About 52 percent of Calgary homes predate 1991, and the city's soundproofing work splits cleanly along that line. Soundproofing spray foam insulation in Calgary is one job in an inner-city infill and a completely different job in a Tuscany or Royal Oak bonus room. The inner-city version is usually a shared wall; the suburban version is usually a room over a garage.
The party wall problem
Calgary has built a great deal of semi-detached and attached housing, and the wall you share is the wall you hear through. During construction or a gut renovation that cavity is open and open cell in it is a genuine improvement to airborne sound. Once it is closed and finished, the honest answer is that the cheap window has passed.
Airborne versus impact, before anything is quoted
Airborne noise moves through air paths and through the panel vibrating: voices, music, traffic. Insulation addresses it. Impact noise moves through the structure: footsteps, doors, plumbing. Decoupling addresses it - resilient channel, clips, separated framing - and insulation does very little. Any assessment that skips this question is not an assessment.
Where soundproofing spray foam insulation Calgary is worth buying
- Party walls in semi-detached and attached homes, while the assembly is open.
- Interior partitions around home offices, which Calgary has a great many of, and around media rooms.
- Bonus rooms over garages in the newer northwest and south - Tuscany, Royal Oak - where the complaint is usually noise and cold together.
- Suite conversions in the older inner city, where the floor between suite and main becomes a party assembly.
Why open cell for this and not closed cell
Half pound open cell is soft and porous and absorbs sound energy as it passes through. Two pound closed cell is rigid and dense, and rigid materials pass vibration along rather than soaking it up. Closed cell is the better insulator and the correct product against Calgary's frost depth below grade. For sound specifically, open cell is the one that works.
What we will tell you before you spend
If the noise is footsteps from above, foam is not your answer and we will say so. If it is voices through a shared wall and that wall is open, this is a good use of money. Foam bonds to the substrate, so existing batt comes out first and that removal belongs in the quote. Occupied-space foam in a Calgary home is finished with the code thermal barrier.
Soundproofing Spray Foam Insulation Calgary: Common Questions
Will this quieten my shared wall with the neighbours? For airborne sound, meaningfully, if we can get into the cavity. For impact and structure-borne sound, no - that is a decoupling job.
Does it help with QEII and Deerfoot traffic noise? Traffic is airborne, so it helps in the wall assemblies it fills. Windows and doors usually carry more of that load than the wall does.
Can it go over the insulation already in there? No. Foam bonds to the substrate, so what is there comes out first.
Estimate your job, then get a free Calgary quote. See open cell spray foam and spray foam insulation in Calgary.
After the foam: the interior finish
Spray foam does not get left exposed in a living space -- it has to be covered, and drywall is what does it. We work alongside boarding and taping in Calgary, an independent drywall contractor, so the two stages are not left to collide on site.