Partially soundproofing a garage!

You can buy resilient channel at Home Depot. It's not as good as the other things we've been discussing but if you have an open stud garage without existing drywall and you are going to put some fresh drywall up, it is better than any of the alternatives.

Carpet on the wall hiding behind something else won't do anything. People are confused between the high frequency absorption they hear next to a piece of carpet and "sound proofing". What you are going to hear outside is mostly the boom of the kick drum. And if you pad the death of the inside that's all you're going to hear in there as well.

What you need is something compliant that will give at low frequencies so that the soundwaves can be damped out by something inbetween the inner and outer walls. This is behind the cheapo trick of leaning drywall against the existing walls. The inner wall is basically unsupported and flexible. So the noise inside makes it vibrate easily. That is re-radiated by the otherside of the sheet into hopefully a bunch of fiberglass insulation that damps the sound level before it hits the normal walls of the structure. That's why I advised that if you're dead set on carpet (cheap nylon carpet also being bad news for fire) that hanging it away from the wall would at least make for a compliant surface with some damping. Stapling insulation to the wall behind it would be much more effective and cheaper than another layer of carpet. Drywall is also cheaper than carpet so you'd actually be money ahead by getting some steel studs from Home Depot (I think they're about $5 each, cheaper and more effective at soundproofing than wood 2x4s because of their floppyness) and putting up an isolated interior wall.

Again, go to the Gearslutz studio building forum. I believe Ted contributes there, as do several other professionals in the field. And you can read all the stories about people who thought they could save money by doing this or that (including some of the things you are talking about) only to find out that it would have been cheaper and actually result in a usable room to follow the advice of people who have been there and know what they're talking about.

Those who do learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
 
That's a good post.

As a side note: If using clips and channels instead of just (resilient) channels, you would add $40 for a 10 x 10 ceiling. Assuming all other factors were the same (insulation, drywall, damping) the difference would be profoundly improved for the $40.
 
Thanks for all the help and everything guys, but you dont seem to be getting the point. Im 18, I CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY EVERYTHING YOUR TELLING ME TO GET. I already have free carpet from my other house! I dont want a completely soundproof room, as i cannot afford it and am only living with the parents another year! I dont want to be drywalling/studding, also I live in the UK so a lot of these clips and suchlike arent really available!

Pretty much what i wanted to know was what harryconway said, im not after a proffesional studio, i have one neighbour whos rarely in. Just looking to take the edge of the noise. Nothing drastic like putting up new walls!

Cheers
Josh
 
Also, i dont have drywall, if you look at the photos i put up in the OP, you can see its just breezeblocks or something like that!
 
Just hang the available carpet and put a piece underneath your kit, at least the room will sound better to you. With spaces large enough underneath the garage doors to drive a truck through, the inside carpeting will do nothing to keep the sounds from exiting your room.

Dennis
 
I tried this, and while it didn't elimnate the sound completely, it definitely kept my neighbors from hearing too much, and was fairly affordable.

You can purchase accoustic ceiling tile, and affix it to the walls. It usually comes in an array of sizes, and you can cut it fairly easily. This will help to absorb a great deal of the sound and you'll still hear yourself. It is definitely a trial and error thing, as you'll want to figure out where best to hang the tiles on the walls, and add the carpet you already have in strategic locations. Putting the carpet under your set helps with floor reverb, but not the cymbals, at least what I found in my case.
 
Ted, thanks for the break down...really enjoyed reading that!
 
I've actually recently done this.

I've moved back to my dad's and he's let me have half of the garage.

Here's the catch, we have a standard UK size single garage so by the time he gave me the back half, I ended up with a very small space.

Anyway, we went and got some wood and plasterboard, oh and a roll of loft insulation. We built walls out of the plasterboard and wood and filled them with insulation along the back wall and the wall which our garage joins onto next door's. Then we did the side with our house attaching, and then the wall in the middle of the garage. This last one only goes across half way, the other half is hung to act as a giant door.

Plasterboard onto the roof joists (suspending would have lost too much height) followed by insulation on top in between the joists. On the concrete floor then is some simple MDF boards and a bit of off-cut carpet from Carpet Right.

Then I fabric taped all the gaps and joins and hung a heavy curtain infront of the back door (garden access) and double duvets everywhere else (including the ceiling).

That cut the sound down by about a half and only set me back £300? (I'm a university student, I have no money!)

I do have plans to buy foam for the walls and some bass traps, another £100 ish so actually it's not too bad. It stays cool inside, is about 2.5mx2.5m (enough room for a double bass kit, a shelving unit and still floor space) and just works.

As I said, not amazing, and it's LOUD inside (rifle range ear defenders work wonders btw) but I'm working on that.

