Featured Projects and Industry Solutions

Villas at Grand Del Mar

Location: San Diego, California

Building Type: Eight, two-story luxury villas

Specialty Contractor: Johnson, Barnes And Finch, Inc.

Project Executive: Scott Mcclure

Architect: Altevers Associates

Builder: Barratt American

Products: QuietRock 525 QuietSeal

Objectives: High quality units, with simpler, quicker build

On October 5, 2007, the Villas at Grand Del Mar held their grand opening. This secluded, high-end residential development features eight, two story, luxury villas located on The Grand Golf Club in San Diego. Scott McClure is a project executive at Johnson, Barnes and Finch, Inc., the specialty drywall company that installed the ceilings and walls in the villas.

“The builder for this development discovered QuietRock at IBS (the International Builders Show) in Orlando last year. He brought the information back to me and wanted to use it for this property. We have a lot of experience in attached, residential homes. Noise is a big concern for homeowners and the potential buyers. Having used QuietRock in other projects, I was confident it will solve the potential noise problems,” McClure said.

For the Villas at Grand Del Mar, McClure’s team constructed a double wood framed wall with a total of three layers of QuietRock 525 – two on one side and one on the other of each unit’s three demising walls. “Homeowners come in and want to understand how the wall between them and their neighbor will minimize the sound travel,” McClure explains. “These buyers don’t want to live the nightmare of hearing their neighbors, when they are investing millions of dollars on a luxury unit.” For other projects, McClure’s company has built a mock-up of the party wall between units, for display in the model homes.

Glad to Replace Other Techniques

Johnson, Barnes and Finch, Inc. is a specialty drywall contractor and they install whatever is specified in the architect’s drawings. McClure has experience with many methods, including soundboard, mass loaded vinyl, resilient channel, and multiple layers of standard drywall over a double wall. “The way a spec is written for RC states that the screw cannot penetrate the supporting member. It can only penetrate the RC, which as most builders know, is very difficult. Everything has to be perfect or there will be a breakdown in the effectiveness,” says McClure. Although McClure and his company do not make the final decision about which soundproofing products to use in a particular project, he says he recommends QuietRock whenever he can.

“A few years ago, if someone asked what they could put in their home to reduce the noise of the booming surround sound in their living room, I would’ve told them to strip off the drywall on one side of a wall and add insulation. I would then suggest they put a layer of soundboard or RC with another layer of drywall over it. Now, we tell people they can leave that wall up and just install a layer of QuietRock over it. This is good stuff and a more effective solution than the other techniques. I do get calls like this. Having used QuietRock and having seen the value in it, I recommend it, definitely.”

Less Labor = Lower Cost

McClure’s company specializes in large commercial and large multifamily buildings, so labor cost and project scheduling are high priorities. He adds, “It’s incredible the number of layers of regular drywall you have to use to achieve what you do with one layer of QuietRock. The Gypsum Association says that to reach an STC of 40-44 you need two layers of drywall on each side with insulation, and that’s optomistic.”

McClure continues, “If I have a one hour demising wall that requires an STC of 50, we need to put two layers of regular gypsum board on that particular wall to satisfy the rating requirements for fire, but that doesn’t handle the sound requirements. In this case we have to do additional work. If a demising wall requires an STC of 55, I have to use at least 4 layers of regular gypsum on each, but for fire, they only need a one hour wall. We are a labor-intensive trade and that is a lot of work and cost. With QuietRock, I can use one layer on each side and not only provide a one hour wall, but also satisfy the STC rating that’s on the spec.”

And according to McClure that is one advantage to QuietRock, particularly in sprinkler buildings where only a one hour demising wall is required.

“You only need one layer of QuietRock to achieve this, so it reduces the labor and materials involved with using two additional layers. We follow what the architect designs. If they are designing to an STC of 50 or 52, then they have that specified on the drawing. But, what we’ve seen with QuietRock is that you can reduce the amount of layers that you put on the wall, which in turn saves labor on our end. The less work we have to do offsets the additional cost of the material. QuietRock is definitely the lowest total cost for the builder and homeowner.” Another advantage that McClure points out is that the less labor a project requires, the faster the turnaround.

“It [QuietRock] definitely improves the project scheduling. We are doing half of what we normally do. Sure, there is an additional cost in the material, but QuietRock is a good product and there is a savings in labor and scheduling dollars as well as a reduction in builder liability after the project is complete.”

Conclusion

McClure believes that urban living and luxury condominiums are no longer just for retired couples, newlyweds, or vacation homes. He says they are also being built for families, with the consideration of children and how noisy they can be. New advancements in home theater technology are also considered. “I can only speak as a builder and about what we’ve done in the past. And I can only tell you about my experience with my customers and what their concerns are when they deliver units to the homeowners. Sound is a huge, huge issue. And QuietRock takes care of that.”