Sound Proofing and insulating a workshop

[woodsy11]

G'Day Folks

Greetings from Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

I'm in the process of converting a concrete slab, brick wall, tin skillion roof 2 car garage into a woodshop.
We have already done some substantial work to this end, (construction of a 10 sm, mezzanine platform for timber storage, construction of working height perimeter benches on 2 walls, framing for an office/storeroom).
My major concern now, is how best to insulate and possibly soundproof the building (only if necessary with the latter).
I am a carpenter by trade, and so think i'm pretty useful at construction, (some of the time anyway, that is i know enough to avoid some trouble, sometimes).
I have also read a few forums threads on this and other forums about soundproofing in particular, and been encouraged and engaged by the inventiveness, of some people in attempting to address these dual problems.
However like most folks my wallet has rat traps set on them by my good wife, so getting a professional job done is not an option.
If anybody has any suggestions that i might be able to have a crack at, especially those that might serve the dual purpose of insulation and soundproofing, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Woodsy11
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[goldeneyedmonkey]

Old carpet is great for said garage doors, I have an old duvet against the door, and then three layers of old carpet over that. You don't get any draughts through it and it does wonders for keeping the heat in, also, when using my TS you can hardly hear it when it's being used from the outside. Depending on what you're cutting this can be pretty loud. The only thing I'd say to this is that working out how to remove the carpet/ duvet layers with ease quickly is a bit of a PITA. I've currently just got holes through the top of each layer and then they go over bolts that are sticking out of a batten above the door, but they take too long to get down really. I'm going to cut the carpet in half and then overlap them so that they're not so heavy to lift.

Good luck with it. Cheers _Dan.

 

[OLD]

This link may help http://www.noisehelp.com/how-to-soundproof.html

 

[houtslager]

make the roof over hangs large, and use straw bales to "clad" the outside of the walls to the roof line.
Then use a clay or lime render. Cheap. envioromental and doable by 1 person.

hth,

k

 

[Eric The Viking]

The biggest single issue is air movement into and out of the structure. If you can control the air spaces, under the eaves and gaps around/under doors, etc., that will have the biggest effect, by far.

The trick is to block all the gaps, but, rather than die of asphyxiation, arrange ventilation through ducts with Rockwool or similar on the inside surfaces (of the duct) and lots of corners (or U-turns) that will soak the sound up. If you have dust extraction venting outside, do the same thing with the output (clean) side of that.

You'd be amazed how well it works.

Next most useful is to dampen the vibration of any thin panels, e.g. sheet steel garage doors or thin corrugated roofs. A really good and cheap way to do this is "Flashband" which is a sort of thick aluminium foil covered with a thick sticky coating of bitumen. It's intended for sealing roof gullies, and looks like lead, you get it from builders' merchants (there must be something similar in Melbourne one would hope -- it rained ALL the time I was there!). You could also glue carpet, etc. on instead - not because it absorbs (it doesn't much), but because it will stop the panel vibrating.

After that it's all those absorbent things, but you'll get by far the best return on effort by sealing the air gaps.