sound proofing & wall re-modeling questions

I'm about to purchase a house in a few months.
Doesn't really matter which one, I'll be gutting the thing and remodeling everything.

The main thing I'm trying to find out, is how do I tell if a wall is needed
for support? I want to completely redo the room layout to my own liking
after I buy the house. So of course this is something I'd need to know how to do.

Should I just call a contractor as they will be the ones adding the new
framework anyway?

Or,

Should I do some history research on the thing, see who first build it etc.

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Sound proofing.
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Next, I want to have a fully sound proof home.

I don't want anything escaping the house unless a door is open.
(think, extremely loud bands or speakers playing a steady base line.)

#1
In my research I've found I'll need to install resilient beams.
I've watched some videos and seen some photos. One photo I saw
had what seemed to be a grid of resilient beams

Should I do a grid pattern? or is it really necessary?


#2
A bit of a problem I'm having on sound proofing,
is the fact that I don't want to have dry wall at all.
I found a company that makes something called N-Wall

But they are located fare away and I don't know if they would be willing to do
work in a residential home, or if the N-wall can even be used to do ceilings.


Anyone have some other ideas?

I may be willing to do a type of dry wall, the reason I don't want it
is because of growing up in a big house that ended up having some hidden
dry wall (water) damage. I've gotten a lot of sinus problems and dealt
(un-knowingly) with living in a house with black mold.
Completely horrified of the stuff now.

I also want a wall that's really durable, something you can put a nail thru,
but wont break if you punch it.

 

Sure sounds to me like you would be way better off having a home built instead of trying to make one do what your asking.
If a homes built right there will never be any mold issues unless there's a plumbing leak.
Drywall is not what caused the mold it was the leaking walls, windows and doors or vapor barriers done wrong.
If your having sinus trouble now how's that going to work out for you doing all that demo and dealing with all the fumes from painting?
Here's a good sound proofing 101 web site.
Soundproofing Products - Soundproof Walls, Ceilings, Floors, Bedrooms

 

Sinus issues are mild but large amounts of dust and or chemicals will mess with me. Every time I used to walk in the house with black mold, or do cleaning of any kind it would act up, sometimes even bleed. Don't get that now that I have moved out. hence me now relating it to the mold and being horrified of it. But ya I'll have plenty of gear on as well as a respirator.

I know dry wall it self did not cause the mold, but the mold was able to grow because of the dry wall. I don't want to have it in case of a leak of some kind. A toilet or something overflowing could do enough damage to start the mold growing. But thanks for the windows and doors tip I'll def make make sure to go over that with a fine tooth comb.

Thanks for the sound proofing site as well, look like they go threw a lot of options, just by looking at the main page I can tell some of them I havn't heard of.

I might end up doing some kind of water proofing to some heave think / durable dry wall.

 

Partition fire walls in townhouse/condos is 1" thick sheet rock. It is also meant to be a sound barrier in addition to fire barrier. They also make sound absorbing wall board such as this example. 440 Sound barrier Homasote Sound specs