Soundproofing a garage for drums

[fulguros]

I want to soundproof my single brick skin garage for an office / drum practice room and wanted some advice.

I have read up on some of the basic ideas etc and I was wondering what ways there were of improving my current simple plan?

2"x2" or 3"x2" studwork fixed to the ceiling joists and not the outside wall and returned to meet the double glazed patio door.

Stud would have an air gap between itself and the brick outer wall of 1", 2"? I am not sure on this yet.

Acoustic quilt / rockwool or similar between the studs

Superquilt insulation taped around the whole room and sealed to prevent any draughts etc and 1" timber screwed onto this before the plasterboard to provide a service gap for electrics etc

Then 2 layers of overlapping soundchecked plasterboard.

Obviously I can not do a great deal with the door and I will get some sound leaking out through it but it does face down my garden straight into a wood if that is any help?

I am unsure of what to do with the ceiling yet as it is a cambered joist and plywood construction which is very pleasing to look at and that has a turf roof on top of it so I was thinking of seeing how the rest of the room sounded before doing anything to it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Deluks]

You will not need the superquilt, the double plasterboard layer will be draughtproof and the mineral wool will retain heat.
From your brickwork, space the internal studs 1" from the wall (fix the studs to the floor and ceiling, not the wall itself) rockwool between the studs, use at least 3" studs, 4" will be better. Then your PB, fix a continous sheet of polythene under your plasterboard, or use foil backed board as the first layer.

Fixing to the ceiling would provide a path to the outside (flanking sound) but a green roof may well provide enough damping.
Otherwise, something like this may be useful for connecting top plate of stud wall to the ceiling.

Where your door is, simply build another inwards opening door using a fire rated door that's well fitted.
Or did you mean the main garage door itself? If it's timber you can add a layer of ply or osb to it to increase the mass and seal gaps. If it's metal then it will be a weak spot and you should think about covering it or replacing it.

 

[fulguros]

Thanks for the reply!

The Superquilt is just an idea to get the insulation value better as I am going to have to use storage heaters or fan heaters to heat the room.

I forgot to mention that the door in my garage is an aluminium double glazed patio door (there will be a stud wall seperating the soundproof room from the main garage door). I could always look out for a sliding secondary glazed unit on ebay or something as a patio door doesn't leave many options.

The garage is a normal single garage with a vehicle door at one end, patio door the opposite end and I intend to stud one end so I have an end wall with the patio door, 2 side walls and a dividing wall about halfway along the garage.

Would it be better to have two stud walls with a gap in between as a dividing wall?

I will have a measure up in a few minutes and see how thick I could have the studs without losing too much space.

 

[^woody^]

I'm not sure that an insulated stud wall is going to be much use

You need to use dense materials, and isolation from the rest of the structure

Rockwool will be much better than superquilt, and rather than two layers of soundcheck plasterboard, a layer of acoustic board, fibreboard or MDF and then plasterboard may be better.

Surface treatments will be important too, so a cloth lining or even curtains to give an uneven surface will be a lot better than just smooth magnolia bare walls

The door and any window will be a weak point, so again thick curtains will help

 

[fulguros]

I'm not sure that an insulated stud wall is going to be much use

You need to use dense materials, and isolation from the rest of the structure

Rockwool will be much better than superquilt, and rather than two layers of soundcheck plasterboard, a layer of acoustic board, fibreboard or MDF and then plasterboard may be better.

Surface treatments will be important too, so a cloth lining or even curtains to give an uneven surface will be a lot better than just smooth magnolia bare walls

The door and any window will be a weak point, so again thick curtains will help

The superquilt was purely for thermal insulation and would be on the surface of the studs. I mentioned above that I would be using acoustic grade Rockwool or similar between the studs.
The Patio Door will also have some thick curtains covering them.

I am curious about using MDF, fibreboard or acoustic board and then plasterboard, would this be better then as I would go for that option if it was.

 

[Deluks]

You'll get three sheets of bog standard 12.5mm PB for the price of a sheet of 18mm MDF, just get a palletload of it and fix it with staggered joins. MDF/PLY/OSB are all viable alternatives but unless you get them for a bargain basement price then they will have very little (if any) benefit over plasterboard.

 

[fulguros]

I am still unsure what to do

Looks like I am definately going with a 2x3" stud 1" from the external brick skin and fastened by some method to the ceiling joists and not the external wall, I may be able to avoid fixing it to the floor and just have rubber dampers holding it up a bit.

Acoustic Insulation in the studs with superQuilt on the face side (For thernal insulation), battens on the face giving a 1" service space before adding some sort of face to the wall.

If 3 layers of plasterboard was sufficient then I would opt for that........bear in mind I want to deaden the sound from a drum kit

There is also that extra 1" gap where the battens will be behind the plasterboard which should aid the acoustic insulation in some way, shouldn't it?

 

[Deluks]

3 layers will be fine. Although any dampers you put under the wall may get so compressed under that weight, rendering them useless.

The issue with a service space is that you will need to cut holes in your wall which will let sound out, run it all surface if you can, in conduit or trunking.

Superquilt is expensive, acoustic insulation also makes very good heat insulation, you might as well just use 4" studs with 4" rockwool slabs in between.
Some insulated tilebacker board such as thermal aquapanel could be cut into 4" wide strips and fixed to the face of the studs before you plasterboard, if you are worried about thermal bridging, but I don't think it be a massive issue as your studs aren't touching the wall, plus you'll have more plasterboard than normal.