Sound Proofing and insulating a workshop

[Peter Murphy]

G'Day Folks
Greetings from Melbourne AUSTRALIA
I'm in the process of converting a concrete slab, brick wall, tin skillion roof 2 car garage into a woodshop.
We have already done some substantial work to this end,
(construction of a 10 sm, mezzanine platform for timber storage,
construction of working height perimeter benches on 2 walls, framing for
an office/storeroom).
My major concern now, is how best to insulate and possibly soundproof the building (only if necessary with the latter).
I am a carpenter by trade, and so think i'm pretty useful at
construction, (some of the time anyway, that is i know enough to avoid
some trouble, sometimes).
I have also read a few forums threads on this and other forums about
soundproofing in particular, and been encouraged and engaged by the
inventiveness, of some people in attempting to address these dual
problems.
However like most folks my wallet has rat traps set on them by my
good wife, so getting a professional job done is not an option.
If anybody has any suggestions that i might be able to have a crack
at, especially those that might serve the dual purpose of insulation and
soundproofing, it would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Woodsy11

[Greg Peterson]

Welcome to the Creek, Peter.

For my two car garage shop conversion, I built two independent walls out of 2x4's, with a quarter inch space between them. Separate sole plates with the studs of the two wall staggered so they did not line up with the studs in the opposing wall. Insulated and covered the shop side with 1/2" sheet rock and the utility room side with 5/8" sheet rock.

Good luck.

[Anthony Smaldone]

G'Day woodsy.....
I took a trip to Australia in 94, best trip I ever went on!
Now to your problem, I sound proofed my basement shop and have some tips. There is a cotton insulation out there that is very good at sound proofing ( I didnt use it because i found out about it too late) Any insulation you use will be better than nothing. I looked into green glue on the studs but found it to be very expensive so what I did was cut 1/4" foam foundation insulation into 1" strips and stapled it to the studs. This insulation comes in 6" rolls that are 50' long....you can buy them at any home center. I screwed 1/2" sheet rock on to the foam covered studs and then did the process again ( stapled foam on the sheet rock and screwed another layer of sheetrock on top) This worked very well, when Im in the basement planing wood my wife and kids can hardly hear me.
Good Luck
Anthony

[Mark Duksta]

Hello Peter,

I went through the process of sound proofing a detached two car garage at my last house. I will tell you it's easier said than done. You have to break and path of vibration and plug any holes that sound might get through, the best way is what Greg did above. A room inside of a room.

I lined the studs with 1/8" thick rubber, then double sheet rocked the walls taking care that the joints were staggered. This helped a lot. The biggest problem was the double wide garage door. I painted it with a thick vibration deadening paint (McMaster) and insulated it. And I put a rubber gasket all around the edges.

After doing all that I would hardly call it "soundproof". I tried to do it the least costly way and found that to make it truly soundproof a lot more money would be needed. The room in a room would be the best way.

Good Luck.

Mark