Soundproofing Summer House

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mcald123

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Hey,

I'm new here so sorry if this is in the wrong place. I was wondering what would be the most effective method to soundproof my summer house. The building is at the end of my garden and is about 20 by 15 ft however is made out of wood, so sound leaks out of it like crazy. I'm only 15 years old so it preferably needs to be a relatively cheap method.

I was also wondering would it be cheaper to section the building off so that i only needed to soundproof a smaller area, although it would still have to fit a drum kit, amps and room for 4 players to play at once.

Thanks
Mason
 
Now is this to sound proof the building from sound coming in so as you can have a good recording or from sound escaping the building hence really ticking your neighbors off ?



:cool:
 
its to stop sound escaping the building in ticking the neighbours off
 
mcald,

There's already an enormous amount of info on s/proofing in this studio design forum, just use the search function...........please.

First thing to understand is that sound proofing and acoustic treatment are two different things and that there's no cheap way to achieve effective s/proofing. You need mass and plenty of it, especially to tame the low end frequencies.

:cool:
 
There is no way you're going to be able to soundproof that room "cheaply".

Sorry. :(
 
ausrock said:
mcald,

There's already an enormous amount of info on s/proofing in this studio design forum, just use the search function...........please.

First thing to understand is that sound proofing and acoustic treatment are two different things and that there's no cheap way to achieve effective s/proofing. You need mass and plenty of it, especially to tame the low end frequencies.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Ok I wil do a search.

It doesn't need to be completely soundproof as the house is down the end of my garden but it does need to be quieter.
 
also i was thinking of possibly sectioning of a smaller area of the summer house, so a smaller area would need to be soundproofed. Do you reckon that would work out cheaper?
 
Yes if you went into the basement of the house, most of your problems would be solved ...for you would only really need to sound proof the ceiling if your basement is under ground level.



:cool:
 
We don't have a basement. The summer house is down the end of my garden so it's ideal.
 
There is no easy solution. You can build a decoupled room inside of your summer house with it's own walls and ceiling. Try to use 5/8 fire rate sheetrock. This will still cost a couple grand probably.
 
thanks for the help.

If i build inside the summer house i will probably make the room a lot smaller to cut costs. I take it the main foundations of the room will have to be built with drywall, then you add soundproof foam/mats? Also, I've read things such as building the room on a level, something to do with the sound on the floor, but what do i know. It doesn't need to be completely soundproof.

Thanks for all the help
 
Well I would not put a dime into this until I got a complaint from the neighbors!
Just jam out, but be careful of noise ordinances like no loud noises after 9PM and you should be fine and before you know it summer will be over and you'll be back to your winter house....to antagonize those neighbors! :D



:cool:
 
sorry I haven't made it clear at all about what I mean by 'Summer House'. It is basically just a huge wooden shed built at the end of my garden with a concrete base. I used to use it for playing pool/watching tv/social parties etc. However it seemed ideal for my band to rehearse there. So on saturday We setup drum kits/ amps and rocked out for the day. Now although when the neighbours were inside there house it would of been almost inaudible. When they were outside it could be heard. Now they weren't annoyed with this one off but if it became a regular thing it would be a real nuisance for them. Despite the name 'summer house' i plan to use this all year round for rehearsal so investing in something to keep the noise down a bit seems worth while. My neighbours are generally easygoing people and wouldn't mind a bit of noise leakage especially considering it is a long way down to the end of my garden. I think the best idea would to, section off part of the summer house with drywall, fit a heavy door to it. Then i take it you use foam or soundproof matting. I could then add sheets etc as time goes on for acoustic treatment although that isn't my main priority now.

Sorry about my complete lack of knowledge, i have tried to research into this idea, and sorry I didn't make myself too clear. Thanks for all the help. :)
 
First thing is to talk to the neighbors and arrange a practice schedule that won't annoy them. Do this before you practice any more! If you've already pissed them off it's going to be impossible to get them to be reasonable. If you make arrangements before hand they will more than likely will be cool with it. You might be done right there.

The other posters are right soundproofing is EXPENSIVE! There are a few things you can do to tame a it a bit, if your neighbors are cool it may be all you need.


Look for weak spots in the structure that may be "leaking" sound. Think about it as if you are going to fill the room with water, where would the water leak out? Cracks in windows, gaps under doors, ventilation and the like. Plug that stuff up. Are the windows super thin and cheap? Add some super thick curtains or board them up.

At my brothers place we were having some serious problems keeping the sound down outside. After a little investigation we found a half inch gap between parts of the sliding glass door and the wall as well as a window that wasn't closing properly. We boarded up the window and re-caulked around the slider and the difference was HUGE.

The room I'm talking about is a concrete basement with 3 sides underground so we had a much better situation to start out with. The key for us though was to talk to his neighbor we even got him involved as we made changes we played and had him listen from his living room to see if he could hear us.

Turns out dude is cool as hell and wouldn't have cared if we were playing in his backyard. He might have thought differently if we never asked if he cared though.


We play full on heavy metal LOUD at all hours of the night and never once have we had the cops show up.
 
Thanks for the advice. I will be sure to have a word with them as to what they will find acceptable tommorow.
 
It's my parents house but they've said i can use the summer house down the end of the garden for band practice and i can do what i want with it. I have read about using reflective sheets round the drums to mute the sound etc. But i get the general impression that these don't work. I'm not looking for complete sound isolation but i just need to get it down enough that it isn't a total ear sore.
 
The only way to cut down on the noise escaping the shed is to add sheet rock to the inside of the structure, and even that isn't going to do a whole lot of good. It'll help control higher frequency stuff (above 500Hz, let's say), but it'll do nothing at all below that. To get low frequency stuff under control you need to add a whole lot more mass than that. See these wall assemblies to get a handle on what you're up against.

Frank
 
Seem's as though the high end noise is the real problem anyway. Bass drum isn't nearly annoying to the neighbours as the distorted guitars.
 
If you have some money, and by some I mean like at least 1K. And you parents don't care what you do to the place, this is what I would do.

Get a bunch of 2X4's. Build a suitable size structure that's big enough to play in, but small enough to cut down on materials cost. Bolt down 2x4's to attach your wall frames to, then frame out the walls taking care to add a door frame. Next, attach the roof rafters for your mini house inside a house. You can get away with 2X6 I think. Then, have a professional run some electrical outlets and lighting. Attach fire rated sheetrock to outside walls, insulate the walls and ceiling, and then sheetrock the inside. Caulk the uneven floor corners. Buy a solid door and weatherproof it.

This is probably the best bang for your buck. It will without a doubt cut most of the sound from escaping. But it will take a few guys, a few days, and at least 1k.
 
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