Sound Deadening Question

[jrnewhall]

Has anyone tried to stop the sound from getting out? I'm looking to reduce the sound from my shop getting out of the basement. I live in a townhouse and LOML is concerned about the noise being too much for the neighbors.

The shop has block walls to the front and the side adjoining the neighbor and a one-side drywall wall towards the rest of the basement (open studs on most of the non-shop side. I think most of the sound is getting out through the floor above. It is open floor joists to the sub-floor. The floor above is oak, no carpet.

I'm looking for info on what materials to use in walls, in walls, on the ceiling (between the joists, drop ceiling). Is there a cost effective way to make my hobby less annoying to others?

Thanks,
~JRN

[pelligrini]

A good product for walls is Homasote or similar. It's not exactly cheap though.

Drywall on resiliant channels will reduce sound transmittal, especially on the ceiling. Adding insulation to the floor space before covering will help with some frequencies.

The mass of the CMU wall may be enough for your neighbors, especially if it is a double wide partywall with an airspace.

There's some OK information here; http://www.soundproofing.org/

[JimD]

I would talk the neighbors before spending money you were not planning. I did woodworking from the second bedroom of an apartment when we were starting out. The upstairs neighbors complained a little and we worked out a compromise where I did nothing noisy after a certain time (like 9 or 10pm) and before another time (like 9am) and they did not complain. I had no option for modifications but even in your case it would be cheaper. They never asked but if our neighbors had asked that I do something for them, I would have done it just to keep the peace - so to speak.


Jim

[cabinetman]

I would talk the neighbors before spending money you were not planning. I did woodworking from the second bedroom of an apartment when we were starting out. The upstairs neighbors complained a little and we worked out a compromise where I did nothing noisy after a certain time (like 9 or 10pm) and before another time (like 9am) and they did not complain. I had no option for modifications but even in your case it would be cheaper. They never asked but if our neighbors had asked that I do something for them, I would have done it just to keep the peace - so to speak.


Jim

Exactly. If you can get out of doing anything other than changing a schedule, that's the best way.

If you can't, and soundproofing needs to be considered, you have a few options. I first started working in an apartment and had to go through some various experiments to soundproof, and found the best was 1" thick corkboard that I bought from an insulation company. They came 1' wide and 4' long. They're very light and easy to install. Fairly cheap too. The first products I sold were lamps I made out of the corkboard.
.

[Mr__Bill]

Sound comes in two forms, high pitch and low pitch. I know there are lots of in between places but this keeps it simple. High pitch has a small wave form and gets through tiny places and vibrates brittle things. Low pitch has a long wave and tends to move wall surfaces back and forth, vibrate the dust off the ceiling and shake buildings down. Think earthquake, for high pitch think router.

Now you have to deal with both of them. A tightly sealed room will keep the high frequency sound in and soft surfaces and insulation behind will help to keep the low frequencies from traveling through the wall.

In your townhouse basement I would start with lots of painters caulk and caulk up every crack in the ceiling and along where the ceiling meets the walls. Then fill the floor joist cavity with fiberglass insulation, leaving no spaces. Now sheetrock the ceiling and do a good job spackling the joints and around the edge to the wall and give it a coat of primer. Next cover the ceiling with sound deadening material. Homasote as mentioned works well but so do ceiling tile, often made of a material like Homasote. You don't want the ones made of fiberglass with a vinyl skin. The 2' x 4' ones with a sound rating come in white and are available at your local borg. These you will glue to the sheetrock fitting tight together and using some of that caulk to seal the joints as they go up. Construction adhesive works well at this.

Now address the door at the top of the stairs. Weather strip it with a quality weather strip with a rubber like gasket and use a fold down seal at the bottom or put in a threshold with a rubber seal that makes contact with the door. Then cover it with Homasote or ceiling tile. If it is a hollow core door consider replacing it with a sold core fire door. Do the same with the door to your shop from the basement and treat the stud wall the same as the ceiling.

If sound is traveling through the block wall. Build a 2x2 or 2x4 stud wall depending on whether you ever intend to hang heavy stuff on the wall. A 2x4 wall will allow for electrical in the wall. Treat the wall like the ceiling.

If as suggested you talked to the neighbor and little or no sound got to them, or only upstairs and not in the basement then you can likely skip doing the walls. Also nothing that makes noise should be touching the walls or ceiling.

If you don't like the ceiling tile idea they make sound deadening rubber sheet that works well but is rather expensive.

The other alternative is to use only hand tools.

All this sounds extreme and it is*. Start with asking what kind of sound is heard upstairs. If it's only the high pitch whine of tools for the most part then start with the door to the basement. That may quiet things enough to give you a year or two grace and time to slowly insulate and cover the ceiling.

If you have hot air heating and any of the vents or returns traverse the room or vent into it all bets are off. It's almost imposable to deal with it in that limited space and with out spending very large sums of money. That is another whole project in it's self.

* This was the process to build a room that held and orchestra (10 or 12 I think) and out side the room you could tell they were in there but it didn't bother a normal conversation.


Bill, on the Sunny Oregon Coast.

[Pappy]

I don't like my neighbor, so I don't really care if my shop noise bothers him. Have you considered starting a fued?

[Mr__Bill]

I don't like my neighbor, so I don't really care if my shop noise bothers him. Have you considered starting a fued?

Laughing...

[Uncle Cracker]

I'm thinking you just throw open the windows and let 'er rip... Your neighbors will soon suffer hearing loss, and then all that racket you're making won't be a problem for them... Either that, or just go 'round passing out earmuffs...

[LCHIEN]

offer him some disposable foam earplugs... ten cents, much cheaper than soundproofing.

[shoottx]

Just tell the neighbors, this noise is nothing wait until I get the new CNC machine it really makes a lot of noise, and continuously

Then offer them the small foam earplugs

[jrnewhall]

Great advice. The wife next door is already mostly deaf but the husband is the president of the homeowners association. He hasn't said anything and I've had the BT for almost 4 years but he rarely has complained about much until you ask. Once I ask, I will get his opinion and may open up a worse situation.

Honestly, LOML mentioned the neighbors but I think it bothers her so I will attempt to quiet things down a bit.

I like the idea of starting with drop-ceiling acoustic tiles. I could probably get cheap ones at Mr. 2nd and there easy to work with. If that doesn't work - I can always spend more and get the rubber sound barrier sheets. I looked on a couple of web sites that sell the stuff. That should have read $pend MORE!!!

Thanks all,
~JRN

[Rand]

I would look into something like this product:
http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pid=1071

My shop is in an addition adjacent to our Master Bedroom. I put the sound deadening fiberboard on the adjacent wall and covered it with 1/4' hardboard. It cuts the noise down considerably.

[jrnewhall]

I would look into something like this product:
http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pid=1071

My shop is in an addition adjacent to our Master Bedroom. I put the sound deadening fiberboard on the adjacent wall and covered it with 1/4' hardboard. It cuts the noise down considerably.

Rand,

This looks like a good product. Where did you have to go to get it?

~JRN

[pelligrini]

That's about the same as Homasote. Most any real builders supply can get it, or similar. You can get a higher STC if you fasten it to resilient channels and whatever finish sheathing is used you fasten it to the soundboard and not into the studs. The transference would be much less. There are several manufacturers with similar products.

I'm looking for the one we used in a condo project recently. The builder said their product was the cheapest, and most readily available. The lead time on the Homasote we speced was long too.

[pelligrini]

I believe it was the Soundstop by Celotex. I still can't find the submittal, but I'm pretty sure that was it.