Soundproofing A Garage 

Here at the Soundproofing Store we receive many enquiries about soundproofing garages for music rehearsal rooms, recording studios and workshops. Due to the nature of these rooms they tend to create a lot of airborne noise and also a lot of vibration.

So...if you are wanting to use your garage for one of these purposes or something similar where you want to reduce the noise, how do you reduce the amount of noise that escapes the garage and disturbs other people?

Well, there are a few things to consider, but I will guide you through the important points.

First, here are the main fundamental physics we need to consider.

• 1. Airborne Sound (voices, music etc) is only blocked by mass. To block airborne sound, we need to add as much mass as we can to the walls, ceiling and floor. Mass is a complex thing to get into, but at the simplest level, the heavier and more dense a material is, the more mass it will have. i.e concrete has more mass than wood.

• 2. When sound hits a surface it becomes a vibration energy which can transfer through solid materials and surfaces very easily. Bass will also create a lot of vibration energy. For a high standard of soundproofing, we need to absorb or decouple this vibration to stop it from transferring into the structure of the building. To do this we use the "Room Within A Room" technique. There will be more on this later.
  

• 3. Soundproofing is like waterproofing - To contain the sound within the garage, you will need to soundproof all the walls, ceiling and floor. All weaknesses such as windows, doors and air vents need to be considered, and any air gaps need to be sealed, as sound will always find the weak point and still get through.

  "Room within a room?"

For live music levels of noise we need to build a " room within a room ", with the inner room decoupled or isolated from the outer room. We do this by using a system such as our ReductoClip system. These are fixed to the solid wall and ceiling joists, we can then build new wall and ceiling layers (creating the inner room), by fixing these layers onto the ReductoClip rather than being fixed directly to the wall. The ReductoClip act like shock absorbers, so when sound hits the new wall layers and turns into a vibration energy, the ReductoClip absorb this energy stopping it from transferring into the structure.

We then need to add high mass materials such as two layers of 15mm acoustic grade plasterboard which has a higher mass than standard plasterboard. You can also improve the performance by adding different materials (different types of mass block different sound frequencies better than others). These include FlexiSound 5 and Mass Loaded Vinyl .

On Solid Walls - We get the highest performance by building a timber frame 10mm in front of the existing wall, isolating the frame from the surrounding surfaces using isolation strip. We then fill the frame with acoustic mineral wool and then fix the ReductoClips and furring channels to the frame.

On Stud Walls - We remove the plasterboard layer of the wall to expose the timber frame inside. We then fill the frame with acoustic mineral wool, and add our ReductoClips to the frame.

Garage Doors - For Garage doors we have two options. Firstly too remove the garage door and build a breeze block wall, then add the ReductoClip system to the wall as the others. Secondly, you can build a breeze block wall further into the garage away from the door. This will mean you will still have your garage door. Once the breeze block wall is built you will install the ReductoClip system just like the other walls.

Ceilings

We use the same technique on the ceiling to block sound travelling above.

On a Timber Joist Ceiling - We remove the current plasterboard layer exposing the timber joists. We fill between the joists with acoustic mineral wool and add the ReductoClips to the bottom of the joists.

On a Concrete Ceiling - We can fix the ReductoClips directly to the ceiling.