The message
Post by D.M. ProcidaMy garage needs to be insulated and soundproofed.
It needs to be particularly well insulated, because there will only be
ad-hoc heating in it, but it also needs extra soundproofing. I
understand that thermal insulation materials are not very good for
soundproofing.
It's a brick building, and will have internal dry walls for the
insulation.
What soundproofing products for such construction are readily available
in the UK?
Density and Decoupling are the two main requirements for sound
absorption, so the best materials are loose and heavy: sand and earth.
For a recording studio I would build a wooden frame of, say, 2" x 2"
battens as far inside the brick wall as you can bear to lose space, but
a minimum of 3" I'd think, and fill the gap with loose dry sand in
plastic bags, pedal-bin liners for example. I would fix something like
weldmesh to the inner edges of the frame uprights (ie., between the
frame and the brick) as I went up with the sandbags to keep them in
place. The sand would entirely fill the gap between brick wall and frame
but it wouldn't create an acoustic bridge and would be highly absorbent
in both directions.
The same sort of thing would work for the ceiling or roof. The great
bane of recording studios these days is aircraft noise, but sand could
take care of that too. Because of the weight, some reinforcement of the
roof structure would undoubtedly be needed. Depending on what sort of
garage it is --detached or otherwise-- sandbags could either be placed
on top of the existing roof with an additional weatherproof covering
added, or sit on top of an internal ceiling, probably of plywood or
similar. Another idea would be to have a turf roof and not worry about
the weather.
Inside again, the spaces between the 2" x 2" uprights could be filled
with various sheet materials, depending a bit on what sort of acoustic
you wanted to create, harder surfaces creating brighter acoustics,
absorbent ones doing the opposite. You can get properly tuned acoustic
foams to absorb different parts of the sound spectrum but they cost a
lot.
I don't know if the floor would need treatment of any kind. A concrete
slab on earth is pretty deadening, I would have thought. But if train or
traffic rumble, for instance, was getting picked up then a floating
floor of carpeted chipboard flooring just sitting on sand would reduce
it well.
I'm assuming you can fill in the original garage door opening and get
access another way? Trying to sound insulate an up-and-over door would
be a *real* challenge. Sand may not have been what you were thinking of,
but it's cheap, readily available, and will do the job better than
anything. The inner frame would need to be well built, but it only has
to keep the sand upright, not support its weight.