John Sayers’ Recording Studio Design ForumAn archive of johnlsayers.com, 2003–2022

I nearly bought stuff from soundproofing.con!

Started by Mr. Tea on 9 July 2007. 7 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 9093.

Mr. Tea
Man am I glad I found this forum. I have been looking at every article I could find regarding soundproofing a garage for drums for about two months now. Didn't find this site until two days ago. And I was just about to order materials from that soundprofing s(h)ite. I first saw this article about a month ago and thought "my prayers have been answered" It desctibes my setup and main problems perfectly and seems to have the answer to everything. After weeks of trying stuff that didn't work and listening to my ill-informed Dad ("carpets and eggcrates, that's all we need!") I emailed those guys for a quote, but I didn't get an email back. My Dad said, "just get as much as you think we'll need" but I decided to ring them first. The phone number on their is not in service. I was still getting "just order the stuff" in the ear when I stumbled on this site, totally by accident, and one of the first threads I read I see someone mention that soundproofing site and get told that they are scammers! So I read on. And on. And on. So far I have read about 40 whole threads and glanced at more (how do you do it Knightfly!!!) and I realise now that those soundproofing guys are not to be trusted. The problem is, I'm still getting the "carpets and eggcrates" in the ear and now I'm getting "acoustical curtains" as well so I need to absolutely know, I need to see, in print, confirmation that these things will provide next to no benefit for what I'm trying to achieve. Which is this. I'm trying to soundproof my garage so I can play drums in there. I live in a semi detached house. My garage is seperated from my neighbours garage by a brick wall with a 1/2" layer of concrete on each side. All the walls are concrete-bricks-concrete. There is a normal width wood door at the back of the garage and an up and over car door at the front. Funnily enough it is not my closest neighbours that are complaining but the ones on the other side of the house. We think the main problem is the up and over door, which is corrugated metal and leaks sound like a sieve. I fully intend, after reading a lot of reference material here and elsewhere, to build a proper room within a room, and float the floors, and use the two leaf system, and only put RC on one side, and leave an air gap, and not to touch the studs with the outer drywall nails and everything. I promise. And so does my Dad. But. For the moment, he's saying we should get some carpets and stick them to the walls two or three thick "and sure it'll only cost €50". I'm killed trying to tell him he'd be better off investing in a roll of neoprene (wherever we can get that in Ireland) and get craicin on the floating floor at least. In the short term, is there anything we could do, just to reduce sound coming out of the garage door? Are acoustical blankets as useless as they sound? Is that MLV stuff useless too? Is the method of "sound isolation?" for the up and over door described on "the website that shall not be named" useless? Would hanging carpets over the door be useless? Would stacking a wall of sandbags in front of the door be useless? Would we be better off starting to buy the materials we need to start building our room within a room, or wait till we have all the money and just put something small up now? Sorry to burden you with these n00bish questions, but if I can't literally show my Dad concrete evidence from someone who knows something about soundproofing, that there is only one way to really make a difference in the noise outside the garage, and that is to construct a room within a room, I might just commit patricide. And who knows, maybe some other nearly-duped amateur like myself will be saved from that evil site if they read this.
gullfo
the simpliest thing is to put a drum set in there and give it a work out while using a sound level meter to measure inside and out. also using a rubber and metal hammer to test for "flanking" (sound transmission through the building construction itself) - both in your home and the neighbors. this will give you some idea about how mouch (or little) additional isolation you'll need. a sound level meter (Radio Shack) is probably 50 euros new and will do way more for you than carpets. for another 35 euros or so, you could order Rod's book on home studio construction which has numerous details on sound isolation techniques which are cost effective. meanwhile read more... Sharward's thread discusses the level of effort needed for total isolation of a drum room.
Ro
Hai B.A. eh... .mr Tea, Congratulations on your decisions so far. I've read about the whole soundproof site crap earlier and yer doing the right thing NOT to order any malicious stuff at any malicious website. Instead the good spirits have let you to this forum and made you a believer. AMEN to that. Now, since yer only here just yet, I'm sure you have much more reading to do. Really. There's too much info crammed in here to read in one day or even week. Get yerself updated and convince yer pappy. Oh, ya might wanna order a copy of Rod's latest book. It's full of DIY roombuilding info. A real gem. When ya think yer up to it, fill us in on your plans and get that drumroom happening! cheers
sharward
Yay!!! Aother would-be soundproofing.org victim averted!!! Welcome to the forum, Mr. Tea. I too came close to being suckered. I remember talking to those clowns (or equivalent clowns from another site, I don't recall) about mass-loaded vinyl back in 2004 before I had a half a clue, way before finding this site. I agree with all the comments so far. Please read (or re-read) my sticky "Think you need a floating floor?" thread. Most likely you do NOT want to build one. I know, I know... Such conflicting advice, so much confusion in reconciling all this crap. Resolve not to cnstruct anything for a few MONTHS whilest you learn more. Yes, buy Rod's book. Tell Dad everything he thinks he knows about soundproofing is wrong. ;-) Keep reading threads here. Be prepared for more confusion before it all snaps into place, and be skeptical the first few times you think it's snapping, because more confusion will be in store and then it will snap even better afterwards. You've done the right thing in coming here and slowing down. Follow through by stopping altogether until you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals, after which you'll build with confidence, with our support every step of the way. ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:
Mr. Tea
I agree with your common suggestion, and I will endeavour to read every piece of relevant information I can find, which should give me more than enough time to save up the money to do the project, because let's face it, I'm not going anywhere for a while! :lol: I will take that €50 and order Rod's book, and my Dad can read it (he's a bit of a technophobe so it'll be better for him :roll: ) and I'll see if I can get my hands on a sound level meter somewhere (no radio shacks in Ireland). If anyone has any idea where the best place to get these in Europe would be I'd be very grateful. :mrgreen: So... just to make absolutely sure. Can I quote you on this:
Hanging three, four, or even ten layers of carpets in front of my up and over garage door will do nothing (or next to nothing, like say a 1 or 2dB reduction) to stop the 100-110dB of noise emanating from my drum kit through the door
?
sharward
Yes, I'd sign that. Do a search for the word "carpet" here and I'm sure you'll find lots of credible debunking! (Oxymoron?) --Keith :mrgreen:
Mr. Tea
Thanks a million there's a maplins in town I'll try and get it tomorrow. I might try Peats first though. I always try Peats first... (damn maplins :evil: )