Treating a garage (only for band practice)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myriad_Rocker
  • Start date Start date
Myriad_Rocker

Myriad_Rocker

New member
How would you go about treating a garage for band practice only? Would you want to totally deaden the room? Also, it would have to be sound proof to an extent. Just enough so the neighbor couldn't hear it when they were in their home. It would be ok if you could slightly hear it standing outside the garage I suppose.
 
Firstly, what instruments are you wanting to sound insulate against?
 
Wow, that's tough.

Most garages (in my part of the country, anyway) don't even have insulation in the exterior walls, so the sound radiates right through them. Hopefully yours is insulated.

Let's assume your walls do have insulation. I don't know if you have the option of any major modifications, or if the garage needs to stay functional as a garage. The biggest sound leakage is going to be through the garage door(s) and any windows. I would probably buy some heavy moving blankets to hang over the doors and windows, and you can take these down when the band isn't practicing.

If you can carpet the floor, do so, with a reasonably thick carpet pad.

I have found that the reason bands get so loud in small spaces is that everyone is competing with the drummer. Muffling the drum kit will keep everyone else quieter. If that's not acceptable to the drummer, then you can build some sound isolation panels to put around the drum kit, and keep the noise down that way.

Good luck!
 
pandamonk said:
Firstly, what instruments are you wanting to sound insulate against?
Click to expand...
vocals, 2 guitars, bass, and drums


Zaphod B said:
Wow, that's tough.

Most garages (in my part of the country, anyway) don't even have insulation in the exterior walls, so the sound radiates right through them. Hopefully yours is insulated.

Let's assume your walls do have insulation. I don't know if you have the option of any major modifications, or if the garage needs to stay functional as a garage. The biggest sound leakage is going to be through the garage door(s) and any windows. I would probably buy some heavy moving blankets to hang over the doors and windows, and you can take these down when the band isn't practicing.

If you can carpet the floor, do so, with a reasonably thick carpet pad.

I have found that the reason bands get so loud in small spaces is that everyone is competing with the drummer. Muffling the drum kit will keep everyone else quieter. If that's not acceptable to the drummer, then you can build some sound isolation panels to put around the drum kit, and keep the noise down that way.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
It actually won't remain a functional garage. It's not my house actually. It's the drummer's place. He's turning the garage into a practice room. I doubt he'll want it too permanent. But he did mention carpeting and heat/air conditioning.

Yeah, the garage door is going to be the big problem. The other walls are insulated, though. I doubt we'll take the garage door out and close it in. I think it will be more of an insulate it or cover it type of thing. He's painting the garage this weekend. Not that that matters.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is NO such thing as "soundproof". Only variable ratings for sound transmission loss. And for your information, the best bang for the buck assembly for sound isolation is a
MASS-AIR- MASS TWO LEAF boundary. This is typically what a residential wall is. The ceiling/roof assembly is also a Two leaf assembly. What you need to understand here is MASS, decoupling, a hermetically sealed airgap and insulation are your friends. However, when I say Mass, I am refering to multiple layers of drywall, which can be used to beef up the EXTERIOR leaf by adding layers to the back side of this leaf BETWEEN the studs, and then decoupling the inner leaf via Resiliant channel or double wall framing. Ceilings can also be decoupled with RC, or Risc clip/hat channel assemblies. However, as usual, this is a project which requires a fairly hefty budget and time. No getting around it. PERIOD. Don't be fooled by half assed guesses and "net fact" solutions. The real fact is isolation is expensive, time consuming and takes understanding of the construction techniques that work. For a detailed look at this process, read this. You will understand then.
If you REALLY want to understand what you are up against, read the WHOLE thread. I'll warn you now though. Its over 30 pages long :eek:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&start=0&sid=a306170582f082effad58946b6e5e0c5
fitZ
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is NO such thing as "soundproof".
Click to expand...
I appreciate the reply and the info, I really do. But where did I say I wanted a totally "soundproof" room? I didn't. I just want to keep the neighbors from calling the cops. Like I said, if you can hear it right outside the garage, that's fine. As long as you can't hear it from inside the house next door. :D
 
You shouldn't have a problem getting the sound leakage down to that level. Unless the neighbors are total assholes, and there's not much you can do about that.

Except firebomb their house. ;)
 
So just what? Cover the garage door with carpet and whatever or what? What's the best way? Also, do we need to do anything to the existing insulated walls?
 
ritz gave you an answer. you need mass, then air, then mass again. you might want to investigate building a bunch of freestanding rigid fiberglass panels and lining the walls with them with a few inches between them and the wall. putting carpet in is a good idea or isolating the speakers/drums from the foundation.
 
Hang some heavy blankets or quilts over the garage doors and any windows. You can nail 'em on, hang 'em by rods, whatever suits your sense of aesthetics. ;) U-Haul will sell you moving blankets. Wouldn't that be attractive? :D

For carpet I would use either some indoor/outdoor carpet or Berber carpet. I take back what I said earlier about a carpet pad - it wouldn't help the sound leakage problem any, and a firm floor is better for moving around on.

As far as the walls go, there's not much that you can do cheaply to inhibit sound leakage. But you can reduce the reflectivity of the walls in various ways. One way would be to just glue carpet onto the walls, and maybe the ceiling too. (This wouldn't be acceptable for a studio, but you're talking about a band practice room.)
 
