Thread: Sound insulating a garage door

Think about the roof and how much sound goes through that before worrying about the door. Have you asked your neighbours if the sound is intrusive as you may be worrying about something that is not a problem or can be managed by other means such as working different hours etc.

This has been discussed before many times.

Most people get sound transmission confused with sound reflection.

To reduced sound reflection you need something soft that has trapped something like air inside it.

To reduce sound transmission you will need something dense like thick wood or concrete or lead which is not compatible with a garage door. For my dust collector housing (including the door) I plan on using 35 mm thick Tassie oak and line that with something softer.

About the best you can do with a titling door is some heavy carpet but it won't do all that much. Can you rebuild the door and put it on hinges so it can be made of something denser?

I'll leave it to BobL, he is the expert here.

Originally Posted by Mini

Think about the roof and how much sound goes through that before worrying about the door. Have you asked your neighbours if the sound is intrusive as you may be worrying about something that is not a problem or can be managed by other means such as working different hours etc.

I guess I should have explained, the roof of the garage is actually our house. In other words the garage is under the house.
Cheers
Arron

Originally Posted by Mini

I'll leave it to BobL, he is the expert here.

I'll defer to Soundman for a practical solution.

Originally Posted by BobL

This has been discussed before many times.

Most people get sound transmission confused with sound reflection.

To reduced sound reflection you need something soft that has trapped something like air inside it.

To reduce sound transmission you will need something dense like thick wood or concrete or lead which is not compatible with a garage door. For my dust collector housing (including the door) I plan on using 35 mm thick Tassie oak and line that with something softer.

About the best you can do with a titling door is some heavy carpet but it won't do all that much. Can you rebuild the door and put it on hinges so it can be made of something denser?

My understanding is that low frequencies have high energy and thus require dense materials to prevent transmission, but high frequency sounds have very little energy and thus can be stopped by surprisingly thin materials. What constitutes high frequencies in woodworking terms I dont really know though.

the neighbours are not happy. I know that, the letter from the Council told me so.

Cheers
Arron

there is no easy way of silencing a tiltadoor as the airgap allows sound to pass through even after adding material to the door . I was in a garage that has been converted to a sound studio earlier this week and they had lined the walls with an acoustic material made by tontine Acoustic Insulation after filling all airgaps with expansion foam and mastic .Then created a new wall and door a metre from the tiltadoor . the room is very quiet and from outside you cannot hear a drumkit going full blast .
you could first try a curtain wall made of heavy material a couple of sets of secondhand drapes cut the sound down quite a lot

what hours are you allowed to make noise?

thanks Fubar,
the Tontine sound batts seem like worth a try. At only $50 for a packet I dont mind experimenting. I'm not trying to get a perfect result, so even if it only drops the level by 5 or 10 decibels I'll be happy. I can insert the batts in the space between the doors framework, which is about 50mm deep, but I wonder what I should line the inside with. It would be good if I could use some kind of paper or film stretched tight as this wont add any weight ? Or do I need to line it with something solid like gyprock to get the benefit ?

I think the air spaces around the door will be OK, even though the door needs to be opened and closed. I'm thinking of putting some timber stop blocks (or stop strips, really) against which the door will close. These can be lined with flexible rubber to improve the seal.

The curtain wall idea is also good. Its doable, and may be needed if the batts dont work.

cheers
Arron

When I make sound panels I use a pine frame and cover with cloth so you can glue the tontine onto the door with construction adhesive use tape (lots of it) to hold in place once dry cover with cloth. I'm guessing the door is metal frame with a sheet metal skin so another way is to make up 90mm discs of hardboard drill through centre and then use these as a button and affix tontine to metal frame use strips of hardboard at edges.
when screwing the tontine a good tip is to compress it as much as possible so the fibres dont catch in thread
to cut the tontine you need a high quality serrated bread knife used in a sawing motion

There's always hand tools - I rarely have complaints from my neighbours about the sound of a plane swooshing or a saw singing, even at 6am like this morning

Originally Posted by fubar

When I make sound panels I use a pine frame and cover with cloth so you can glue the tontine onto the door with construction adhesive use tape (lots of it) to hold in place once dry cover with cloth. I'm guessing the door is metal frame with a sheet metal skin so another way is to make up 90mm discs of hardboard drill through centre and then use these as a button and affix tontine to metal frame use strips of hardboard at edges.
when screwing the tontine a good tip is to compress it as much as possible so the fibres dont catch in thread
to cut the tontine you need a high quality serrated bread knife used in a sawing motion

Actually its plywood over a timber frame circa 1963. I expect the advice you have given me here still applies though so Ill proceed with tontine sound batts, stuck to frame with construction adhesive, and covered over with some some of that blue and silver building insulation film that I happen to have lying around. Ill post the result in a week or two.
Cheers
Arron

One problem with large area things like doors and windows , especially at low frequencies, is they are often one big sound board and sit there and resonate and re-radiate sound. Insulation will not help this problem much. To reduce this effect it may be possible to provide tension in different places - sometimes even just pinning the edges in more or different places can help.

Originally Posted by BobL

One problem with large area things like doors and windows , especially at low frequencies, is they are often one big sound board and sit there and resonate and re-radiate sound. Insulation will not help this problem much. To reduce this effect it may be possible to provide tension in different places - sometimes even just pinning the edges in more or different places can help.

we actually drill holes in 6mm plywood or mdf at certain distances apart to reduce and trap the lower register sounds another way is to hang sheets of 32mm mdf so they float 50-75mm off the wall surface
But i think the tontine will drop the sound levels quite well looking forward to the results

Get some of that insulation thats compressed with the perforated metal layer, I used it in my shed doors(25mm metal frame).
It works better if you dont cover it over, I noticed this after covering them in thin ply.
As others have said some absorbing panels/area's will help a lot with the high frequency's, this type insulation excels at doing this.