Sound Proofing My Room

[jpill]

I'm in the process of constructing a garage setup 16x20 and would like to sound proof the room using (Sound Board) or (Sound Deadening) insulation panels.

If you have worked with sound board or sound-deadening insulation i could really use your insight. !! any tips or opinions would be greatly appreciated !

 

[hellraizer30]

I to am looking into killing some sound so il post what my research turns up and il be checking to see what
You turn up

 

[WeeGogs]

dont know where you are but : you can buy sound proof plasterboard called soundbloc in uk. it is very cheap, i used 30 sheets of 8` x 4`
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=soundbloc&x=11&y=14
they must have it in usa too somewhere, you can buy rockwool soundproof insulation too. i built a room inside a bedroom using 1/2" soundblock plasterboard on top, inside, and outside of a 2" rough timber frame, i layed two layers on the floor too on top of each other (neighbours underneath and above), you must fill any gaps holes etc before you cover the walls in plastic, the decibel drop is absolutely amazing. there is a gap of about 18" away from 3 walls so i can maintain the window.
i built a door from 3/4" mdf two layers with one layer soundbloc in between, the door is smaller than the door frame and the frame is 8" above the floor, i laid thick plastic sheet on the floor 8" high and sealed the whole room. here is some pics.

picture 1 is the gap to the left when you enter original bedroom between original wall on the left and the grow room wall on the right, (the black squiggle is where i have hidden my new electric consumer unit behind black felt tip), picture 2 is the internal room door frame and you can see the 8" rise above the floor for flood prevention, picture 3 is the inside room door closed ( i have changed the locks to a sealing system), picture 4 is the bedroom door, picture 5 is to the right after picture 1 original wall on left, grow room on right, picture 6 is the door make up, you can just see the internal soundbloc layer between the mdf,as i have taped the edge with aluminium 2" tape, picture 7 is the door seal, ordinary stick on frame seal tripled, picture eight is between window box and internal room, 9 is hinge (x4), 10 is window box with fan intake flange with ducting slipped off so you can see the daylight shine in this set up is soundproof, believe me.

i can show you more pics of my soundproofed fans inside the room too. i will show you the amazing home made sealing locks i made for the door, when you lock it from the outside you can actually feel the pressure as the door is being pulled and the seal is being squeezed really tight between the frame and door, with 4 locks, 1 at top, 2 at right side, and 1 at bottom, 4 hinges on left side.
well soundproof enough for our needs, wink,
if its a rock band you want it for like the guy that posted below me, that can be done too, but at a serious cost.

this link was the result of an experiment to quieten church bells in english villages.
it will give you some great ideas about soundproofing materials to use, just scroll down to parts 4, 4.1 and 4.2 before you read it all.
http://www.odg.org.uk/pdf/leaflet_6.pdf

 

[rosecitypapa]

The effectiveness lies entirely on the details.

Best resource I've found on basic soundproofing:
http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/garage.htm

Read up before spending your cash. Some principals are commonsense, others not so much.

 

[lambofgod]

just throwing this out there....I'm sure its effective for this situation, although It's going to be more time consuming and the finished product wont look as nice.

go to your local diner, one that serves breakfast. Ask them to save all their egg carton flats. These are not the same egg cartons you buy in the store normally. The busier the restaurant is, the quicker you will accumulate the flats.

Double them up. glue em together. put them against every wall, with the little mounds(used to separate the eggs) facing inward to your grow room.

I used this same method for a home recording studio (I tripled them up though)

Rest assured this 100% works. I couldn't hear a mesa boogie triple rectifier ( a full stack guitar cabinet (8x12" speakers) )cranked all the way up being 20 feet away. We also used spray foam in every nook and cranny. Then just dry walled over the top...so it didn't look like shit.

 

[OregonMeds]

You could hang all kinds of layers of recycled cardboard and blankets from goodwill, until you have a layer so thick it's sound dead from outside, if you're broke, but then you'll have to worry about moisture or humidity getting under it or bugs etc. Or you could buy pro sound deadening wall material which is very expensive, and more about minimizing echo than just sound deadening for outside. Or you could see how they build a room within a room with a bit of air seperation for internal home theaters, where walls and floor and ceiling are acoustically isolated, and they use special doors even that would work best but is very very expensive.

If you're on a normal budget, and what I would do either way is just build your walls out to 2x6 if they are now 2x4 and and install the best/highest r value insulation you can find, then drywall it like a normal finished room so even if/ when you give up growing there it will have raised your property value and the usefulness of the room. And wall off the garage doors the same way with an insulated 2x6 wall and drywall, but keeping in mind you may want to rip that wall out later, so make the side walls where they won't be affected ripping that wall out.

Then the best thing of all is directly silencing your sources of noise using quieter fans, as in big fans on low speed with speed control are far quieter than small fans on high. Solar and palau fans are quieter than others for inline, just compare in stores, and also build hushboxes for all these noisy items like ballasts and inline fans and use insulated sound deadening ducting. There is nothing easier or cheaper to silence a room than starting with the sources of noise itself. Consider vertical cooltubes to keep air noise in check in addition to the other things I mentionl. Even your ballasts should be in ducted hushboxes.

