Jam Room on a budget in a Weatherboard Clad Extension

Hello all, May I start by saying this is an awesome site and has somewhat answered most of the questions that I have regarding my new construction. However I do still have some queries I am hoping someone can help me out with. I'll start with a little background story on where I'm at and what I hope to achieve. I recently bought a new house with a u-beaut 6.2m x 5.3m extension on the back-end which I thought would make a great jam room for my two bands. One band plays death/thrash metal and the other heavy southern rock/bluesy stuff. Both are bloody loud (though I don't actually have a meter to take a reading). We used to jam in a bedroom of my old rented house with no problems at all. The old bedroom was in a 1940's built solid concrete block house and after the research I have done on this site I realise that this is probably why noone complained (there is some serious mass in those walls). Therefore, my treatment of the room was merely to attach a couple of thick mattresses over the windows and doors and hang some carpets on the walls. This worked a treat, the room sounded great and the neighbours never complained. In my naiivity and inexperience of true sound isolation I moved into my new place and treated the new jam room exactly the same way. Enter the grumpy old man next door! Two songs into the first jam and I hear a strange pounding sound coming from outside. I pop my head out the door and there is the old man, who had told me a week earlier that he was half-deaf and I'd have to speak up if he was to hear me, banging on the fance and shouting at the top of his lungs "How can people like you move into the neighbourhood!!!" Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback by this statement but got the rest of the band to fire-up while I was outside so I could have a listen. The sound was phenomenally loud (and I am the bass player so this is without a lot of the low-end in the mix). Compared to my old place (which if you sat outside sounded like someone playing a CD at a low level in their loungeroom), this sounded almost like the band was playing outdoors with the added annoying clatter of the whole room, windows an everything, shaking. The next couple of days involved some feverish research into what could be done to remedy the situation and this site has proven to be the best resource I have come across so far. Unfortunately it doesn't look good for my wallet. I pulled off the panelling inside the walls to see what I have to deal with and basically the room is a DIY built extension knocked together by the previous owner and it is painfully obvious why there is literally no sound isolation to the outside world. The studwork is 90 x 35mm pine at aroundabout 480mm spacing (depending on how well the builders tape measure was working!!). There are also random studs put up to hold the interior cladding on. the exterior is a layer of sislation (I don't know how to spell this - the silver stuff that they put under insulation inthe ceiling etc) clad with 8mm (I think) fibre-cement style weatherboard. There is no insulation and the inner wall is 3mm thick wood veneer. The ceiling is 10mm gyprock (of which 1/3 fell down onto my head when I removed the cornice to get the wall veneer off). Above this is, once again, no insulation and then corrugated metal roofing of some sort. It is a flat roofed room with a ceiling height of 2.48m There are several large windows and a double door opeing onto my lounge room and the rest of the house. Possibly the one good point is that it is built on a solid concrete foundation. I tried to learn how to use sketchup and attached a picky as a rough idea of how the room looks (its a bit dodgy so please ignore the fact that the beams aren't being held up by anything and the windows are skew :wink: ) So far I have removed the wood veneer and filled the ceiling cavity with insulation. I am now left trying to come up with the cheapest method to make this room so that we can jam without the cops turning up and the angry neighbour shouting over the fence. After searching the forums I think the ideal situation would be to build similar to John's LeftBank studio. Ignoring the outer cladding as a leaf because it is blatantly not airtight. However, I am attempting to keep this project down to a reasonable cost. I can spend about $2000 (more if I have to) but hopefully less if possible because this is going to put some serious pressure on the budget. Some of my biggest concerns are below, if anyone has any feedback it would be much appreciated: 1. The windows are obviously a problem. Is the general consensus that the hae to go (pretty much clad over them inside and out) or has anyone had any success at cheaply dealing with windows while still keeping them functional. I have been toying with the idea of building a sealed version of storm shutters inside and out so I can still open them up to let in some natural light and fresh air while not jamming. Has anyone had a crack at this or am I just dreaming? 2. If you look in the drawing attached you can see that there are 2 major support beams that run across the room. My concern here is that even if I do soundproof the walls, get rid of the windows, treat the doors etc then these beams will just transmit all the sound straight to the outer walls and I will have achieved nothing! I guess the ultimate answer would be to have a suspended ceiling to create a true room within a room, excluding the beams entirely. However, this would mean that the ceiling height would be brought down to about 2m, which will probably make the room a bit clostraphobic. Now, some more specific questions: 1. Does anyone have any data comparing the sound blocking capability of standard 10mm gyprock with Soundcheck gyprock? I got a quote from a local building supply group and 13mm Soundcheck is almost twice the price of 10mm standard stuff. So... to do a double layer of cladding over the current studs without even looking at biulding a second studwall etc, the cost is already about $1000!! 2. also, is particle board anywhere near as good as gyprock for this purpose. I can get hold of this pretty cheap. 3. Is it worth me just filling the studwall I currently have with insulation and adding a layer or two of gyprock (soundchek or otherwise) or particle board, treating the windows and doors and doing a sound test to see if it makes enough difference or, given the data I have supplied about my room and situation, would the general consensus be that this is just a waste of time and I may as well do the full double stud wall. 4. Does anyone know if it is worth paying the extra money for proper sound insulation or can you get similar results from standard wall or ceiling insulation. Once again "soundscreen" insulation costs about twice as much and I can't find any data anywhere supporting that it performs any better than standard glasswool batts. 5. Has anyone ever played with "Autoclaved Aerated Concrete" or "Hebel" as it is known in Australia? For about $1800 I can entirely clad the existing studwall with Hebel panels that are 75mm thick. According to the Hebel blokes this stuff has amazing soundblocking properties but I'm not sure it will be good enough for what I want to achieve. If this would be a reasonable solution then I could clad the room with the Hebel plus fill the studwall with insulation all for about $2300. I am sorry if this whole post just comes across as long and rambling. I was just trying to include as much detail as possible Any advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated. If anything I have said is not clear enough please ask me and I can clarify. Thanks for your help. Cheers, Doug

