Soundproofing a Garage?

No_Where_Fast

No_Where_Fast

New member
Ok, I'm gonna build a soundproof room-within-a-room in my garage. I've seen two ways suggested to constuct the room:

Method 1:
WALL
ACOUSTIC WOOL
STUDWORK
RESILIENT BAR
P'BOARD*|SOUNDPROOFING MAT|P'BOARD*
e.g. method 1

Method 2:
WALL
<gap>
P'BOARD*
RESILIENT BAR
ACOUSTIC WOOL & STUDWORK
RESILIENT BAR
P'BOARD*

(*In the UK, we call Drywall, Plasterboard)

Does anyone have experience with either of these methods? If so, which produced the best soundproofing effect?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

My friend just got that foamy stuff that looks like it has little wedges coming out of it and put it al around is walls. and puta bunch of pillows on the walls then took a comforter over the pillows and hammered the comforte into the wall. You can barely hear a band practice from the outside.
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

One of the things I do for my day gig is design acoustical spaces. WAAAY too much to get into here.
PM me the details, and I can help you out. :)
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

Fiber-Optics said:
My friend just got that foamy stuff that looks like it has little wedges coming out of it and put it al around is walls. and puta bunch of pillows on the walls then took a comforter over the pillows and hammered the comforte into the wall. You can barely hear a band practice from the outside.
Click to expand...
This is not soundproofing, this is acoustical treatments.
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

Fiber-Optics said:
My friend just got that foamy stuff that looks like it has little wedges coming out of it and put it al around is walls. and puta bunch of pillows on the walls then took a comforter over the pillows and hammered the comforte into the wall. You can barely hear a band practice from the outside.
Click to expand...


Are you sure this isnt just due to the construction of the garage walls originally?, because from my experience this type of soft insulation doesnt reall work. I had layers of underlay, carpeting, foam and eggboxes in my garage, and there was not much of a difference at all in volume levels, you could still hear it loudly a very long way down the road, and this was at no-where near band practice volumes.

IMO if you want to do it you have to do it right, and the methods No_were_fast suggested would be far superior. On a very basic level i believe a good way to deaden sound levels is to have air gaps surrounded by density, So stud partitioned walls with rockwool for density completely encasing the inside would help.

I think the second method you originally described would perhaps be best, as it is essentially the same as method one but with an air gap, which i believe will help with the soundproofing.
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

Sounds like you already know what you're doing, but I soundproofed a couple rehearsal spaces once by buying a several dozen Uhaul blankets, nailed them to the wall with no gaps, then put fabric covered soundboard over it all. Looked pro, and you could barely hear bass or cymbals outside.
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

More like 30% or less. Cutting down sound coming in or going out is not easy. Short of building an isolated room inside your room it is hard to cut down noise to any significant degree. Using curtains and rugs etc will stop a lot of reflected noise in your room but only subdue any significant outside noise.
I've used those methods including sticking matresses in windows and having walls covered in absorbent non reflective materials. It's all done good things for the sound on the inside but never significantly stopped sound leaking in or out, especially loud sound.
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

Looking at tutorial videos on building isolation boxes, I was struck by the idea that a room should be, in theory, the outer shell of a large isolation box, and you should be able to simply expand on it from there with the layers.

However, with an isolation box, would the size of the box dictate the thickness of the layers? If that were the case, and we suppose a 4'x4' isolation box for a 2x12 cabinet would end up with about 1" thick walls, floor, and lid, and given a room that was say 12'x16', would the layers thus need to be 4" thick on all sides?

And though the original post about the garage is from 2005, I have to wonder if the fact it could still be heard further down the road was due to having the door open? :P
Or was the door not treated, which would have prevented it from opening (too heavy).
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

Quite a bit of almost-right info here.

GoldenVulture is right, soundproofing is about keeping air from escaping the room. And if you seal a room that tightly, breathing quickly becomes an issue. :)

It is estimated that 80% of the sound escpaing from a room is from windows and doors. Doubling the door entry, double glazing the windows, and weather proof seals will help. Lining the inside of your garage with high frequency absorption will only result in a terrible-sounding box.

That is why there are people whose job it is to design these sorts of spaces. My guess is that there is a much more fundamental issue: the size and shape of the space. You have to start there, plan carefully, and be willing to spend some real money. Otherwise you are doing more harm than good. Since you need air to breathe, ventilation is key. And once the room is quiet enough, the type of ventilation becomes critical because that then becomes the loudest thing in the room, adding to the room's noise floor, and making things worse, not better.
 
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Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

I like the isolation box theory

If I were going to do it
I would use 2x6 seals with 2x4 studs set alternately not contacting each other
Fiberglass insulation

Dry wall inside
Whatever on the outside
Just make sure as little sound vibration transfers from one side to the other
 
Re: Soundproofing a Garage?

ehdwuld said:
I like the isolation box theory

If I were going to do it
I would use 2x6 seals with 2x4 studs set alternately not contacting each other
Fiberglass insulation

Dry wall inside
Whatever on the outside
Just make sure as little sound vibration transfers from one side to the other
Click to expand...

Yeah, but then you also run into what TO brought up - no air. I didn't think about that. :lol:

Still, if you had a spare closet (or big enough to afford clothes and the cabinet in it, assuming it's not a combo), you could do it there.
 
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