5 Ways to Hang Acoustic Foam
I’ve participated in several radio station builds over the years as well as building two studios for myself.
I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly ways to hang acoustic foam.
While there are options for leaving an air gap between your panels and walls, for this discussion we’ll focus on placing foam panels directly on the wall. Here are 5 examples of how and how not to hang that expensive foam.
1.
Direct From the Manufacturer.
For the first option I’m going to stick with the Auralex Studio Foam since that’s what I own but other manufacturers have adhesives/fasteners they sell with their foam products as well. Auralex recommends using Foamtak, Tubetak Pro, or Temp Tabs. From the Auralex site:
“The world’s best acoustic foam adhesives, guaranteed to keep your foam up for as long as you want it there and not to “eat” your foam. Also works great to attach various materials to each other during construction of your studio. Our adhesives apply easily and give a solid, permanent bond that actually improves the sound isolation of your construction. You don’t want to use Liquid Nails brand because its very manufacturer published a memo some time back advising that it not be used with acoustic foam due to possible chemical interactions that can cause the foam to disintegrate prematurely.”
I haven’t used any of these products but I know many people that have and have been satisfied with the results. I especially like the idea of the Temp Tabs for Studio Foam as it’s a temporary solution and allows you to move your panels around when needed. But all of these are expensive and there are cheaper options.
2.
Another alternative is construction adhesive from the local hardware store but that’s a bad choice as the excerpt from Auralex’s site mentions above. I worked with a client station that used the Liquid Nails brand to hang their foam despite my recommendation against it. Now I love Liquid Nails in the right application but this isn’t it. Why is it a bad idea?
As you can see there are a couple problems. This type of adhesive tears up the foam and that stuff is expensive! It also tears up the walls you attached it to so when it comes time to remove your panel you have to do sheet rock repair and repaint. Another potential problem is that some adhesives will actually eat away at acoustic foam. I always recommend checking with the foam panel manufacturer before using a 3rd party product.
3.
Your third option is to use a 3rd party spray adhesive. I’ve had mixed success with 3m’s Super 77 spray adhesive. As you can see in the following photo it does a great job of holding this Sonex to my “portable” VO booth’s wood surface.
I built this box a few years ago and I’ve never had to reapply the adhesive.
On the other hand, at one radio station we used this spray adhesive to attach Sonex panels to sheetrock. After a few months they started coming down. Trust me, you don’t want to be respraying that stuff on your panels around all your expensive electronics.
So sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on what materials you are attaching.
You might consider testing any adhesive in an inconspicuous area with a small piece of foam first to make sure it’s suitable for the job. Actually, that’s good advice for lots of projects if you have the time, not just hanging foam.
4.
You can always use nails to hold your acoustic foam panels on the wall. Obviously they won’t let go so that’s a plus. But I don’t like to put the big holes in the wall. That’s just more stuff to repair later. And you’ve got the whole “I hit my thumb with the hammer and my thumbnail turned purple and is falling off” thing to explain to your friends.
5.
My personal favorite option is to use T pins:
You can find them just about anywhere that sells sewing supplies. I usually get mine at Wal-Mart. They are cheap and come in different lengths. The beauty of these little guys is that they leave small holes in the wall that are easily filled later. They “disappear” into the foam panels nicely so you don’t see the pins and they don’t damage your foam. Check the photo in the intro of this post. Those panels are held by two pins each. The “T” head holds the foam panels in place very well and it only takes two pins to hold up a 2′x4′ sheet. You can usually push them in by hand. They make it very easy to experiment and move your panels around for the best placement.
So there you have it. 5 ways to hang (or not hang) acoustic foam. Do you have another example of how or how not to do it? Leave a comment below. I always love to hear new ideas. I hope you found this information helpful.
Tags: Acoustic, acoustic foam, Adhesive, Auralex, fasteners, foam adhesives, foam panels, Foamtak, liquid nails, Sonex, spray, studio foam, T-Pins, Temp Tabs, Tubetak
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Radio, Voice Over. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:01 pm
HartVoiceOvers Blog – 5 Ways to Hang Acoustic Foam – How and How NOT to do it. http://www.hartvoiceovers.com/blog/2010/…
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March 3rd, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Good write up. Some of the panels we used in our new studios (MRN Radio) were fiberglass based but came with a pretty cool mounting plate that I am confident would work with acoustic foam as well. The plate mounted to the wall and provided several “metal spikes” that the panel is then pressed onto. It wouldn’t hold well if the panel was pulled away from the wall, but holds the vertical load well. Plus the best part is there is practically no damage to the panel, and the plate is mounted to the wall via screws which would be easy to patch if the panel ever had to be relocated.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Sweet. Those sound really awesome, I’ll have to look into them. Hope you are well my friend.
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:58 pm
@HartVoiceOvers great blog about foam hanging. Found it informative. I have two sided velcro on mine.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 8:43 pm
@radioyoj Thanks for reading. 2 sided velcro. That’s a good one!
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March 15th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I bought some Sonex (on e bay, of all places) and then used Auralex spray foam to mount it to frames made from 2 X 2′s. I attached the frames to the walls using hooks and eyes. This way, there is a gap between the foam and the wall, and they do double duty as sound absorbers and bass traps.
March 16th, 2010 at 5:08 am
Greg, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing.
I found a bunch of Auralex on Craigslist when I lived in Raleigh. It was in like new condition (still is) and I paid about half price for it. I love Ebay too.
I did something similar to your frames in my last studio but bigger. I used 1 x 6 frames and doubled up the Auralex so it was 4 inches thick- spaced 2 inches off the wall. I also used the same type frame and Auralex to put open bass traps in the corners.
It’s a great idea and in many situations can really improve the performance of your foam.
March 18th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Fellow VO pro, Bob Souer, pointed me your way, Greg.
Interesting blog and obviously thriving business. Congrats.
Keepin’ it simple here – nails. haha!
March 18th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Whoops! I typed in the wrong name! Geesch…sorry about that.. BRIAN!! Heading in for another cup of coffee!
March 18th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Deb,
No problem. I need more coffee too.
Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment. Nails work.
April 12th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Thanks for doing the leg work for us! I have used the Auralex Temp Tabs at $49.97 for 72 tabs, hoping it wouldn’t damage the wall. The product info says:
“You no longer need to commit to permanently placing your acoustic treatments or cleaning adhesive residue and chunks of your investment off of your walls.”
I guess one can’t have it both ways: foam firmly sticking to the wall and tabs that can be removed without leaving a mark. When I had to replace a few tabs, the outer layer of the wall paneling came off and left an ugly mark that can’t be repaired.
Secondly, be prepared to buy a lot of these tabs if you plan on covering an entire sound booth area.
I needed lots more of these velcro tabs, and I ended up going to the sewing notions department at Michaels and got a whole lot of velcro tabs at a fraction of the cost. Make sure you get the ones that are like stickers. Michaels also sells tabs that can be sewn on.
Just know that you can’t attach the velcro tabs directly to the foam. That’s where these orange/yellow colored plastic strips come in that you see in the picture. These get glued to the foam first. Wait at least 8 hours to make sure the glue has dried completely.
It should be fairly easy to make those plastic tabs yourself. The only thing one would need is glue to attach the plastic strips to the foam. I used Tubetak Pro and that’s only $8.99.
Once everything is on the wall, it stays in place nicely.