Thread: Noise levels for the neighbors.

Originally Posted by Timless Timber

.
.
.
My metal shed stops almost zero sound - heck it probably amplifies it. I might as well get a professionals advice before I screw it up trying to do it on the cheap myself and just waste more time & $ on something that doesn't work.

Any insulation and internal cladding will help significantly whether you get the noise levels you require will depend on a bunch of stuff.

Remember
- you need a layer of dense material to reduce low frequencies and something soft and bulky that holds air to help with higher frequencies.
- products containing wood are flammable.

The metal work end of my shed is insulated with rock wood and clad with mini orb. I heard miniorb was quite good at reducing sound levels but I was skeptical about it but I am vert happy with the way it has worked and only wish I had done my whole shed this way. The woodwork end is silver bubble wrapped and gyprocked. Gyprock is quite good as a sound insulator and very cheap. Two layers of gyprock would be incredibly effective and still relatively cheap.

Dont forget to think of reducing the noise making activities by look for new opportunities, like for night time and weekend use I discovered machines like a metal cutting bandsaw that is as quiet as a manual cutting hacksaw, and hand tools - what a great excuse to buy more of those . . . . .

I was living in a house a few years ago that had about 20 houses within 80-100 metres (it was a round circuit with houses either side). I always did my woodworking at reasonable times, and even told my immediate neighbour who had a newborn that if I was in the workshop making noise to just come around if his baby was sleeping etc. I ended up receiving a noise complaint from strata; however I never knew who it was from. From that day on I have been over paranoid about noise in my workshop and always told myself that when I own my home I will do my best to minimise noise for peace of mind.


I'm now moving into my own home in the next week or so and have already planned out what I'm going to do with the assistance from a acoustic engineer. Essentially, I'm doing two things to improve the noise situation. Firstly trying to remove noise from the source, eg enclosing the noisy tools such as my router table and dust extractor. I'll then be using sound absorbing material on the walls, acoustic batts in the roof, and a removable panel which will sit in front of the double doors either side of my workshop as I don't have a traditional garage door. I'm also lucky to have a double brick constructed house which itself is a great way of reducing noise levels.

Cheers

Andy

Thanks again Bob.

mini orb - I wouldn't have thought of that!

Just looking and CSR make a gyprock 10mm thick they call sound check... yet they make other gyprock boards up to 13mm thick... but maybe 2 x 10mm soundcheck boards would be doubly effective?. The rockwool insulation is a no brainer.. if not for noise just for keeping the heat out in summer.

I was thinking to line the shed maybe with cheap 2nd hand chipboard off gumtree - but gyprock would work just as well for me...and if its less fire prone and reduces noise better then it might be the answer. (With timber board tho you can just screw all sorts of shelves and racks for tools and nick nacks).

I looked at this issue of noise a while back...my young bloke plays electric guitar with one of those big Marshall amps and a speaker stack.....and wouldn't mind using the shed of an evening to practice / jam with his mates etc, so I researched a few acoustic recording studio type links.

There is a light weight alloy top hat type extrusion similar to what I used on the shed as roof purlins and wall girts, but not as deep (maybe 50mm) - that you can fix to your internal wall - then there's a special rubberized round disc you screw on...and then sound board attaches to the rubber disc. The disc separates this internal 2nd skin wall from the one behind it, in terms of transmitting sound waves...specially the base ones because the wall floats in and out on these rubberized discs and has the air space between the interior wall and the floating wall with no direct rigid coupling to transmit vibration.

Apart from the rubber disc there's no direct connection between the floating wall and inner wall to transmit the sound (or that's the theory they are selling).

My biggest challenge I think - will be the 5 meter wide roller door. Because it rolls up around a metal drum... and each successive layer of the metal curtain of the roller door rests direct on the one below it when rolled up - anything I were to stick / glue or otherwise attach to the inside..of the roller door metal curtain would increase the thickness and thus diameter of the door on the drum when it rolled up, and this might encroach of the gap between the door and gable end of the shed in front of it.

I MIGHT have to hang some kind of heavy sound deadening drape's across the inside of the roller door, on a curtain rod, that can be pulled across once the doors closed... and pulled back when the doors open, to prevent sound getting out thru the roller door I think. Preferably something not flammable and not too heavy.

Again wanting to do it once and do it right... I'd need to double glaze the windows to do it real justice maybe...but I am not going that far....
Maybe a second pain of glass inside with clear silicone between, and make my own heavier laminated glass?

I'm still kicking this around...

I can't line anything until all my electrical is in and that's only going to happen in stages as I can afford it.....so lining walls and sound deadening is a ways off - but no harm researching it ahead of time so I know what I'm going to do, and how, for the best effect, for the least cost.
Maybe a 2 layer Gyprock soundboard, with rock wool behind & then a chipboard sheet wall on a floating arrangement in front of it. Maybe some egg crate foam between the floating chipboard wall?

That way I get sound attenuation, and can still screw things to the wall to hang tools etc i.e. best of both worlds.

It's only around $1500 to put the Byrd helical shellix head onto the thicknesser / jointer and I am thinking that will be the greatest noisemaker... and reports are that the heads way quieter than the standard straight planer knives head in it now..

So maybe more sound attenuating bang for the buck in a new head (in an ideal world, I'll eventually do both). New head won't stop the lad and his gee - tarr from driving the neighbors nuts tho.

So I'm trying to prioritize what things I do, which ones first, for the best result, for lowest $ outlay, without doing something that later prevents me then doing something else better!

Gyprock, Rockwool, Chipboard, glass, new Planer head, Electrical, Clearview Max... I'm already back to a budget bigger than Ben Hur.
So - who needed a spare kidney again?
Time for a few more lotto tickets, I think.

Maybe time I started putting stuff on gumtree - and sell off all the crap stored that's blocking up precious space in my shed - and raise a few more pacific peso sheckles for the budget as well.

Been meaning to get stuff listed for a while and keep putting it off... time to get cracking!

This could be something to consider for hanging in front of your garage door - AcoustiFlex F Noise Barrier and Sound Absorber

Cheers for that Andy - could be VERY handy indeed.

Sorry I initially missed your reply above, we must have been typing at the same time!.

I do my loudest stuff (mortice chopping and circular saw) in the backyard - figure it's harder for the neighbours to pinpoint the noise that way. No one would complain if I was building a pergola with a circ saw....

Another thing I do is take advantage of my annoying neighbouring mowing his lawn, if he can hear me above his mower, leaf blower etc good luck to him !

Sam