Noisy Steam Pipes..

hello old friends! i have JUST moved into a new studio space. beautiful spot, set up so well with huge ceilings, i love it! we went through the ringer to get this place, and now i've got it. BUT, the first day i moved in, i realized the heating in the building is, STEAM PIPES... they never stop clinking and clanking and scraping, i'm starting to believe i got the worse space in the building for pipe noise.. so what do i do? my thoughts are to wrap them all up with the best QuietWrap i can find, then incase them in "metal stud/drywall/safe n sound" enclosures, building a kind of ledge. it's very annoying, but the space is still worth it if i can cut down the sound. any thoughts? anyone have experience with this kind of thing? thanks so much, sicksound

I'd say you're on the right track. That's exactly what I would do. For anything more detailed you'd have to include some kind of plan or sketch. Photos would be ideal. Also consider how they are mounted, and how they pass through walls - i.e. anything that can cause additional mechanical coupling to the structure you'll want to eliminate or at least try and minimize.

sicksound wrote:

my thoughts are to wrap them all up with the best QuietWrap i can find, then incase them in "metal stud/drywall/safe n sound" enclosures, building a kind of ledge.

Here's the thing about annoying sounds. They have to be treated at the spot of foul. Granted you can install the QuietWrap and get a supposed 50% reduction...basically this is MLV(mass loaded vinyl). But in order to stop the sound you may have to do this, and more. You would have to establish what you are willing to give up in real estate, if it is overhead or lining the wall, and design your area based on that. The assumption that a wrapped pipe can be reduced as it pertains to the generated sound levels that emit from it, is too closed minded in respect to how this effects the overall room. So with nothing more to work on, as Brian stated, I would consider a way to get the offending pipes out of the room, out of the air inbetween the double wall assembly(assuming one is actually in question) and find how to get the maximum amount of distance between you and it, it being the pipes.