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Thread: Need help soundproofing a new garage shop

  1. #1
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    Need help soundproofing a new garage shop

    Am in the process of moving. The new shop will be in one bay of a three bay garage. After years of somewhat putting up with the noise from my basement shop, my wife wants this one soundproofed especially inasmuch as it's a to be built house. To settle on the final design I need to give the builder specs. I plan to have a wall built between the shop and the other two bays. I've been reading about soundproofing technology but wonder if anyone has had experience doing something like this and has some tips. Appreciate any suggestions. Cheers

  2. #2
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    No experiance with a shop (mine have all been detached) by decent amount of experiance with home theater and my HTs are a LOT louder than a shop. Start with a second layer of dryway with Green Glue and do your best to give as much distance from the worst offenders like DC from the living space. Also make sure your DC is decoupled from the living space, having it hard bolted to any wall especially a common wall with the living space if horrible.
    Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.

    Deep thought for the day:

    Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.

  3. #3
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    One thing sometimes used in a wall to help insulate sound is staggered stud construction. I built my sound-insulating closet for the cyclone and big air compressor with this method. You can look it up, but basically I built a wall as if I were using 2x6 studs but instead used 2x4 studs on 16" centers. Each alternate stud was fastened only to one wall, one on the inner wall, the next on the outer wall. This way no stud transmits sound from one side to the other. Insulation is threaded between the studs.

    Don't forget sound that can go up and over the wall and through ductwork. For an air return from my closet I built a duct with a number of 90deg turns and sprayed the inside with a coating to help baffle and absorb the sound.

    You could also search the ClearVue cyclone forum for experience people have with insulating materials. The 5hp cyclone sounds like a freight train in the open room. Outside my closet I can carry on a normal conversation and hear the radio.

    An architect with experience in building studios for recording and video might be worth consulting. A happy spouse is a wonderful thing.

    JKJ

  4. #4
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    If you want to be hardcore about it, you should insulate the walls and ceilings, use resilient channel on the walls and two layers of 5/8 drywall, and resilient channel with channel clips on the ceiling with 2 layers of drywall and green glue between the panels. Green glue doesn't work on walls apparently.

    For your entry door, use a solid core door with weather stripping.

    As Van said, don't attach your DC or any other machines to the walls. Don't attach benches to your framing, and don't do any sanding or hammer/chisel work on counter tops that are attached to the walls.

    The key principle is to isolate the interior surfaces from your framing. The vibrations will pass through the drywall into the studs and then into the surrounding rooms. Next most important is mass. Heavy drywall will not vibrate as much. After that is absorption for airborne sound waves (the insulation in the stud and joist cavities).

    And really really hardcore folks build a room within a room. But you give up a lot of space that way.

    It's a lot of work to do it right, so be patient and see it through. Happy wife, happy life!!!

  5. #5
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    2x6 stud walls, spray in foam insulation for walls and ceiling and double drywall. Don't wall mount tools or dust collector. Separate garage by closet or laundry room space. Should be quiet as can be.

  6. #6
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    We built our house and I wanted my shop to be in the garage for the same issues you had with a basement shop.
    Our garage is 3+1 and I separated the two with a wall; a 2 bay garage is for the cars and the other area for the shop which is closer to the house.
    The house has 5" spray foam on exterior walls. There is also OSB on the exterior of the house (including walls to garage). Then I put 5/8" drywall inside AND outside (over OSB) on all walls shared between the house and garage. It does a very good job of sound proofing to the extend that I can run my machines in the shop without people in the house noticing mostly; except when the shaper or planer are running (it can be heard but faintly).
    No complain from my wife anymore.

  7. #7
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    All of the info provided so far in this thread is spot on. Room-in-a-room is the best - gives you acoustic isolation between the spaces. Staggered studs, so the studs themselves can't transmit low frequency energy between rooms is a cheaper alternative to two separate walls. 'Airtight' is one of the key words here. One hole in one place (e.g. ducting) will completely eliminate the value of all your other efforts. If your third bay has an exterior garage door, that may be the weak part of whatever you do since the machine noise will go through that door and back into the adjacent house. Keep the weakest link in mind when you do your design and work on that. You can spend a million dollars isolating a room but if the door is open the million was wasted....
    Mark McFarlane

  8. #8
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    Thanks folks! All good ideas. Had not thought of the staggered 2x4 system for the wall separating the bays - or seen that tip elsewhere. The builder uses 2x6s in the exterior walls with foam and blown insulation. Not hanging cabinets on the wall is a bummer inasmuch as the 12x20 space is much smaller than I'm used to; have rethought storage and vowed to be more organized especially as I've promised myself a lathe upgrade as part of the move. Had planned to put the dust collector in the corner near the house but have now rearranged that too thanks to that tip. No ducts; will heat/cool with a Mitsubichi unit mounted to the outside wall. Really appreciate the time you guys took to consider the issue and give me the benefit of your experience. Cheers, Dave

  9. #9
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    For my compressor/dust collector closet I installed 2 doors, back to back. The doors are pre-hung, steel exterior doors, mounted with the jambs decoupled. Each door has a layer of 3/4" MDF screwed on with a layer of Green Glue and an additional set of good weather stripping. It is very effective.

  10. #10
    Menards is selling blue denim insulation for the purpose of sound deadening. My nephew used it in his new house to keep the noise from the kids in the basement from driving him nuts.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Carey View Post
    .. Not hanging cabinets on the wall is a bummer..
    I can't see any reason to avoid handing cabinets on a sound-insulated wall. If anything, the cabinets just offer more resistance to sound.

    The only exception to this is if your sound-insulating wall is a double wall. If so, the cabinets may only connect to the wall on the shop face -- no connectors like screws can cross the gap into the other wall.

  12. #12
    I hear good things about Green Glue,but it's expensive. I would make the wall as thick as you can and depend mainly on the ground up news paper cellulose stuff. I ground up the packed clumps with my bare hands ,stuffed it into plastic bags, then stuffed those into wall. And used extra Sheetrock. Put the first rock layer up in two foot high pieces to make stuffing job a little easier.

  13. #13
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    High field strength MR scanners produce a terribly loud noise while scanning. With the invention of self-shielding magnets, the magnetic field from the magnet became less of a problem but the noise while scanning was a real issue. The way they mitigated the effect of the noise outside the scan room was by doubling the wall thickness, staggering the framing and insulating both walls.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  14. #14
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    Don't underestimate how much sound and vibration travels through a concrete floor. Rubber feet or hockey pucks under the table saw, band saw, dust collector ... absorb most of the vibration otherwise transferred through the floor. Avoid machinery making physical contact with the soundproofed wall.

  15. #15
    Ken ,the staggered framing is good in that it makes two "uncoupled " walls. But the fiberglass insulation often used with it does not get high marks. I think a key factor is whether or not op wants to do this extra work or leave it to the contractor.
    I'm sure that some of the things I consider expensive do pay off in decreased paid labor.

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