Cheap Soundproofing

[dejjazz]

hi guys,
i am a drummer and i was wondering if you guys could help me out with cheap sound proofing techniques.i live in kolkata, india and most of the sound proofing gadgets that some of you have discussed in this forum are not available here.hence, i would be obliged if any of you could help me out on this issue using day to day items to sound proof my room.the size of the room would be around 16 feet by 14 feet.

 

[knightfly]

dejjazz, can you give us an idea of what types of building materials ARE available in your area? Preferably those that are heavy and cheap at the same time? Some areas of the world, for example, have very cheap masonry products but wood or gypsum wallboard are expensive. Other places have adobe brick.

What you need is lots of mass, mainly; The other thing is, what kinds of insulation are available in your area; some types are good for soundproofing (as part of the total wall, NOT by themselves) and some types are NOT good for sound but work well for heat/cold insulation.

Look around your local building material sources and see what is available, let us know... Steve

 

[dejjazz]

thanx a ton nightfly for replying to my querry.

the building materials normally used here are bricks, cement, sand and plaster of paris.the walls are first built with bricks using a mixture of cement , sand and water, then a layer of plaster (using the same mixture ) is put on the walls over which another alyer of plaster of paris is put for finishing.

as far as insulation is concerned, we dont use any as this happens to be a tropical country hence insulation is redundant.

the building materials mentioned above are reasonably cheap and the walls in my room already have them.asbestos sheets are cheap.....but i dont know whether they are of any use or not. wood is very expensive.

 

[Leeking]

do you lives in a house or apartment?

unfortunately there's no CHEAP soundproofing no matter where in the world you are...

There's cheap room treatment, but not soundproofing....

 

[knightfly]

Bricks, mortar and plaster are all good sources of the mass we need for soundproof construction, but what about roofing?

For walls, you can build two brick walls about a foot apart and that will give you a good soundproof wall, especially if they are built each on its own concrete footing; this technique is referred to in acoustics as mass-air-mass construction, and works really well.

For a roof/ceiling, if you could build the same thing in steel reinforced concrete, you would have good results. All this construction needs to be tightly sealed, with double doors and double window glass.

Here is a basic drawing of what I'm talking about - this would also apply to the ceiling if you want a soundproof room; it too would need to be double, with the inner mass NOT in contact with the outer mass... Steve