Sound Proofing

  • Thread starter Thread starter spanny
  • Start date Start date
spanny

spanny

Active member
So I bought a house a few months ago and we have bad practice in this loft space above my garage. Turns out one of my neighbors isnt a fan, and I cant reach a compromise with them to when we could squeeze in a couple hours to practice. So being on a musicians budget (small), any solutions to how I could go about this without having to sell a kidney to finance it?

The room is about 20x20 with high ceilings.
 
the best way would be to put up second walls with a few inches gap between them creating dead air space. carpet the floors foam on ceilings.

ive tried carpet n foam on walls it helps a very bit but its sound n if they are touching it still goes out..

Or just tell him to fuck off, you own house, im sure there is some sort of noise ordinance at a certain time.. I went thru this shit.lawnmowers n garbage trucks n neighbors parties dogs barking are all you defense...
Good Luck

ps electric drums n lowering everyones level also works... ya it sux
 
We spent a good bit of money putting in a new rehearsal room in the basement in our new house. We did double drywall, lots of insulation, sound panels, treated the corners and long story short...it sounds great but it is still loud upstairs. Bass frequencies are the hardest thing to deal with and not a lot can be done to "kill" them. A good e-kit may be the best and cheapest option for your honestly.
 
ppl are fucking assholes its not like ya practice for 24hrs a day its all about there selfish needs, i hate ppl...

i would still go to town hall n look into ordinance maybe you can just say fuck you to your neighbors....lets hope!
 
Real sound proofing would require building a room within a room, float ceilings, floors and double sheetrock the walls. You can use sound absorption and diffusion but it still will be loud...that stuff also isn't cheap but you could always do old carpet egg cartons ;)

Perhaps being up in a loft is louder to the outside world than it would be in the garage itself?

Sounds like a douche of a neighbor. Are there any city sound ordinances? Most places it is a certain db level after a certain time of day (past 10pm). If you're not breaking the laws then tell the guy to go pound sand....
 
cujo":9ulg8wvj said:
ppl are fucking assholes its not like ya practice for 24hrs a day its all about there selfish needs, i hate ppl...

i would still go to town hall n look into ordinance maybe you can just say fuck you to your neighbors....lets hope!
Click to expand...

Yea, my complaining neighbor turns out to be the mayor. And apparently evening trying to compromise to practicing 2 hours a week on a Saturday afternoon is too much to ask.

I also know what the noise ordinance is, which we stay within, but according to the cops, if they get a call (especially from the mayor), not much they can do other than tell us to stop. Or now which has been turning into tickets.
 
That sucks... to be honest, I'd move or rent another space.

PS: can't you send the police over HIS house for harassment ??
 
This will do the trick

Colt-45.jpg
 
Depending on how much your willing to spend is relative to sound proofing your 20x20 room. You say you have a musicians budget/small budget, you cant do this for $200. How handy are you? Can you hang sheetrock? Do you know how to insulate? If so, I think you can properly sound proof your room for less than a thousand dollars if you can do the labor yourself. You could tell your neighbors to fuck off, but your the only one that has to live near them as your band mates desert the practice space after every practice session. Rent a practice space and split the cost evenly amongst the band members. This will alleviate the sting of you absorbing the cost to modify your house to accommodate the band and satisfying your neighbors.

I wouldnt consider double layering sheetrock, it wont stop any frequencies from passing through the walls. Like mentioned above you need "dead space" to stop the frequencies. I would strip the existing sheet rock, insulate with rock wool, screw down some iso track, then drywall with QuietRock drywall panels. Remember, sound proofing is different than sound dampening. You would still want to treat the room for reflection.

I treated my current house where I practice with dampening blankets, this did help with the sound level, but consider I'm not playing much louder than a loud TV or vacuum cleaner.

Heres a good link describing the above sound proofing measures. Price out the materials, you can find everything online to get a good idea of what your in for to treat the room.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SLBU9fmfo
 
stefvorcide":1oqe03y4 said:
That sucks... to be honest, I'd move or rent another space.

PS: can't you send the police over HIS house for harassment ??
Click to expand...


Funny how much power a small town mayor can have on the local cops. Trust me, Ive tried all those options.

bhuard75 - Thanks for that, Im going to look more into that. My goal was to keep it around a grand if possible. Thats still a grand more than I want to spend because of my dick neighbor, but looks like it is what it is. Frustrating, only been there for a few months now... uggg....

I guess my word of advice is meet all your future neighbors before buying a house, ha!
 
There is no good cheap way to do it...I did a small 10x10 room in my house and it wasn't cheap.

Some of the best material is rockwool panels. ATS acoustics has the cheapest prices on it.
They absorb sound, most importantly bass. Other things you can do is to decouple ceillings/walls using soundproof clips and "hat channel", using Green glue and another sheet of drywall....which really works. Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) is an awesome sound proofer but it is very heavy and ultra expensive. If one could apply it to all walls of a room and the ceiling there would be very little sound leakage.

I would say look into some rockwool from ATS acoustics think you can get 6 4x2 sheets for about $50. to do a 20x20 room you would need a bunch of them.
 
I don't work in construction and am not a sound engineer, I did however build a room in my basement that kills enough of the noise that my wife can watch tv with just the stock small speakers and not turn it up full blast. I insulated the rafters and then put 2" pink insulation board over it. We built 2 walls, drywalled both sides with insulation in between. Then I "scientifically" glued the egg crate packing foam computer equipment is shipped in all over. We built a drum riser that lays on top of carpet underlayment and is filled with pink board. The floor is carpeted. It is almost sound dead over the drums.

When you are outside it sounds like a loud stereo is on in the basement, loud enough to hear but not loud enough to bother the neighbor whose house is 30' away.
 
Since your neighbor is being an unreasonable prick, I would look into your town's noise ordinance laws. I'm sure you're able to play music as long as it's not above a certain decibel level and not late at night (after 10 pm usually?)

BTW, some really good suggestions above, but look into those ordinances before spending a bunch on soundproofing. I wonder how much pull that dude has above the law?
 
room within a room is the only way to even get close.. bummer you gots neighbors like that
 
LP Freak":20uaxwiu said:
I work in construction and have built many movie theaters. This is what we use in the walls between the theaters. And yes double layer drywall will make a difference. You need to put the RC channel between the two layers though.

http://truesoundcontrol.com/products/RC ... MgodGiQAXw
Click to expand...
We used that but I still find it too loud outside of the room. I suppose I should have done different doors too but then we also have one vent in the room which will also help to carry sound frequencies.
 
Have you considered buying your neighbors earplugs? You get him the red, white & blue presidental set considering he is the mayor.
 
bhuard75":2t09s03l said:
Have you considered buying your neighbors earplugs? You get him the red, white & blue presidental set considering he is the mayor.
Click to expand...

We should contribute ' on the behalf of Rig-talk forum we are proud to offer* you sir, Mayor of assholetown this presidential earplugs kit ':D :lol: :LOL:


Edit: spelling
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top