Soundproofing the garage
Oh boy… about 7 years ago, I bought some monster ElectroVoice T-55 speakers and a crown k2 amp to drive them… I was planning on setting them up in the garage 
… and there I was looking at some bad ass bandsaws, too… before I drop a grand on a resawing solution, now is probably the right time to start thinking about a serious soundproofing effort first. New terminology: “STC” or Sound transmission coefficient. This is the industry measure of noise reduction. Higher is better.
- Art Ludwig has an interesting recount of his experience installing a listening room in his apparent 3 story house on the 3rd floor. My needs are different as I’m going to be on the ground floor in contact with the poured cement foundation. No need to soundproof the floor, but the walls and ceiling are going to need some work. Anyway, Go up one level on his site, oof.. this guy must be pretty serious about sound.
- Craig Mazin is a drummer who created a room within a room for his 3am-playing-drums-as-loud-as-I-can sessions with apparently “no one the wiser”… excellent tips on how he did it, but with — ouch — a $5,000 price tag.
- Woodweb has a short discussion thread with more evidence of the need for “room within a room” construction. Joy.
- DIY Net has a blurb advising more mass to the walls, in the form of more drywall, only they advise to run the seams of the new layer perpendicular to however the seams exist on the current layer of drywall to minimize sound leaks from them.
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Hello, nasty!
Acoustiblok® is a unique 1.1 lb. psf U.L. Classified, high S.T.C. reinforced dense noise isolating material which is utilized as a structural treatment for reducing sound transmission. It contains no lead or asbestos materials.It is specifically formulated to meet rigid requirements such that is approved by U.L. for walls, ceilings and floors (see U.L. classification), also U.K. tested “B.S. 476: part 7″. Acoustiblok® is typically applied as part of layered wall, ceiling or floor construction. It is usually stapled to wood studs or screwed to metal studs prior to drywall. Each layer of 16 oz Acoustiblok® reduces sound transmission by as much as 30 db depending on the frequencies (see “Riverbank Lab” test results below). It has more sound deadening effectiveness than some treatments with lead. A typical 2 x 4 gypsum stud wall is usually 33 to 35 STC. Acoustiblok® installed in the 2 x 4 wall is lab certified at an amazing “STC of 52″
STC 52, holy crap. I just emailed their sales department for a quote.
- Netwell has a list of semi- to very- industrial transmission loss products with referrals for distribution and installation, I suppose. Also, they have bass traps that look dead-simple to install in the corners. And that wicked looking super deep foam triangle junk. Although, that stuff is not fireproof by any stretch of the imagination, so… that’s probably out. There’s other sound absorption materials here.
So, I’m gonna have to wait to get back into our new place to take some photos of the garage and see what’s there structurally, and see what’s possible. We may already have double walls, I just don’t know yet.
