Sound absorption in chimney flue

ShutMyNeighbourUp

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Hello!

I originally posted this in general chat but someone said I might get a better response here, the original more detailed post can be found here.

A shortened version of it is that the neighbours TV is hung on their chimney breast and as of about 6 weeks ago we can hear all the bass being amplified up the flue from 6pm to 10pm, and it's really starting to grind my gears. Can't talk to them about it either, the last time I went round to have a polite conversation about it I got the door slammed in my face. On our side of the chimney breast is a gas stove that was fitted last year, including a register plate and flue liner etc.

I spoke to the Sound Proofing Store who were great but unfortunately said that they don't think their systems/boards would help as the sound would still be amplifying up and down the chimney flue, which is the main problem. They did however suggest looking into the idea of filling the flue around the flue liner with Rockwool, around the same position as where the TV is, to try and absorb as much of the sound as possible as this could potentially give a better result than the boards. However as we have a gas stove fitted with register plate, I can't even access the flue from the living room as the register plate doesn't look removable and I don't want to break anything when trying!

Another potential solution I've come across while searching online is to backfill the entire chimney flue around the liner with Vermiculite. I've seen it mentioned on a few posts on here but haven't found anything about people doing it for acoustic purposes, only mentioning it for thermal insulating of the liner. Is this a viable option?

I've emailed the company that fit our stove to see if it's something they can advise on or help with but haven't had a response yet. Obviously with the current restrictions they couldn't come and do anything yet. I've spoken to a chimney sweep who knows about vermiculite but it isn't something he would install and he didn't even know what Rockwool is so couldn't help with that. I've also spoken to a roofer about it but he didn't have a clue about any of it so wouldn't be comfortable doing or advising on it.

I'm not sure who else to turn to really but any advice, suggestions, solutions, success or failures involving the above would be very welcome!
 
If it was me I'd start with something like Rockwool, if you can see up the Chinmney you can probably work out the areas. If its bass passing through the chimney then it's mass you need, if the chimney is working as an amplification funnel this should work very well. Even better if you can seal off at the bottom as well with some boarding. Be careful if the chimney needs ventilation. If so you might want to run a small 2" pipe up so air can still travel down

Bass generally needs mass to absorb the sound, and sealing any airflow from the Neighbours side will be essential too
 

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