Thread: Soundproofing my Workshop

Hi All,

I manage a record label & the largest recording studio in the NT, over the last 5 years I have spent considerable time and money on acoustic treatments.

Sound travels in 2 ways: In a wave through the air which can only be stopped/reduced by reducing the air flow. It also travels as a vibration in solid objects (floor/ceiling) which is much harder to reduce although it is usually the lower frequencies.

To reduce noise leaving the studio space we use "air pockets" (double glass windows with space inside to prevent air from moving through the wall). This prevents the sound waves from traveling from room to room, double doors also work to this effect.

I recommend using glass, perspex or possibly ply to create a space where sound/air cannot travel through the wall (air tight walls).

Only my 2cents



Miko

http://www.audioholics.com/room-acou...-noise-control

So what do we do if we want to isolate sound? The answer is quite simple: Only two things stop sound - mass and space. You need mass to contain the airborne sound, but then you also need space (an air gap or similar unobstructed area) so that the structure borne sound can not be transmitted. You may have heard of sound isolation techniques such as staggered stud walls or resilient channels. These work on those principles - there is a high mass wall, an air gap, and then another wall, making sound transmission difficult.

Miko

Luke,

My workshop is about the same size as your under-house space will be,and the small air volume causes some difficulties:

1. The insulated roof keeps it cool(ish) in summer, but if I use a vac on my table saw, the shed heats up very quickly. Moving the vac outside as described by Bobl would avoid this problem. If your shed is well sealed you might also need a fresh air inlet, to allow the vac to suck air out.

2. If you don't use an effective dust collector,the airborne dust soon fills the small space and affects lungs and eyes.

3. If you must keep the door closed to contain noise, you can only rip boards which are shorter than about half the diagonal measurement of your shed.

SOLUTIONS: Apart from using hand tools, there are some machines which are much quieter than tablesaws, routers and planers. A bandsaw can do most operations that a tablesaw can do, including tenons, and a few extra like dovetails and curves.
A drill press can make mortices quickly,and you can add a chisel attachment to square the corners if you don't want to round off the tenons instead.
A woodlathe can have a faceplate sanding disc and a mitre attachment.

A full face respirator is another option for dust protection, although vision is reduced by dust buildup on the visor.

If you use a bandsaw for ripping, you can position it near the open door and can rip longer boards with the help of support stands.

I've been there with the nieghbors and noise from my machines, my council basically says that if it's a hobby and within 7am to 7pm it's OK, but it's best to be proactive in reducing the noise with systems as has been suggested.

I was involved in a sound reducing project at the smelter, the high pitched noise from the rectifiers carried some miles away to the houses, interestingly they were not loud but just had this buzz/hum, the rectifiers were shipping container size and surrounded by concrete walls on 3 sides, the open side faced the direction of the houses, the sound technician specified the absorption to be placed on the three walls which was a simple batt sized stainless steel box with mesh on the front side (allowed the noise in) then the batt material absorbed the noise, on the open side we installed a simple stud wall filled with batt and sheeted on both sides with concrete sheet (hardiflex) as I understand it the noise didn't have to be absorbed here but was reflected back to the sound absorbing rear walls, also there was no effort made to stop noise escaping directly above the rectifiers, (no roof) so may not have been feasable/needed?

The point here is that if some noise does escape it is possible to capture it/redirect it and then reduce it, a strategically placed panel (opposite nieghbors window) right on the fence line to bounce noise back and then into a noise absorbing panel, if you do this it might be nice to explain that it is a noise reducing measure not some sort of anti nieghbor thing.


Pete