Applying Green Glue with a speed loader

Part 26 — Designing and building a DIY home recording studio

The whole story — part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 23, part 24, part 25, part 26

Green Glue

Green Glue has proven to be one of the coolest building materials to work with in my studio build so far. It is unfortunately a little crazy expensive, but it seems to be an amazing material and hopefully it works exactly how it’s supposed to. I’m using it per the spec pictured below — between two layers of 5/8" sheetrock — and it absorbs low frequency energy that would have otherwise transferred directly through the walls.

The stuff is almost odorless and while it seems thin and almost runny when it’s being applied to the sheetrock, it actually retains its shape and is thick enough that it doesn’t run when the sheetrock is tipped vertically and being placed. It dries/cures over the next few weeks, but never hardens, so it creates an ultrathin rubbery layer between the two layers of drywall that pretty much kills any low frequency wall vibration. Kudos to whomever invented the stuff!

I’m using Green Glue between both the double layers of sheetrock on both walls. The solid sheet of Green Glue pictured in the diagram is only an artist’s rendition. Green Glue is actually applied in many beads which are roughly the diameter of a piece of licorice (like a Twizzler or Red Vine),

Power user trick

If you Green Glue at some point, here’s a cool little trick I learned. Green Glue is completely sticky and is almost impossible to get off your hands and clothes, BUT, if you use those latex coated string knit gloves, you can use the rubber side to easily manipulate and slide the Green Glue wherever you need to. For some wonderful reason it just doesn’t seem to stick to the rubber, so to get it off the glove, you simply scrape your finger against the Green Glue bucket or the sheetrock or whatever and it wipes right off.

Latex coated string knit work gloves are GREAT to use when working with Green Glue because Green Glue doesn’t stick to the latex.

Also, I discovered that a silicone kitchen spatula is an even more important tool and is a MUST for moving Green Glue around on the Sheetrock if you need to slide it around.

If the Green Glue is cleaned off the spatula the moment you are finished with it, it cleans off beautifully. If it’s left on, it becomes virtually impossible to remove and it will be better to just throw it away and start again with a new one. Rather than trying to clean it off once it dried I just kept using it here and there when needed. Eventually, the edge just had too much build up and wasn’t working very well anymore. so I did just throw it away and started with a new one.

I discovered I needed to use a spatula when I realized that I loaded Green Glue about 2 hours prematurely onto a board I wasn’t quite ready to be installed. I only had about 20 or so minutes before it would be too dry to use anymore, so I had to painstakingly scrape it all off and return it to the bucket. Again, the spatula worked amazingly well and saved the day, but it was very annoying and time consuming to remove it.

I almost have it all removed.

Bulk application

Green Glue is available in these larger caulk tubes, but my project was definitely over the 730 sq ft so I went with the 5 gallon buckets using a Speedload dispenser to apply it.

Green Glue is available in the larger individual caulk type tubes and also in 5 gallon buckets for lager installs. The buckets require a Speedload dispenser with is basically a monster syringe type gun. It is a specialty tool and cost about $60. I didn’t see them in any hardware stores so I bought it from Ted White at SoundProofingCompany.com along with the Green Glue.

It really turned out to be one of the coolest dispensing tools and really did make my job MUCH easier. Much better in my situation than using — one — tube — at — a — time.

5 gallon bucket of Green Glue and a Speedloader dispenser.

Cleaning the speed loader

So, In a few of my pictures you will see the speed loader resting in a 5-gal bucket. The bucket is partially filled with water and by placing the loader down in the water it prevents the glue from drying. The loader gets pretty gummy on the outside though and needs to be cleaned every once in a while. At first I wasn’t sure what would dissolve the Green Glue the best so I tried several things. As it turns out, nothing really removes it well, so there is a lot of scrubbing and lots of paper towels with solvents on them. Eventually though the loader cleans up almost good as new. Not sure if I’m going to need to ever use the loader again, but it really was worth the $60 or so dollars and the intermittent cleanup when it started getting all gummy, made it MUCH easier to use.

Placing the loaded Speed Loader into a partially filled bucket of water allows you to leave Green Glue in the loader — which can sit for longer periods of time without drying out. But the exterior and inner workings of the loader will become gummed up after a few rounds of this and the loader will become “sticky” and will be difficult to dispense properly. When this happens the loader must be completely disassembled, cleaned and put back together. A little shot of WD-40 (per the cleaning directions), works as a wonderful lubricant, allowing the loader to operate very smoothly.

The whole story — part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 23, part 24, part 25, part 26