There is no quick fix, but there is ONE easy way for insulation if you can afford it. There is that spray foam insulation you can have a contractor come in and spray, usually that's all they do is the spray, and it does work better than anything else. But is somewhat expensive and requires someone have access to your garage, you'd have to say you're making it into a bedroom or something is all. And really it still should be covered with drywall, but technically you don't have to though you'll still have to wall off the garage doors to have a place to spray that stuff on without permanently ruining the doors.

 

[WeeGogs]

egg carton flats are not used for sound proofing, they use them between two very thin sheets of timber to make a hollow door, and then seal it at the edges, it gives the door some strength when you push on the thin timber panel, the design of the egg carton is strong when you press down on it, exactly like the egg itself, try crushing an egg in your hand top to bottom, try laying a large sheet of egg carton flat on the floor, and then lay a large sheet of steel on top, and then an elephant on top of the steel, do you get my drift, it is not the shape of something when it comes to sound deadening, i built a sound proof room for a band, on the outside of the room you can watch through the 1" thick double glazed glass window and you cannot hear a sound in the street even with the drums getting played inches away. and there is not an egg carton in sight.
it actually looks weird from outside, you can see a band playing through a window 6` x 6`, guitars, drums, keyboards, vocals the lot, and you can not hear a whisper.

 

[WeeGogs]

some pics of my fans with acoustic 10" ducting and home made mdf fan boxes, the boxes are stuffed tight with old cotton rags, i am going to fill them with expanding foam later, and the fans are in line air cooled, the temp of the drawn air is the temp of the fan motor, cool, the room is still under construction in these pics though.
picture 1 shows the exhaust fan and carbon filter, 2 shows the inside of the exh fan before stuffing with old cotton rags, 3 is the accoustic ducting leading from the exh fan to outside the grow room, 4 is the acoustic ducting entering the groom it is attached to window box on outside, 5 is the inlet fan and you can see the acoustic ducting here, and the blue rubber that the fan boxes are hanging from (prevents vibro noise), 6 is to let you see it sealed to the home made fan box. this set up is very quiet, and even quieter when it is in the soundbloc room shown earlier.
dont listen to all the bullshit, use the sound board, once the garage door is shut you wont hear a thing, i promise.
if there is a door between your garage and your house you will have to put a layer of soundbloc on the garage side of the door too,. when you are on the other side in your house it will be the sound of silence.
i live in a block of very high flats, there are 130 flats in total, i am roughly on the middle floor, so you see why i needed quiet, when people are in bed above and below i only want them to hear their own noise. i have a brilliant set up too for dealing with heat and smell.
when i am finished i hope to have over 200 plants in the whole flat, with a 6 week turnover.
and yes i did have to carry 30 sheets of soundbloc plaster up in the elevator. not at once though, wink.

 

[hellraizer30]

Lots of great info here! Like the fan boxes to better to go right to the spot of the noise. I got alot of
Diy brain storming to do.

 

[lambofgod]

to each their own, but like I said.....I cant hear 8x 12" speakers with a mesa boogie tripple rec hooked up, on a dirty channel on 10, 20 feet away......and thats INCREDIBLY FUCKING LOUD!...much much louder then ANY grow room I've seen.

This was done in a 4x4 foot print. 5 1/2' high. 3 layers of egg cartons sandwiched between slabs of dry wall.

was made as a isolation cabinet for micing my cabs. You could literally walk by it cranked up and you'd think it was music coming from your buddy's headphones......from 115db+ down to whisper quite.

I'd be happy to let anyone come over to prove it.

 

[hellraizer30]

I believe you bro im taking all option

 

[WeeGogs]

Lots of great info here! Like the fan boxes to better to go right to the spot of the noise. I got alot of
Diy brain storming to do.

not just noise, but we have heat to deal with too, smells to get rid of, we have to make a room that contains everything.
we dont have to deal with your type of music noise, it is high frequency fan noise from the motor that is hard to hide, not the blowing sound from the fan props and ducting,
when you are beside a fan you cannot hear the high frequency noise, when you turn a corner in your home away from the fan you will hear it then. it is hard to hide. it is like a high pitch whiney sort of squealing sound and it wakes people up in the dead of night. and it does my fucking head in.
i dont hear it now, my neighbours dont hear it either.

 

[MoJobud]

This all depends on your budget, time and skill. I too have searched hours for the "best" soundproofing material or boards etc and found that the best bang for the buck is 5/8 drywall. You are better off having a double layer of drywall for $4-6 a sheet vs one sheet of a specific soundproof material that cost $10 a sheet.

I built a true free standing room inside my warehouse. drywall, insulation, drywall. AC, dehumid, fans, 8" canfan + filter and the loudest thing you hear in my space is the small pc fan inside the Quantum ballast placed outside on the roof of the room. Its that quiet. I do suggest to build your own muffler for an inline fan. Its super easy and will cost you $50.