Hai Doug and welcome to JLS!

I am sorry if this whole post just comes across as long and rambling. I was just trying to include as much detail as possibleAny advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated. If anything I have said is not clear enough please ask me and I can clarify. Thanks for your help.

Thanx for the introduction, I'm kinda lazy and didn't read all the text just skipped to your specific questions. :mrgreen:

1. Does anyone have any data comparing the sound blocking capability of standard 10mm gyprock with Soundcheck gyprock? I got a quote from a local building supply group and 13mm Soundcheck is almost twice the price of 10mm standard stuff. So... to do a double layer of cladding over the current studs without even looking at biulding a second studwall etc, the cost is already about $1000!!

Gypsum is Gypsum. It has a mass (density) of about 700 kg/m3. 13mm is thicker than 10mm so it sure should isolate a bit better and, yes, would cost a bit more. You know, every company tries to sell you their "acoustic" solution and asks a high price just because "it's special for acoustic!". Boohoo! Go with standard Gypsumboard/Plaster. remember more mass is better isolation. So a wall made out of 3x10mm GB will isolate great!

2. also, is particle board anywhere near as good as gyprock for this purpose. I can get hold of this pretty cheap.

No it's lower in density. Hence it will isolate less. Not that it's crap, but it isn't "better" either.

3. Is it worth me just filling the studwall I currently have with insulation and adding a layer or two of gyprock (soundchek or otherwise) or particle board, treating the windows and doors and doing a sound test to see if it makes enough difference or, given the data I have supplied about my room and situation, would the general consensus be that this is just a waste of time and I may as well do the full double stud wall.

If that means you'll end up with a single studd wall having loads of mass on both sides than YES that would work. But having a double stud wall improves isolation much better. If you can affort it, build a second wall. But stick to the principles: Mass-Air(or spring)-Mass.

4. Does anyone know if it is worth paying the extra money for proper sound insulation or can you get similar results from standard wall or ceiling insulation. Once again "soundscreen" insulation costs about twice as much and I can't find any data anywhere supporting that it performs any better than standard glasswool batts.

Standard, proven materials do the job. You can find all about that on this forum. There are SOME products that do a great job (like GreenGlue which is not glue.. :) ). rule of thumb: if there's no specs and labtests, it's crap.

5. Has anyone ever played with "Autoclaved Aerated Concrete" or "Hebel" as it is known in Australia? For about $1800 I can entirely clad the existing studwall with Hebel panels that are 75mm thick. According to the Hebel blokes this stuff has amazing soundblocking properties but I'm not sure it will be good enough for what I want to achieve. If this would be a reasonable solution then I could clad the room with the Hebel plus fill the studwall with insulation all for about $2300.

Dunno, any specs or labtests available? ;) cheers

G'day Ro, Thanks for the words of wisdom. That pretty much confirms most of what I am thinking. I think I'm just gonna have to go with the LeftBank studio type design and build a second stud wall because the outer cladding just isn't going to offer nearly enough mass. Same with the roof. Do you have any thoughts on the beams along the roof? Are my concerns that they will transfer all the sound to the outer walls valid or do I not have to worry about them? If I don't float a ceiling below them is there anything that I can do to treat them and stop the sound getting through? eg. wrap them in lagging or carpet or insulation or something? Thanks again for the help. Cheers Doug