Oh, and Rick Fitzpatick and treymonfauntre are correct about what you need to do to really isolate the sound. I'm just giving you a quick / dirty / cheap / less effective solution.
 
treymonfauntre said:
ritz gave you an answer. you need mass, then air, then mass again. you might want to investigate building a bunch of freestanding rigid fiberglass panels and lining the walls with them with a few inches between them and the wall. putting carpet in is a good idea or isolating the speakers/drums from the foundation.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm looking for an inexpensive solution. I already have a location that I record at...this is merely for band practice. Just want to get it so that the neighbors can't hear it from in their house and also where there's not just a huge wall of sound when playing. Hope that makes sense.

Rigid fiberglass might be a decent solution but how much would that cost me? And where can I get it?
 
Rigid fiberglass is available in sheets from commercial home and business insulation companies, and from HVAC supply houses. You'd recognize it if you saw it - it's like fiberglass insulation, but more compressed, and it comes in sheets of, say, 4'X8'X1". It may be faced on one side (like, to use for making HVAC plenums and ducts, etc.). It's not very expensive.

Different specifications of the stuff have different sound absorption qualities. You can search this forum for more info.
 
How much can they hear now from in their house? If you don't know set everything up, and get the rest of the band to play while you go round to the neighbours and ask if you can listen to see how much they can hear. If you can hear a lot then you need to go with what Rick Fitzpatick said. If not then why do you need any? If not but you still want to try and cut down the noise even move, why not seal up any area where air can pass with caulk or silicone, or with a draft-excluding strip ie. round the garage door. This should be easily broken when use of the door is needed again. Saying this though, you will want to be able to breathe, so will need something for air circulation.
 
But where did I say I wanted a totally "soundproof" room? I didn't.
Click to expand...
Where did I tell you how to totally soundproof? :rolleyes: Apparently you didn't understand the term RATING. The problem here is YOU don't know what your noise floor is, what the transmission rating is of your existing structure, and how to define EXACTLY what it is you want in terms of a DB PROFILE at a given number of feet from your structure. 25 DB at 5'?? 30 db at 10'?? 20 db at 50'??? I tried to tell you, that to keep from WASTING your time and money, you need to do some reading. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. What you are expecting is someone here to tell you HOW to acheive only the level of transmission loss that you want but you can't even define it outdoors, let alone in your neighbors house. So, tell me, exactly how are we to define what you need to do? :confused: If I told you that 4 layers of drywall on double wall assemblys built on a risiliant isolater floated CONCRETE floor, double solid core doors, everything caulked with a Risc clip suspended cieling, after TRIPPLING the mass of the roof and exterior leafs, ONLY to get a 45 db gain in transmission loss, but your band plays at 110 db....what would you do? :(
fitZ
fitZ
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Where did I tell you how to totally soundproof? :rolleyes: Apparently you didn't understand the term RATING. The problem here is YOU don't know what your noise floor is, what the transmission rating is of your existing structure, and how to define EXACTLY what it is you want in terms of a DB PROFILE at a given number of feet from your structure. 25 DB at 5'?? 30 db at 10'?? 20 db at 50'??? I tried to tell you, that to keep from WASTING your time and money, you need to do some reading. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. What you are expecting is someone here to tell you HOW to acheive only the level of transmission loss that you want but you can't even define it outdoors, let alone in your neighbors house. So, tell me, exactly how are we to define what you need to do? :confused: If I told you that 4 layers of drywall on double wall assemblys built on a risiliant isolater floated CONCRETE floor, double solid core doors, everything caulked with a Risc clip suspended cieling, after TRIPPLING the mass of the roof and exterior leafs, ONLY to get a 45 db gain in transmission loss, but your band plays at 110 db....what would you do? :(
fitZ
fitZ
Click to expand...
I would say that I don't know what the hell you just said because I'm not the least bit experienced in this. I would also say that how am I supposed to read something (30 pages at that) I don't really understand anyway? I'm not a home builder...I'm not a builder of anything...except music. I apologize if I'm came off wrong but your post sounded like you were expecting that I wanted to totally soundproof the garage. Anyway...I'll keep poking around Google and whatever. Trying to find out if I can find a WORKING MAN'S solution to my issue. Since I don't have a house full of gold, I can't afford all this "room within a room" type of stuff.
 
Trying to find out if I can find a WORKING MAN'S solution to my issue.
Click to expand...
Hello again, and sorry too if I came off like a prick. But my point is this. There is NO working mans solution. Isolation construction is expensive period. Let me put it this way. IF, the garage had a layer of drywall on the inside, you could put up another layer. However, for every doubling of MASS, the MAXIMUM gain in transmission loss is ONLY 6db. But then you have the weak link syndrome. Doors, windows, poor mass exterior leaf, vents etc ALL have to be addressed or your work is in vain. You see Myridrocker, this stuff is NOT intuitive. Nor is it cheap. P E R I O D. There are NO cheap solutions. Sorry. This is why I was trying to open your eyes to reality before you waste time and money on "working mans" solutions. Sound transmission doesn't care about budgets.
fitZ :)
 
forget fiberglass for soundproofing. That's more of an acoustic treatment thang.

As stated before, you need mass, ideally with a bit of air between two flanks of mass. You also need to stop all air flow in to and out of the garage. Caulk like a fiend and be circumspect about your HVAC system. It can vent sound to the outside like nothing else.

Good luck.
 
to be honest, the easiest thing to do would be to muffle the drummer.

In this situation, all other instruments are not constrained to a set volume, like the drums are - if you can muffle his kit maybe with old bits of carpet then you will have gone a long way to keeping the neighbours happy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top