Sound proofing a garage!
Does anyone have any experience to soundproofing a garage for band practice on a shoestring budget?
there are no windows in this garage, just a big metal folding door, and single skin of blockwork. I think the drums will be the loudest.
i thought about creating a room in the middle where essentially i have bed duvets hanging down from the rafters to create the walls, and lay insulation for the ceiling. would this help in reducing the volume?
there are no windows in this garage, just a big metal folding door, and single skin of blockwork. I think the drums will be the loudest.
i thought about creating a room in the middle where essentially i have bed duvets hanging down from the rafters to create the walls, and lay insulation for the ceiling. would this help in reducing the volume?
Comments
For one, clearly the door is going to be your primary suspect in sound getting out.
Second, the duvets thing isn't going to help. As others have proferred here, when soundproofing the idea is to absorb sound, not block it. So you have to plan your design and materials based on that idea.
That said...there's been several threads here on this topic. Use the search.
Is it your house or your parents? Typical suburban neighborhood? Been there long? neighbors Anal? Why do I ask you say? Ha... If it is your home and your not the 'new' family on the block/street. You can get away with more without being labeled an --- hole. if you still live at home folks have more of a tendency to tell the younger ones what they think, than they would if it was the home owner and his buds slammin a few and making noise... heck they might stop over for a few and listen in for a while.
You ain't gonna make it completely noiseless. Cinder block? good start, if you can access the holes possibly fill 'em with something for added density..... the door? wow lot of possiblities... I'll throw this out... maybe get some rubber matting 1/4 in. or better attach to the panels and then adhere some carpet over them... Agh, just a thought.. If no one chimes in do as shred mentioned do a search an see what others have suggested or done... Lets us know what you came up with and how it worked out! Good luck
The garage is detatched, id say 20 metres from our house, then about 30 meters from nearest house. Yeah typical suburban neighbourhood! allthough weve all lived there for same amount of time because its a new development..
the drums come tommorow, so ill let you know how i get on!
http://www.soundprooffoam.com/soundproofing.html?page_type=Soundproofing
Sound absorption= insulation / egg crate material on walls, carpeted walls and floors, not so much about bulk as it is to condition the room.
http://www.soundprooffoam.com/acoustic.html?page_type=Sound Absorption
To soundproof requires bulk material that does not let any noise in or out. For garages and practice areas a lot of guys use the thick vinyl soundproofing barrier material. Others build a room within a room so to speak. IOW, a set of walls within the existing space to trap the sound and minimize both outside and inside sound levels.
If you use just regular insulation material you will minimize higher freq but outside the garage it might sound like a massive subwoofer... that is, extending the low frequency outside the building area.
http://www.soundprooffoam.com/soft-sound-studio-pyramid.html
I got this site from guitar3456's link just to give you an example. I had to add this second layer because this first layer didn't absorb enough sound but now its superb and it doesn't even matter that it has windows (aircon.). This is a steel shed, not brick, so the sound gets out more. The pyramids are very efficient in sound absorption and do a great job - I've heard egg cartons work also. But it can get very expensive to do up a big room like this. But at least the whole band can fit in there fully set up and ya flat out hearing them outside.
I've seen others ideas work well such as using polystyrene boxes, old heavy carpet, heavy curtains - whatever thats thick and can be stuck on walls. Experimenting with what works is half the fun though
A guy I know works at a furniture/carpet store. He got a bunch of ripped out carpet from houses and stapled/nailed the old carpet to the walls, ceiling, floor, in the house where his band practices. He actually got paid to rip out the old carpet and install new, but I would imagine that you might be able to get old carpet for free if you make the right contacts. Better yet, you might be able to get paid for ripping out someone's old carpet and \"disposing\" the old carpet for them. Last time I got new carpet, it cost me money to dump it at the landfill. I bet you could get lots of old carpet for free if you ask around. Or, you might just be able to go to the landfill and ask if you could take some of the old carpet for your project.
Bottom line, old carpet provides some good soundproofing on a shoestring budget.
Carpet is good for sound absorption or more or less drying out the room reflective conditions. To use carpet, you'd need multiple layers or at least the thickest pile count to account for the density and mass as 1\" or so sound proofing vinyl and other options. Carpet also makes the room retain much more heat.
I've used that stuff in nurseries, offices, b-cast schools, pre schools and so on. Sometimes cinder block is plenty of mass but has serious reflective quality that you can hear a mile away.
