My Soundproofing Plan

[vegasdrummer]

I have read most everything I could find on here about soundproofing. This is what I plan to do, let me know if this sounds like it will work:

Keep in mind, I RENT this house. Can't do any major remodeling. I also am forced to do this in a 15' x 15' upstairs bedroom instead of a basement or garage.

I also don't really care about sound quality too much. I'm not recording, just rehearsing. I just don't want to get noise complaints from my neighbors.

I'm going to home depot, and getting enough dense fiber boards to cover the walls, twice. Staggering the creases, and covering the window as well with two layers. Do I have to screw these to the walls instead of nailing? I would assume nails wouldn't hold two layers of that stuff? How thick is it?

Then I plan on putting at least 1" - 2" of acoustic foam on top of that (however I've read that foam doesn't really do anything other than make it quieter *inside* the room, right?)

I live in a sub-division where the houses next to me are very close. Do you think I will be able to play drums and/or practice with a full band in this room without pissing anyone off?

Your expertise is much appreciated.

 

[prw]

Drum Iso

Two of the best products to use in sound proofing is Owen-Corning #703 1" fiberglass insulation and 5/8" sound deading board. Lowes or Home Depot should have the sound deading board. I think it is also known as Celatex. It is actually ground up paper (brown in color). Make all seams as air tight as possible. You will need to put it on the ceiling as well. Also, being up stairs, it will be very hard to keep the sound (especially drums) from being heard in the room below. Good luck.

 

[vegasdrummer]

Thanks. I'm not too concerned about hearing it in the house. It's outside the house that I'm concerned with.

So I should use the fiberglass insulation instead of the acoustic foam?

 

[longsoughtfor]

Vegas - I'd suggest you try this question on the "Studio Building and Display" group... you will get some great help.

The biggest thing to realize though is the difference between soundproofing and sound controlling. Proper soundproofing requires mass and isolation for example; building a room within a room and using heavy materials like sheetrock, MDF etc...

Sound control within a room can be achived with stuff like 703 insulation and other trapping and diffusion methods.

Cheers
Kevin.

 

[Todzilla]

Longsoughtfor is heading in the right direction.

Many folks get confused between soundproofing and acoustical treatment. Soundproofing is virutally impossible without structural modifications.