how to best sound attenuate noise in a shed

[Albert Lee]

Hi all

I will be moving to a new workshop in the near future.

below is the photo of the new workshop.


garage.jpg

what is the best way to sound attenuate the walls and the ceiling? sound attenuating batts and then sound attenuating plaster boards? or just heavy sheeting of MDF should be good enough to attenuate sound?

I know to attenuate sound you need thick and heavy material..

any ideas welcomed!

[Todd Burch]

Ah, a metal building. Good luck with that.

[James Tibbetts]

Are you trying to keep noise in or quiet the work area? Either way, high frequencies are easier to deal with than the lows.

[Albert Lee]

Ah, a metal building. Good luck with that.

yeah I know...

[Albert Lee]

just trying to keep the noise down so the neighbour wont complain. I think high frequency is the one most people concern about... would like to deal both of them at the same time if I can...

[James Tibbetts]

Plain old fiberglass insulation does a reasonably good job with highs. Without going over board I would say fg insulation and then something like Cellotex or some other fiber board under drywall would provide a good containment. As much fg in the ceiling as you can manage and call it good. You can search acoustic panels for a lot of information on the how and why that make the systems work. Tough project in that structure.

[marty shultz]

I've heard good things about Roxul.

[Brian Hale]

I used Roxul insulation and 4'x8'x1/2" homasote sheets for the enclosure of my cyclone and it dropped the noise from 97db to 69db at a 10' distance.

[Jay Park]

Using resilient channel or furring strips will help.

If you have the room double up on dry wall with a resilient channel in between to create an air gap. It's how double pane glass reduce noise.

Jay

[Jim Andrew]

When I was in college, they had practice rooms in the music department, lined with the same type material used for suspended ceilings. You could barely hear someone with a trumpet from the hallway. My nephew used the blue denim batts for sound insulation in his new house. Works very well. He has 5 kids.

[James Tibbetts]

If you are also concerned with climate control be aware that the sound deadening products won't help as insulation. Roxul for example has a R value of 0. Maybe the best compromise could be to stud out to 6" walls; add 6" fiberglass and then Celotex/Homasote.

[Rick Fisher]

That is a mistake .. Roxul has similar R Values as Fiberglas insulation.

[Matt burnham]

Using resilient channel or furring strips will help.

If you have the room double up on dry wall with a resilient channel in between to create an air gap. It's how double pane glass reduce noise.

Jay

This is really the best and cheapest way. Double up on 5/8 drywall and seal all the air gaps, and pink fiberglass in the studs. I did this when I built my basement home theater and I could crank up Saving Private Ryan and barely hear it in the kitchen directly above. If you really want to learn about noise reduction, check out the avsforum.com home theater build section. Those guys are serious about soundproofing.

[Dale Murray]

Its nice to save the neighbors from the noise but I would be concerned about saving myself too. If one could do both at the same time that would be great. Oh, wait. They can!

I am basing this knowledge off my personal experience with recording studios and a few books on acoustic engineering I have read.

Most of woodworking machines make high FQ noise and is relatively easy to deal with using many DIY solutions that can be found in recording studios. See link for example.

For fixed machines - router table, table saw, dust collector, air compressor, radial arm saw, band saw, etc - treat the surfaces as close to the machine as reasonably possible.

Example, if the router table is in the corner then put a panel on each wall the make the corner as well as on the ceiling. These panels will absorb nearly 100% of first reflection noise. Absorbing this energy nearest the source means there is less scatter to deal with later AND there is less noise reaching your ears too. In this case you would be dealing with first reflection noise.

Looking at this graphic it would be much easier to treat the ceiling above the noise source (first reflection) than the entire room. http://www.espace-cubase.org/reverb1.gif

All noise reaches corners and are reflected back out, for this reason treating corners is some of the best bang for the buck. Something as simple as this would make a MASSIVE difference: http://www.parttimeprojects.com/audi...ss%20Traps.jpg

A simple piece of unmasked fiberglass pipe insulation placed in the corners would make a huge difference. http://www.teresaudio.com/haven/traps/traps.html

As for making panels I mentioned earlier, something like this would do nicely. http://acousticsfreq.com/blog/?p=62

[Andrew DiLorenzo]

Consider used (recycled) drop ceiling panels if you can get them really cheap. Staple or nail to walls or ceiling where you can.