There was a couple that had kids rooms above their master bedroom. The floors creaked and the noise kids made were distracting for the dad that worked 3d shift. Newer home and obviously not near the mass build of older homes. Noise level was awful. He put carpet on the ceiling to reduce the noise and insulation between the joists. He even ripped out the drywall to add that insulation. All it did was make the room HOT! Higher freq noises were blocked but walking and creeping of the floors was amplified since the carpet and insulation only trapped lf. He decided to use some of the sound proofing vinyl and there was little if any noise that came from the kids' room above their master bedroom.
I probably would have pulled the upper room carpet and laid the soundproofing material on that level floor, then the padding, then the carpet instead of adding to the lower mb room ceiling.
Worked out a studio once that was built into a 45' foothill. Now that's mass!
Steve378 wants soundproofing on a shoestring budget, I just offered what I thought was someone else's good idea. I don't imagine that old carpet can compare with the soundproofing foam, or vinyl, on quality. I was just suggesting a \"free\" alternative I had seen. But thanks for info on the downside of using old carpet. I was not aware of those effects.
Carpet remnants are not always a cheaper alternative. Actually, you'd be surprised these days what flooring co's zap you for remnants. Great suggestion btw! I just wanted to clarify sound proofing vs sound damping or lesser equivalents that can actually amplify low freq that can be even more annoying to neighbors.
We had shag carpet in our garage practice on the walls and rafters at our space years ago (my teens). We even carpeted the garage door. Still was cold in winters and deadly hot in the summers in NE Ohio. We made it work for us.
Still attracted large groups of teens at the end of the driveway by the sidewalks. Those gatherings are what invited the cops. Not to mention the really bad days of starting and stopping songs over and over, drums that sounded like trash cans made of up makeshift drum kit pieces and our massive wall of PA with about 36 car stereo speakers mounted to a 4x8 sheet of plywood! Yep, we had the little rascals kit!
We played with one drummer who had an expensive Yamaha digital drum kit. It was pretty cool how he could play hard on the kit like a live performance but actually turn the volume down for practice so we did not go deaf. Things get loud with the acoustic drums as we have to raise the guitars and vocals to mix with the drums in practice. When we practice without a drummer, the guitar and vocal volumes go way down. I actually prefer to have a quieter practice session as it allows us to concentrate more on hitting our vocals.
Fortunately for me, I live outside of town on a small lake. I have a nice music room and we can play as loud as we want anytime we want without disturbing the neighbors, who don't live very close to us. As long as my wife is not in bed trying to sleep, there is no problem. I don't know if Steve378 has this option, but maybe he could find a better venue for practice that would not require him to have to soundproof his space. That might be the quickest and cheapest solution to his noise problem.
The problem i think is that there is ventilation that runs all way round the eaves.. sound is escaping from there,and the door, rather than the thick blockwork..
so, weve decided to forget shoestring, and were going to partition half the garage off with 4by2, with plasterboard on both sides, with some sort of insulation material inside. Then create a ceiling below the eaves, with wood, plasterboard, and lay insulation on top, and may even carpet the interior...
Forget the shoe string, were building a boot! 8)
Wow as guitar3456 mentioned a room within a room 8)
Hey you know progress pics would be cool! Happy construction mate!
2x4's and drywall can* be cheaper than carpet (dep sq footage/pile type, remnant options).
Another advantage is it's not permanent. Depending on size, how you build it, it can come down full pieces in less than 8 hrs. The idea here is you frame, run wiring, insulate or use a barrier. Then when it comes to drywall, do not tape, mud and sand. Use 2\" wide 1/4\" thin strips of wood to cover the seams. Then you just use finishing nails or brads to secure that strip to the drywall.
When designing the layout leave at least 1.5 to 2\" of space to create an air gap between the ceiling and exterior walls. Do not secure to the existing building frame or it will vibrate and you will lose the isolation of a contained room. You can secure the framing to the concrete floor since that is plenty of mass and will not vibrate.
It looks great too. This method also allows many options:
You can get really cool and run line or mic wires to the studs and terminate XLR's, 1/4\"jacks on the walls. Not so many wires on the floor!! If you had enough ceiling height, you could even make a floor riser and run all cables underneath like you see in sanctuaries, auditorium stages and quite a few clubs use that method instead of snakes. Terminating those lines and soldering XLR and line jacks will probably be a little overboard for some, and that does / will take more time than framing, mounting and securing the drywall.
That's getting crazy I know, but just one the advantages you have for additional options later. Cool thing is, with the drywall being attached without the sanding and taping, you can always change things down the road and turn it into a small studio, rec room, retreat!