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Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros by Rod Gervais: https://amzn.to/48ONVF6
Home Recording Studio Design by Philip Newell https://amzn.to/4b7zyxd
Master Handbook Of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest and Ken Pohlmann: https://amzn.to/3Olwio7

Yup, I said it. I am taking a stance on green glue and I do not use it in any of my studio designs. In this article I will make the argument why not.



1) Reason 1: The Added Cost
First, Green Glue costs a ton of money and most home studios don't have big budgets.

A soundproof wall typically uses two layers of 5/8" (16mm) drywall on either side of a double wall system. You can see the diagram below as an example. The cost of 1 layer of drywall is $17.87 here in the United States. That is $0.56 per square foot.



Now a pail of green glue costs $394.88 at Buildcorp Direct. They say that covers 380 Sq/ft. That means the cost of Green Glue is $1.04 per Sq/ft. At The Soundproofing Company a 5 gallon pail of Green Glue costs $406.69 and covers 365 Sq/ft. That comes out to $1.11 Sq/ft. Also, remember the cost of the speed load gun to apply the green glue is around $65.

Now lets average those two costs. The average cost for Green Glue is then $1.08/SqFt. Remember, to that for smaller projects where you don't need a pail of Green Glue the cost will be higher.

Now, Green Glue on average costs $1.08/square foot. That means the cost of adding green glue is almost the same as adding two more layers of drywall to your wall. As I will talk about in the next section adding two layers of drywall will certainly be better than adding Green Glue.

Now you may say, well I could add Mass Loaded Vinyl instead of drywall or Green Glue. The answer would be that the cost would again be even more for MLV and I would argue not worth the added damping it provides.

5/8" drywall weights around 2.2 Lb/SqFt. MLV weighs 2 Lb/SqFt. The cost of 2 Lb MLV is $179.95 and covers 50 SqFt. That is $3.60 per square foot. That is six times the cost of drywall and over three times the cost of Green Glue. So when you want to build a studio for $1520K why would you waste money on Green Glue and MLV when you could add more drywall for less money?

Now you are going to say, Wilson, but I don't have space for more drywall. My answer would be you will lose 5/8" of an inch on each wall. If you want to save that space and spend way more money doing it then go ahead, but it is not a logical conclusion in my opinion.



2) Reason #2 Mass is better than damping
In soundproofing we have two systems that help with sound attenuation. The first is mass and the second is damping. Mass is most important because without mass you cannot stop sound, especially low frequencies. You cannot hang RockWool insulation and stop sound, just like you cannot hang MLV and hope to stop sound. Both of those substances, like Green Glue absorb sound through damping, which is the conversion of sound to heat through frictional or restrictive forces.

Mass on the other hand reflects sound. A solid concrete wall will reflect more sound than a wall with only drywall. Mass also reflects low frequencies better than damping alone. For this reason, it is always better to add mass first and damping second.

When you are on a budget...read rest of article on my blog https://www.soundproofyourstudio.com/...

Works Cited:

Gervais, Rod. Home Recording Studio: Build It Like The Pros. 2nd Edition, Course Technology Cengage Learning, 2011.

“Green Glue Test Results Soundman2020 Studio Design Forum.” Forum.digistar.cl, forum.digistar.cl/viewtopic.php?t=773. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Philip Richard Newell. Recording Studio Design. New York ; London, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

0:00 Intro
0:59 1. Green Glue Is To Expensive
4:26 2. Mass is better than damping
7:14 3. STC Ratings only go down to 125Hz
9:34 4. The Pros Don't Use Green Glue
11:52 Green Glue Needs To Be Retested
15:27 Carpet Glue
16:50 Conclusion