No one likes to listen to neighbors’ music, TV shows, or loud conversations. However, sound insulation wall materials can be very thick and expensive. Swedish scientists have developed a thinner, lower-cost alternative in the form of spring-loaded silencer screws.

The device is called the revolutionary sound-absorbing screw (or sound screw for short), created by a team at the University of Malmö, and led by senior lecturer Håkan Wernersson. It consists of a threaded part at the bottom, a coil spring in the middle and a flat head part at the top.

Insert the screws into the holes drilled through the drywall and into the wood posts below. Then turn it until its threaded part completely enters the woodj and its head is flush with the outer surface of the drywall. The spring creates a gap of several millimeters between the column and the bottom surface of the gypsum board.

When sound waves from neighboring houses then pass through the wooden posts and enter the sound screws of the walls, the flexible springs in the screws limit the transmission of vibrations into the drywall. As a result, people in the room hear less noise.

In laboratory tests involving traditional drywall panels, it is said that Sound Screws reduced the sound level through the wall by 9 decibels, which is about half of the perceived sound when using traditional screws. The technology also performed well when tested on the ceiling of a hair salon, and the existing standard screws were simply replaced with sound-level screws.

Wernersson told us that these screws are already listed in Sweden (through the spin-off company Akoustos) and his team is interested in licensing the technology to commercial partners in North America.

“The initial price of the screws is quite high, but the price of the sound insulation system is cheap,” he said. "The cost will decrease as the quantity increases."