Any hope in soundproofing a wall to block boiler noise?

I have an oil-fueled boiler, and it's somewhat loud (tuned up annually and I'm told it's operating fine, it's just loud).

In any case, it was never an issue but we recently had our basement finished, and now whenever the boiler is running, it's pretty annoying.

The boiler is in the utility room marked by the b. I was thinking of putting something like https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0894B4526 perhaps on the inside of the utility room wall (the side where the arrow is pointing). As an aside, that inside wall is just studs and the back of the drywall that's on the finished side. There is no insulation or drywall on the utility room side.

Would putting panels like that help? Or am I better off using something like rockwool between the studs, and/or adding drywall? And then maybe even the acoustic panels?

I was also thinking of possibly putting up a cheap room divider and wrapping it in something like https://www.homedepot.com/p/Xtrm-Ply...4-10/304268301 , and placing it in front of the boiler, around where the curved line is. Any thoughts if that might help? Or would the sound just go around it unless I really enclose the boiler? I believe they also sell acoustic room dividers, not sure if that might be better to put around the boiler.

Lastly, there is a door of course between utility room and finished space, so I'm not sure if I should possibly put panels or the vinyl roll on the inside of the door, which I believe is an inexpensive hollow door (or even perhaps drape the vinyl completely over the inside of the door so it covers all gaps). Or should I look into a more solid door as well?

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions.

 

Your wall is probably just resonating like a drum (diaphram) since it is pretty much a hollow wall. And the room is acting like the box that you build around a stereo speaker.

Nothing you do will make it sound "proof" but by adding mass and a variety of building materials, you should be able to dampen the noise and vibration. It's too late to dampen the drywall on the finished side, so if it's part of the problem (vibration) you would have to live with it. But within the wall cavity, dense insulation like Roxul (rock wool) would help. Then over the studs you could apply a sound barrier such as Homosote or even rigid foam, before adding drywall on the unfinished side. Resilient channel could also be used to hold the drywall off of the framing, (these steps reduce vibration from one component to the next) and 2 layers of 5/8 type X sheetrock would give you commercial motel-like mass on the walls to dampen sound. Green glue is a sound dampening product that can be used between the layers of drywall. And you could always add the green glue and 2nd layer of drywall on the finished side. 5/8 drywall simply has more mass than 1/2", so when installed properly, it's more effective at stopping sound.

And your hollow core door is the weak point. Replacing it with a solid door would be better and you could also add mass to the unfinished side of that door. The gap underneath the door could be stopped up with a threshold or sweep of some type.

Sound is basically vibrations at a variety of frequencies... low frequencies (bass) are pretty hard to dampen since they really vibrate the whole building. I doubt that any sort of barrier or curtain around the boiler would help much.

A second wall next to but seperate from the first wall is another method of sounddampening.

 

Awesome, thank you very much for the pointers/ideas. I'll research these various methods and try to figure out what I want to do.

Thank you again.

 

Keep in mind that your boiler needs a source of air for combustion and venting. If you seal the room to reduce the noise you will also eliminate openings (like under the door) that provide a path for air. If you do not already have one, you should install a minimum 4 inch metal or PVC duct (unless your boiler specs call for more air than that can provide) from outside the room (preferably from outside the house) to a location near the floor by the burner. A vent grille in an outside wall could also be used, but one on the inside wall would defeat the purpose of sound deadening and will draw heated air from the house.

 

Thanks. I was thinking about the air issue as well. I supposed I could have someone drill/install an air duct (as the utility room is also where both my front and rear exterior hose bibs are, as well as a front and side electrical outlet (so there are definitely places to easily drill to the outside). But that's above my pay grade so I'll check with my contractor on this.

Thank you again!