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iam adding an office for my wife in an unused part of my shop.what is the best way to soundproof it?
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For my home office next to a bedroom, I used offset studs to reduce sound transmission through the common wall. 2x4's on 24's are set an inch to the east and the alternate 2x4's (12" between) are set an inch to the west on 2x6 plates. It can also be done with 2x3's on 2x4 plates. This eliminates much of the effect of one sheet of drywall acting like a big diaphragm, through the studs to the drywall on the other side. The plates still connect but are somewhat dampened out by the slab below and the joists above. It works pretty well and costs almost nothing.
Doubling up the sheetrock on one or both side will help some. Resilent channel (usually used for ceilings between public areas and bedrooms) can also help break the accoustical connection.
Accoustical ceiling tiles, mounted vertically on the shared wall help a bit. Accoustical foam (like from Graingers) is better. For temporary process equipment, I've had good luck with bales of hay. Putting your shop shelving and office shelving on the common wall will help.
A solid core exterior door with good weather stripping will be much better than a interior door. A double door airlock (like the arctic entry on my house) or having to turn two corners to get to the door (like for a photographic darkroom) would be great but maybe overkill.
Using just the offset studs and exterior door, a friend created a quite soundproof phonebooth in the lounge of a student co-op.
Don't you want her to hear you scream when the lathe is sucking up your necktie? -David
*Some fibreglas is marketed as a soundproofer but I think that is a gimmick. Dave T gave good advice. It is solids that transmitt sound waves faster and more efficiently than air space. Therefor isolating solids from oner room from those in another will limit sound transfer. Thus the spaced studs. Mass will also absorb some sound so the doubled SR will have some effect. Urethene foam will help too but may be too expensive for this application.
*Soft Surfaces. Virtually all the sound we eventually hear is reflected. Start with the previous suggestions, I've used them and they work. Especially using exterior doors (I haven't used an 1&3/8 thick door for anything other than a closet in over ten years!). The finishing trick is to minimize reflective surfaces at both source and destination. My first studio apartment in Boston was surrounded on four sides by a Carribean music festival which was wonderful except at 3 A.M. My wife put down wall-to-wall carpet in our bedroom and it was like a sound sponge. I've been carpeting everything ever since. No; not shag rugs on the dining table. But the backs of dressers and bottoms of desks all got covered by carpet. Now in private residence, the laundery/utility room has carpet "wainscot" up to chair rail height. The kitchen cabinets for disposal and dishwasher are lined with carpet and the walls and floors in the shop are indeed carpetted. (Yes, it is called my padded cell). The hardest part is finding light colored remnants that don't make the area look like the inside of L.L.Bean pockets or Barbara Eden's gennie bottle.
*John,FH had an article, oh maybe, 10 years ago on soundproofing floors that might be of interest, but there was an article in one of the early issues that had a stone cottage in NY state that the builder had built with solid 3" thick plaster, interior walls built up on wire that were literally sound proof. Certain materials deaden sound better than others. Plaster, sand, concrete block, glass (1/2" thick glass is very sound proof). Fiber glass batting is not as good as some would have you think. Styro foam, extruded and expanded are not good either. Personally, I would double or triple up on sheetrock on both sides of the wall and forget the double stud wall and fiberglass.jim l
*Jon,We're using a product now by a company out of Cananda called Roxul. It's like fiberglass insulation but much dencer.It's fire rated and so far seems to be working.Vince
*Vincent,That's what we use in commercial work. It works great, but don't touch it anymore than ya have to. This stuff is WICKED compared to regular thermal insulation.Billy
*Billy,Touch it? Isn't that what helpers are for? All I did was point.Vince
*LOL Vincent. Billy
*Billy, really you are right, the guys complained quite a bit about the stuff.I read the lable and you really do have to be carefull with it.Vince
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iam adding an office for my wife in an unused part of my shop.what is the best way to soundproof it?