What mass loaded vinyl is
Mass loaded vinyl is a flexible sheet in which a mineral filler is loaded into a vinyl carrier to raise its density. The result stays limp and rollable, which matters acoustically, but weighs several times what a sheet of the same thickness would otherwise weigh. It is a barrier material: its job is to stop airborne sound passing from one space to another.
BlastBlock BB830, the grade held in stock in Bangkok, is nominally 5 kg/m² at about 3 mm. Quote the mass first and the thickness second. Mass is what blocks sound; thickness is packaging, and a buyer comparing 3 mm against 3 mm without looking at areal density is comparing the wrong number. A full 5 m² roll weighs about 25 kg.
The mass law, and why density is the number that matters
Sound transmission through a single limp panel is governed by the mass law: every doubling of mass per unit area buys roughly 6 dB more transmission loss, and transmission loss also rises with frequency at about the same rate per octave. Two consequences follow, and both are practical.
- Low frequencies are the hard part. Bass and machinery hum pass through a wall far more easily than speech, which is why a neighbour’s conversation becomes a mumble long before their subwoofer does.
- Doubling matters, not adding. Going from 5 kg/m² to 6 kg/m² is worth about 1.6 dB, which is close to inaudible. Real gains come from decoupling and cavity depth once mass alone runs out.
Transmission loss by frequency for BB830, according to the manufacturer’s datasheet, reference BB830/20/v2. These are laboratory values for the material alone; field performance in a finished wall is normally lower.
| Frequency (Hz) | BB830 at 1 mm | BB830 at 3 mm |
|---|---|---|
| 125 | 5 | 16 |
| 250 | 9 | 25 |
| 500 | 15 | 34 |
| 1000 | 21 | 36 |
| 2000 | 26 | 34 |
| 4000 | 34 | 45 |
MLV is not acoustic foam
This is the most common and the most expensive confusion in the subject, and it costs people money every week. Acoustics has two entirely separate problems. Blocking sound stops it travelling from one room to another. Absorbing sound reduces reverberation within a single room. The materials are different, the units are different, and neither substitutes for the other.
| Aspect | Barrier (MLV) | Absorber (foam, mineral wool facing) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Reduce sound reaching the next room | Reduce echo within the same room |
| Mechanism | Mass and density | Porosity and air friction |
| Measured by | STC, Rw, transmission loss | NRC, absorption coefficient α |
| Where it goes | Inside the wall, floor or ceiling build-up | On the exposed room surfaces |
| Fixes a noisy neighbour | Yes, if the wall is the path | No |
Where MLV is the wrong answer
MLV is oversold, and specifying it into the wrong problem wastes the budget that would have fixed it. These are the cases where we will tell you not to buy it.
- The wall is already heavy. A 150 mm concrete or dense masonry wall carries 250 to 400 kg/m². Adding 5 kg/m² to that is a rounding error. Spend the money on the door, the windows and the penetrations instead.
- The problem is footfall from the floor above. Impact noise travels through the structure. Mass on a wall does nothing for it, and mass on a ceiling helps only as part of an isolated, resiliently hung build-up. Treating the source floor is usually cheaper and works better.
- The problem is echo, harshness or poor speech intelligibility inside one room. That is absorption, not a barrier.
- The dominant path is a door, a window, an air-conditioning penetration or a duct. Fix the path that is actually carrying the sound before you add mass to the surface next to it.
- You cannot get access to seal the perimeter. An MLV layer that cannot be sealed at its edges will not deliver a result worth paying for.
- The target is very low frequency, below roughly 125 Hz. Mass alone is weak there. Cavity depth, decoupling and a double-leaf construction do the work; MLV contributes but will not carry the job on its own.
What STC the material carries, and what that does not tell you
The material alone is STC 32 at 3 mm and STC 19 at 1 mm, according to the manufacturer’s datasheet, reference BB830/20/v2. Both are laboratory values. Treat them as a way of comparing barrier materials against each other, not as a prediction of what a finished wall will achieve.
STC is a property of an assembly, not of a material. The same 3 mm sheet inside a single-stud partition and inside a double-stud partition with mineral wool produces very different results, because most of the performance comes from the construction around it. A double-stud assembly with mineral wool reaches up to STC 68 according to the manufacturer.
The grades, and what has to be bought with them
| Item | Use | Price |
|---|---|---|
| BB830 | Standard grade, nominally 5 kg/m² at about 3 mm | 1,122 /m² (1,049) |
| BB830FR | Where a fire requirement applies | 1,288 /m² (1,204) |
| BB830LF | Formulated for low-frequency work | 1,761 /m² (1,646) |
| BA890 sealant | Sealing perimeters, joints and penetrations | 321 /cartridge (300) |
| BA990 adhesive | Bonding the sheet to concrete, steel, timber or plasterboard | 428 /cartridge (400) |
| BA650 putty pad | Backing socket and switch boxes | 385 /pad (360) |
MLV is sold in whole 5 m² rolls only. A sheet without sealant is an incomplete system, and the sealant is the part that decides whether the rest of the spend was worth making.
Fire performance
BB830FR has been tested by an independent third party. Under AS/NZS 1530.3:1999, SGS report AJFTS26000525R01_EN dated 3 February 2026, it returned indices of 0/0/0/7 for ignitability, spread of flame, heat evolved and smoke developed, and none of the six specimens ignited. That is a laboratory result issued by a testing house, and it is the one figure on this site that does not depend on the manufacturer.
Who makes it
The compound is engineered in the Netherlands and manufactured in Asia. BlastBlock is a brand of BlastBlock BV, the Netherlands, which owns the trademark and the product specification. IAC Acoustics (Thailand) Co., Ltd. is the reseller of BlastBlock in Thailand. We are currently the only BlastBlock supplier in Southeast Asia. It is ordered from here or not at all, and stock is held in Bangkok.
The exact formulation is proprietary and is not disclosed, as with any specialist compound. What is published in full, without a registration form, is the datasheet and the independent fire test report, which is what a specifier can actually use.
Buying in Thailand
Stock is held in Bangkok and dispatched within one working day of cleared payment. Delivery is free nationwide on orders over THB 20,000 excluding VAT; below that it is THB 500 to Bangkok and the surrounding provinces and THB 900 upcountry. Delivery is within Thailand only.