Here's a pic actually, gives you an idea of the space:

563076_10151033522902337_820019377_n.jpg


To the right you see my shelving, to the left is the wall with the giant door we made, that one faces onto the front of the garage and out to the street. The kit as it faces pushes the bass drum into my neighbour's garage thus providing my house with reduced bass, and their house gets the garage as a buffer. I'm stood in the doorway from the garden so the space isn't too exaggerated in the image.
 
Cool, that sounds pretty good might get some of them to help then!

My new plan is continue to hang the carpets, but in a few months time when I have the money is as follows;

Buy some soundshield boards

http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/224657...e&utm_source=AskAndAnswer&utm_content=Default

and batons and fix these to the wall with a fibreglass insulation between the original wall and sound shield board.

how does this sound?

Cheers
Josh

In relation to my previous posts, that's pretty much what I used.
 
What higher region for band practice than your personal storage? Well, there’s one trouble with it - the neighbors.

Most of the time, the neighbors will not listen the clear sound however the drums, as their sound is the most complicated one to isolate.

As a part of a teenage band, I jammed loads. Then, the acquaintances began whining almost each unmarried time we started out our consultation. You could listen the doorbell within the middle of our music.

No doubt, it turned into virtually disturbing for each facets - us and them, so we started searching out a solution.

However, as every teenage rock band, we were quick with coins, so we wanted a cheap and fast technique to our troubles.

As back then there had been no advanced networks of articles like this, we began searching for the possible solutions within the books, asking our older ones, and even a few architects.

Basically, we tried a few mixtures of answers that you'll be familiar with, rapidly when you’ve examine this tale. And some of them worked!

Finally, inside the call of every single garage band out there that desires to specific themselves without fear and refraining in their acquaintances’ knocking at the door, I will attempt to point out a number of the perfect ways to cope with outgoing noise from your garage.

Since you are using your storage for band practice purposes simplest, you do not actually need a view.

Therefore, you could do some thing that you can't do in your own apartment, office, or similar.

First of all, you could brick your personal window.

In that case you may have more “wall” and less glass. And we have already learnt that tumbler leaks the sound very easily.

It is much less costly to brick it, than to attempt soundproofing it with different methods, and, of route, more green. That will give you the excellent soundproofing effects.

Secondly, you can add something that is known as the acoustic plug for windows.

This is similar to something that might represent an extra window.

Firstly, you want to take some measures of your window, after which reduce it to fitting dimensions.

This approach will make some thing like an air-seal as a way to capture some sound inside, and not let it leak out of doors of your storage that effortlessly.

Here is a awesome manual on making your very own window plugs.

Another excellent issue about this plug is that it's far without difficulty detachable.

Some blessings of this approach are that you can easily put it on right before your band exercise, and take them off once you have got completed your consultation for the day.
 
Bottom line with making a room soundproof is that you must block ALL air leaks. It just like making a boat waterproof. If there ANY leaks the boat will sink.

It is an expensive process and if you can’t afford to go all the way it will pretty much waste any money you spend on a partial fix.

There are two major ways sound leaks out ... either through the building and its walls and/or by direct coupling through the floor. The floor decoupling will help a fair amount and is not terribly expensive (well to get some relief). Take a look at any of the tennis ball -platform solutions you can find on google.
 
Hey. I have a situation either. My son just ask drums for Christmas and we know how much noise it can make. For us, with the wife, it isn't a problem, but we have neighbours downstairs, which I think are a little bit, how to say nicely... SHITHEADS :D So we thinking to make son's room soundproofing because it is right time to redo his room's interior. So the main question is, how you suggesting to soundproof oak flooring before we put them. I will wait any answer and help. Thank You very much
 
I am interested in this as well. I am in the process of finishing up our home build. I will have an unfinished basement with concrete walls. Its a big basement, and I will have it all to do whatever I want to do. The perfect thing would be to have a soundproof drum room. (not really worried about sound outside, but I have wife and babies....would be great to drum at any hour without anyone else in the house hearing anything) Is that possible? I currently have E-drums for that, but its just not the same!
 
Based on your budget I wouldn't do anything. Just play and have fun. :)
This is the kind of thing that if you don't go about it scientifically (and expensively) that you'll be chasing an impossible end.
There's no way around the room within a room method for significantly reducing sound sent to the outside.

Regarding the last post with the person with people living below them. There's really not a single thing you can do to make that any better.
 
Regarding the last post with the person with people living below them. There's really not a single thing you can do to make that any better.

Actually there is and it’s relatively inexpensive. You need to put your drums on a floated platform hopefully with a lot of mass. That will greatly reduce the “impact transmission” to the floor below. So while it doesn't reduce the SPL level much it will reduce the discomfort from the “pounding”.

There are lots of “tennis ball“ platforms on YouTube. The more mass of the platform the better. So using MDF will give better results than plywood. You will need to experiment with the number of tennis balls required. If you use too many the platform won’t ”float”, too few and it shorts out.
 
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