Workshop Noise Insulation

Anonymous · 21 Apr 2005

Hi there, I have been viewing your forum for a couple of months now (very interesting!) but this is my first post....

There seem to be alot of you who work in workshops adjacent to your houses and pretty close to your neighbours. I have set up in my double garage and use a Kity Bestcombi, Scheppach Basato 3, Scheppach dust extractor + router/router table (I like the electric tools).
My problem is noise and how to reduce it's impact on the surroundings. So far my neighbours haven't made a fuss but I'm sure it annoys them on occasion and I don't want that.

The garage is of single brick skin construction with double up and over doors a pitched roof and concrete floor. There is currently no ceiling and hence I guess the sound goes straight through the roof tiles!

So given that I want to improve things my problem has been trying to work out exactly how far to go. If you speak to specialist sound insulation companies they recommend building a room within a room and then using lots of fancy (and very expensive!) materials - I can't justify this....

I definitely need to put up a ceiling, but what sort of insulation should I put above it. Does thick rockwool really make much difference to noise levels? or do I need to think about something heavier?

What about the walls (single skin brick) - is it worth cladding these with insulation and plasterboard?

Finally the up and over doors - definitely a problem, has anyone insulated these for noise reduction without harming their function as a door?

Any advice from those that have been here before would be most appreciated!!

Thanks in advance....

humanfish · 21 Apr 2005

hi there
ill be quick and get the first welcome in

I myself have just finished insulating my roof and in the process the door to my single garage. This was for more of a heating issue but it may have had some nosie reduction benefits. I too plan to insulate the walls at some point but with the weather hopefully getting warmer i have put it off. here are a few pics, http://photobucket.com/albums/y120/bad_ ... rch%202005
What sort of motors have you got on your machines, are they off the induction sort?
if the pics are of interest and you have any questions, feel free to ask.

regards
bad_hypertension

Woodythepecker · 21 Apr 2005

100wheeler welcome to the forum.

If you can afford Rockwool then i would certainly go for it. Some of the major recording studios use it for sound deadening, as do a lot of cinemas.

As well as sound deadening their insulation will also stop heat loss. The only down side is you will lose about 70mm of ceiling height, as you have to use a double layer of plasterboard with a slab of insulation in between.

This is by no means the only way to insulate and there are much cheaper options, but this is the road i took and i am very happy with it.

By the way the above can also be carried out on the walls and door

Regards

Woody

Anonymous · 22 Apr 2005

Hi 100

Welcome

I too had this problem when we moved house 18 months ago. I used the insulation one can get from B&Q and is intended to fit under floating floors (pretend hardwood). The stuff I got is green and comes in square tiles - works pretty well.

There is a picture of my sound proofing in the gallery if you want to see it

Les Mahon · 22 Apr 2005

Hi 100,

Welcome to the forum.

I used rockwoll in my recent workshop build, According to the guy in the Builders supplies Rockwool has better sound insulation properties than solid board insulation (i.e. Aerobord or Kingspan). It seems to do a pretty good job, though I still have a section of the ceiling to complete so the results are not very conclusive as yet!

Les

Anonymous · 22 Apr 2005

Thank you all for the advice!

Sounds like rockwool combined with a plasterboard ceiling will work quite well. I like the idea of the green floor insulation on the walls - I might give that a try, my only concern would be that a 'fabric type' wall might gather sawdust!

Any other thoughts on this subject would be much appreciated.