of concrete blocks and bricks. However, now I find that it is building regulation here in the UK that double walls such as this must be connected with wall ties?

Does doing so negate the entire point (or most of it) of building a mass-air-mass wall for soundproofing? Since the two skins can't be properly decoupled?

Are there special wall ties you can get that are better for soundproofing, and do they actually work?

Would I be better off abandoning this idea and going for one skin of very thick concrete block, and one skin of plasterboard instead, with an airgap between them?

How do other people get round this problem? Do people not use two masonry skins for soundproof buildings?

Many thanks.

Great question, and a great answer!

There are acoustic sound isolation products specifically for this task!

One example is the Kinetics Anti-Sway Brace. Check with your local construction dealers for equivalent product. I recall Steve having posts about a home made brace but don't have links to it.


Have fun:
Andre