Soundproofing a Garage

 

Acoustic Challenge

Producing good quality music for any band requires hours of practicing.   While the professionals have studios to work in, the amateur musicians are often left to retrofit their homes for band practice.   These are usually held in the garage or the basement of a home.   Our goal is to protect unhappy neighbors from loud music from garage band noise and provide good quality sound within your room.   We will address the Garage soundproofing treatment here, and invite you to visit our Basement section also.

 

Soundproofing Treatment
 

There are a series of steps you could take to develop an isolated room for sound control.   The number of steps you take for a soundproof  garage depends on the level of your sound problem, what is practical for your application, and what falls within your budget.    The primary ingredients here, as outlined in our Walls section of this Applications Guide, is to layer "density + disconnection" into your wall and ceiling assembly system.    Lining these common surfaces with the weight of dB-Bloc, and disconnecting your structure from inside the garage to out will help block airborne noise from escaping and force the structure borne vibrations to collapse inside your wall..   

You could also opt to line your common walls and garage door with the portable weight of sound control blankets, which would negate your need to finish off your surrounding walls with a material you can take with you if you move.    This is an ideal option for noisy garage bands on the go.   These soundproofing treatments will protect your neighbors from the garage band noise and loud drums.  The products used for soundproofing a band and producing garage noise control are listed in our Product Bin.

Acoustic Results

Depending on the degree of your garage sound insulation treatment and which set of options you apply, your new wall or ceiling assembly system could effectively drop the decibel level exposure for your neighbors from 3-12 dB.   These results are simulated at our Sound Chamber for your reference.   Results for soundproofing a garage band will vary greatly depending on several variables, including the quality of the installation, and the number of flanking paths where noise will escape.

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Start Smart:     Good Decision Making Will Save You Money

Making good decisions will save you time and money.   Nothing is more costly or pocketbook-draining than to discover that the wrong product, the wrong treatment, or the mis-installation of your order forces you to start over,  accept inferior results, or suffer from buyer's remorse.

To help avoid missteps and protect your investment, NetWell Noise Control
offers its famous, safe, and secure email course called StartSmart.   It is filled with valuable insider tips on saving money with your soundproofing treatment.   This popular teaching tool is your guide to a successful
soundproofing outcome.   The eCourse is free, and enjoyed by more than
90% of all new customers.

Sign up today and check your email for StartSmart!

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Sound barriers and bass traps are the key ingredients in keeping your neighbors happy.   Start by checking our Walls section of this Applications Guide and learning how to block noise from bleeding out through the walls and ceiling of your room.   dB-Bloc is the mass loaded vinyl that could be surface mounted along with a variety of framing techniques designed to float the inner wall of your garage out away from your structure.   This combination helps hold noises inside and forces structural vibrations to collapse inside your walls.

If you don't want to go to this extent, consider hanging QBV blankets against your walls.   These are portable sound barrier curtains that you can put up and take down as you wish.    The blankets are more costly per square foot, but much easier to simply free hang, requiring no additional building materials.   Custom cut to the cavity size you like.

Garage doors are the biggest culprit and there is no magic answer here.   We suggest you hang QBV blankets out infront of the door while you're playing, and store them when you're through.    Custom cut to fit the cavity size of your wall.   Treat the entire wall, not just the door.   Any "door only" treatments will let noise bleed out around the perimeter.  

With or without these barrier treatments, go thick with your foam panels.    3" thick Pyramids are the top selling product in our Product Bin.   2'x2' squares, cover 50% of the wall space if possible.    Also stack the CornerCut Base Traps in the 4 corners of your room.    Most of our garage band musician customers operate on tight budgets, making this treatment the most popular.

Build a platform for your drums and get them up and off the floor.   Fill the cavity of the platform with bags of sand to help deaden the transmission of noise down structurally into the floor and out of the room.   The ISOPacs are popular for enclosing the drums if this falls within your operating budget.