Dale Garren, Vice President of Pinn Brothers Fine Home’s East Bay Division, set out to find a better noise reducing solution for their Palasage 90-unit townhome project just getting underway in Livermore, California. After years of experience with costly, failure-prone resilient channel, Garren’s wanted to replace RC with an easier, more cost-effective and more reliable soundproofing strategy. Garren got all that he wanted with Serious Materials’ QuietSolutions product line.
“We specialize in quiet homes. The concept is simple and makes sense to buyers – and they value quiet,” Garren explains. “This reflects well on Pinn and has been a key factor in moving our properties faster.”
Due to the Palasage townhome’s building design, they were locked into a single plate with staggered stud construction. According to Garren, “This configuration makes it very tough to get to an STC 50,” and, in searching for a better solution, he found QuietRock soundproofing drywall.
Pinn Brothers “were using resilient channel before QuietRock, and everything we touched failed,” recounts Garren. “We no longer wanted to use the resilient channel in our walls. Because it is so easily compromised… it just doesn’t make sense. And in the field, if something can be compromised, it will be.”
STC 60 and Counting
At Palasage, Pinn Brothers installed one layer of QuietRock 525 acoustic drywall on each side of the party walls. When they did the field test, they achieved an STC in the 60s and “that shocked everyone, especially with a single plate, staggered stud wall.”
More importantly, Garren says, “A high percentage of the homeowners, to this day, still comment on how quiet those units are.”
Garren and the team at Pinn Brothers were so happy with the results of QuietRock 525 at Palasage Townhomes that they were one of the first major builders to embrace the full suite of Serious Materials Acoustical Products for their future projects. These products helped provide a more comprehensive approach to acoustic design and delivered overall superior results.
Pinn Brothers chose Serious Materials’ soundproofing drywall and other acoustical products to achieve noise control at other properties, including: Tralee Townhomes and Silvera Ranch Villas, both in Dublin, California. Pinn Brothers used QuietRock 525, one layer on each side of the walls, and high-STC QuietWindows 500 with QuietGlass throughout both projects.
While already sold on QuietRock, Garren had no previous experience using SeriousWindows with QuietGlass, and found it a pleasant surprise. “In a multi-family environment they made a huge difference. They really are quieter.”
At Tralee Townhomes, they even installed a specially designed floor/ceiling assembly using QuietRock and QuietWood to substantially reduce the annoying “tap-tap” of high-heel noise from above. Garren was also new to the QuietWood acoustical floor/ceiling system. He recounts, “before QuietWood floor/ceiling, we did the same thing people always did. We used lightweight concrete which is a nightmarish mess. Then we put resilient channel on the bottom of the joist, similar to a wall system.”
Easy, Reliable and Cost-Effective
These days, Garren and Pinn Brothers know how to design for optimum acoustic performance from the very beginning of a condominium or townhome project.
Using QuietRock products has saved Pinn Brothers a lot of money, because, as Garren says, “We are not getting sued… and the people that live in our homes remark at how totally quiet they are… every one of them.”
The risk of getting sued is a serious trade-off. When asked about the cost of defending law suits if housing units do not perform to acoustic standards, Garren states, “I hate to even think about it, I mean, the cost is staggering. I’d say maybe 20 times more than doing it right in the first place. It’s a situation I don’t want to be in, ever.”
“That is the value of using QuietRock, QuietWood and SeriousWindows with QuietGlass in our properties,” he adds. “Everyone is happy… including us.”
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