12" x 12" acoustic tile in engine room

Does anyone know a source for this acoustic tile in my engine room? I would like to replace a number of missing and damaged tiles, without having to retile both entire engine rooms. I have searched on google and cannot find a vendor. It seems to be a common tile in 70's and 80's boat engine rooms.
Thanks

?? Have you tried the big box home repair stores?

SD

Greetings,
Mr. JC. I have been looking for a source for quite a long time as well. The problem is I'm a bit anal and the tiles available as Mr. SD suggests all have regular hole spacing which would just totally destroy the decor and ambiance of my ER and clash with the existing random hole pattern. I'm not even sure if my tiles are imperial (inches) or metric (mm) which would throw a whole NEW monkey wrench into re-decorating.

Try Silent Source (Classic Wood Fiber Perforated Acoustical Ceiling Tiles | Silent Source) - the stuff you're trying to replace was a CeloTex product. Celo is long gone. No idea as to pricing - the old school music guys down here like it for its sound in recording studios.

Greetings,
WOW Mr. 22, thanks so much. I'll file that link immediately. Now I just have to get out the measuring tape and do come cyphering...

These tiles are not asebestos. They have an X pattern vice the random pattern or the evenly space pattern. My Albin trawler had the same type type and I have seen it in Grand Banks trawlers. It must have been common in the Taiwan shipyards. Lowes and Home Depot have large Acoustic ceiling tile but not like these.

Greetings,
Mr. JC. You gave me a bit of a start there. I had to check pictures of my ER to make sure I didn't have the patterned tiles. I'm OK, just random holes but I've never seen any tiles like yours...

The tiles shown in jc's post are masonite - a heat/pressure treated wood fibre product.

Greetings,
Mr. 22. Are the tiles you refer to the same soft/crumbly like material as Mr. JC has? Sorry, that's the best way I can describe them.

When they're new they are reasonably cohesive and tough - similar to particle board - the tiles pictured are pretty typical after they've been exposed to moisture for long duration - like, say, the engine room on a boat. But, that's looking at years and years (maybe decades) of humidt/damp conditions. I've seen them in buildings where they have 30-40 years of use and are still coherent and usable.

I wonder if those old tiles meet the current flame spread index requirements ?

Greetings,
Mr. bp. Probably will meet as many modern standards as the rest of the 30 year old technology and equipment.

sbu22 said:

Try Silent Source (Classic Wood Fiber Perforated Acoustical Ceiling Tiles | Silent Source) - the stuff you're trying to replace was a CeloTex product. Celo is long gone. No idea as to pricing - the old school music guys down here like it for its sound in recording studios.

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jcwyatt, sbu22,

If you all purchase any of these panels, please let us know how they look and work out. I have a lot of areas of the ER that are missing or seriously damaged by RT's "soft / crumbly" disintegration from various abuse.

I suspect there are about a 1000 other boaters that would like a good source for similar tiles. Problem has been that most everything similar that I could find as a replacement was approaching 1" thick - the ER is way to small to lose any more space that way.

Thanks much.

At 64/carton, sounds like a good opportunity for someone to buy a batch, then sell them by the each qty. I need a few just like a lot of folks.

Times have changed , for real quiet (at a price) look to Soundown.

FF said:

Times have changed , for real quiet (at a price) look to Soundown.

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Yeah I was wondering if there is really an advantage to tiles of such material. Do they really do any sound proofing or are they just for looks.

The best sound proofing that I know of is lead.

I saw a diagram once that purported a 32nd of an inch of lead is equivalent to a wall 6 cinder blocks thick.

I would think something more acoustic to break up the sound waves like used in recording rooms egg crates come to mind.

I was also told that any holes will let the sound out. I was told to go in the engine room and turn off the lights. If you see any light coming in that is where the sound gets out.

There are lead panels on the market that would truly sound proof the ER.

Has anyone on the board done any sound proofing of the ER?

SD

tiles

How timely can you get for this topic. This weekend I was going to remove the tiles in the er due to their general worn an dirty appearance. I hadn't really considered the acoustic properties, I just wanted to clean up the place and possibly paint the tanks with anti-corrosion or sealer of some kind. But sound deadening makes a lot of sense. I can clean and paint and then put new tiles on. Are these glued on or is there adhesive backing?

• Soundown - peace and quiet for architectural, marine, & industrial ...
  
  
  
  

I would imagine any adhesive or mechanical fastener would work.
Just guessing I don't know for sure.

SD

Better products are available

jcwyatt,

The square tiles you show were put in during the 60s/70s and are the same type that people put on recreation room ceilings or gyms. They work very poorly because they are too thin and too light weight. They provide poor damping at high frequencies, and virtually no damping at low ones.

If you are going to all the trouble of replacing or adding sound conditioning to your engine room, I would suggest you look at some the newer products currently available. For example, there are panels you can buy for damping home theater rooms that are quite reasonably priced and easy to work with.

Sure there are. However, I'm not going to re-do my entire engine room when I need to replace 4 tiles. I just need something to match.

I just need something to match.

To match performance wise should be no problem,
to match esthetically may be impossible with out replacing everything.

jcwyatt said:

Does anyone know a source for this acoustic tile in my engine room? I would like to replace a number of missing and damaged tiles, without having to retile both entire engine rooms. I have searched on google and cannot find a vendor. It seems to be a common tile in 70's and 80's boat engine rooms.
Thanks

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Hi Jcwyatt, how did you find out that the tiles were not asbestos? Did you have them tested? I have the exact same ones on my 1978 41' Roughwater Trawler built in Taiwan (pictures attached)

Thanks

pmelo said:

Hi Jcwyatt, how did you find out that the tiles were not asbestos? Did you have them tested? I have the exact same ones on my 1978 41' Roughwater Trawler built in Taiwan (pictures attached)

Thanks

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Just an updated to my previous post:

I had a company (Safe Air Fast Environmental) come in and take samples of the tiles, insulation layers and varnish/paint on the wood and fortunately no traces of asbestos or lead were found!

My boat is a 1978 41' Roughwater Pilot House built in the Taiwan shipyards.

Thanks for taking the time. It’s nice to know considering how many of us own boats that were built in Taiwan during the 70s and 80s.

I realize many of these vessels were built outside of the US. Still if new when imported they may have to comply with US standards of the time.

Lead based paint was banned in the US in 1978

Asbestos as bad as it can be, isn't technically banned in totality in the US. (Surprised me) However it isn't likely you will find in products for the US either. Some states have banned it. It is regulated in the Clean Air Act of 1970. It is banned in many applications from a '76 legistaltion.


If you have a vessel built after '78 it is likely none of the real bad things will get you.


Regarding sound deadening, lots of advances have been made in sound and temperatures barriers. As stated above, why not just upgrade? You don't still have 30 to 50 year old electronics do you? You are not filling the crankcase with engine oil that was designed for a 1970 spec, correct? Or are you still using tar for bottom paint?

Hey RT, either of these should solve your problem!

Not knowing If I were removingold imported sound tiles from an engine room,

I would take the precaution of a particle mask and a coverall .

$20.00 is under 2 seconds of time on an operating table.

Stop procrastinating ....get that stuff removed bagged and tossed out. Clean spaces., Paint then map and measure pieces, cut and install Soundown .

I just bought a whole bunch more of these than I need. If anyone wants a few I'll make you a deal.

Do you have any tile left? I need a couple. Thanks, John