 

[hellraizer30]

not just noise, but we have heat to deal with too, smells to get rid of, we have to make a room that contains everything.
we dont have to deal with your type of music noise, it is high frequency fan noise from the motor that is hard to hide, not the blowing sound from the fan props and ducting,
when you are beside a fan you cannot hear the high frequency noise, when you turn a corner in your home away from the fan you will hear it then. it is hard to hide. it is like a high pitch whiney sort of squealing sound and it wakes people up in the dead of night. and it does my fucking head in.
i dont hear it now, my neighbours dont hear it either.

I know all about noise runing x2 8 in vortex and One 12 vortex sound like being next to a f15

 

[WeeGogs]

I know all about noise runing x2 8 in vortex and One 12 vortex sound like being next to a f15

it is not about loud music and f15s, it is about HIGH FREQUENCY noise, read my lips, it wont happen, you must use either drywall itself or drywall soundbloc two layers with insulation as MoJobud has said.
so where did you buy this egg carton from, i will buy it and line a fan box with it, i will build an identical one and fill it with expanding foam, and i will check the results.
i have spare fans and 3/4" mdf.

 

[WeeGogs]

This all depends on your budget, time and skill. I too have searched hours for the "best" soundproofing material or boards etc and found that the best bang for the buck is 5/8 drywall. You are better off having a double layer of drywall for $4-6 a sheet vs one sheet of a specific soundproof material that cost $10 a sheet.

I built a true free standing room inside my warehouse. drywall, insulation, drywall. AC, dehumid, fans, 8" canfan + filter and the loudest thing you hear in my space is the small pc fan inside the Quantum ballast placed outside on the roof of the room. Its that quiet. I do suggest to build your own muffler for an inline fan. Its super easy and will cost you $50.

this is the perfect set up, have you got any pictures?.

 

[WeeGogs]

I know all about noise runing x2 8 in vortex and One 12 vortex sound like being next to a f15

then get on with it..

 

[UVRay]

to each their own, but like I said.....I cant hear 8x 12" speakers with a mesa boogie tripple rec hooked up, on a dirty channel on 10, 20 feet away......and thats INCREDIBLY FUCKING LOUD!...much much louder then ANY grow room I've seen.

This was done in a 4x4 foot print. 5 1/2' high. 3 layers of egg cartons sandwiched between slabs of dry wall.

was made as a isolation cabinet for micing my cabs. You could literally walk by it cranked up and you'd think it was music coming from your buddy's headphones......from 115db+ down to whisper quite..

I believe you bro! I've seen a few studios that were in bedrooms, basements, garages and a few commercial buildings too in my day and a few worked at killing sound while many didn't... I do know that the use of egg cartons sandwiched between sheetrock does work for sound reduction/suppression. I've seen it and heard/not heard it in person more than once. I know how loud a full stacked Mesa Triple is, As you can tell from my avatar, I'm more a Marshall guy but my son as well as a few former bandmates have had at one time or another a Triple Rectifier and they are a beast! They're louder than a100w Marshall for sure and those things driving a full stack of Vintage 30's mixed with some Greenbacks absolutely kill tone wise when cranked with one of my Les Pauls and if you can find a room big enough to dime it then maybe your ears won't bleed. It amazes me how much sound can be stopped in such a small thickness when done properly,.

Inside the studio, it's common to see those exposed egg crates covering the walls, doors and ceilings to kill ambient noise and kill any natural reverb or echo in the studio. If you simply have those egg crates on the wall exposed to the room, the room will be dead quiet acoustically from the inside but that alone won't soundproof it. You have to have something else, in your case sandwiched between to layers of decent sheet rock that are working. Those egg crates don't kill or attenuate sound by design, actually they reflect sound in almost all directions so it deadens the room to the occupants and the mikes.

 

[lambofgod]

@Weegogs, you say its not the shape when in comes to sound deadening, I understand this...but 90% acoustic foam comes with pits an valleys designed to reflect sound, the shape of the egg carton flats just covers the same idea.

@UVray, Ya I'm sorry but you cant beat the tone of a Mesa triple rec. Although Ive played through a mesa Mark V, and I can say it's a beast too. I also have a peavy 5150...the combo, I dont like the highs and was thinking of selling it on ebay along with a marshall jcm 800 combo. I love a LP, but I'm a jackson/Ibanez guy...always with the emg 81/85's...ya I play nothing but metal.

I had the chance to play a 65 gibson acoustic the other day....I walked in this cats house and he just has it sitting there on a stand.....I asked if he knew how much it was worth, said the last time he looked into it was something in the $8,900 area.....I told him to stick it in a case and stop letting it sit out...like committing heresy!

 

[WeeGogs]

yes, ok it works, if it was that good they wouldnt sell soundbloc plasterboard (drywall) why use sheets of sound deadening when you can just use a few egg trays,.
i dont see any egg trays on here do you, church bells can, and sometimes do, go through the 130db pain threshold.
check : http://www.odg.org.uk/pdf/leaflet_6.pdf