Nick had made a comment on my facebook regarding a post I made about soundproofing a room in my home. I thought it might be a good idea to create a thread here for all interested parties to partake of his wisdom in the particular area.

So Mr. Ninja, we're all ears! well, except for myself, who happens to be all_thumbs.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Thanx bro i needed that laugh

Yeah Niki give us the goods..Perhaps we can save my neighbors some sleepless nights...LOL

Cheers
Bill

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

Bumping this for our Ninja friend to find.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

I was a member of a very loud 5 piece rock band. We built a free standing practice room on one side of a double garage. I think the fact that it did not touch any walls and only came in contact with the concrete floor was key. One of the guys was a framing carpenter and he framed it up, just like he was building a house. We used heavy drywall and stuffed lots of insulation between the walls. We put one small vent on the thing.

When we played and put down the garage door, it sounded like someone was playing a radio inside. We practice two or three nights a week for years and never got a single complaint.

Yeah OK what I was basicaly saying is that for home soundproofing you dont have to spend a fortune.

Basicaly there are three rules to soundproofing.

1 Any soundproofing materials need to be of a different density to the other materials making up the walls/celiling/floor.
2 Wherever possible isolate walls. Have a clear seperation between adjacent walls, ceiling and floors.
3 Dont be scared of sealant.

Ok so here we go issue no'1
What you really need to create a good soundproofed room is have barriers that will break down any soundwaves as they pass through the barrier. To do this your well off to use differing materials. I know a lot of houses use drywall these days. It's a bonus becuase usually these walls will have some form of insulation or rockwool in their cavity. What you need to do to the face of the wall is build up other layers. This way soundwaves hitting the wall will compress to a certain amount to get through the first layer of the barrier. Then they will hit another material with a different density and try to compensate by either compressing further to get through a even denser material or expanding where they get chance, like with a lighter material. E.g Rockwool. Then when they get through that and hit a different material again, the soundwave will have to change again to get through it.
In the end you will have distorted the soundwave to a point where it becomes unnoticable to the human ear.
You can use anything to build up these layers. Just make sure the layers have as little in common as possible regards density.

No'2
Seperation
Ok in all decency your going to want a solid surface as the face of your soundproofed wall. This presents a problem as it's never good to build on a less than solid surface/foundation. With a solid/hard surface you need a softer layer underneath to destroy/distort the soundwaves as much as possible. What you need to do is get a staggered support of some kind. In the UK the popular support is this.

Details here
http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/soundproofing/rbar.htm

Basicaly what you'd do is fix the flat flange to the existing wall. Then fix your hard surface (plasterboard/ply/tiles) to the elevated section.

Also with your final/finish surface it's a good idea to keep a 1/8th- 1/4" gap between abutting walls and ceiling. I recommend 1/2" along the floor line. Reason being you can place as much of a barrier ontop of a wall to utterly destroy a soundwave. If that soundwave hits a wall it will move into a abutting wall and vibrate its way off to adjoining rooms, if it gets the chance. Best solution is to not have your finish surfaces actually touching. That is just the finish/surface material. You can cram as much rockwool/carpet/old socks up to that wall as you like.

Gotta go get the kids from school, more later.

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No no and no

These links are for sound proofing a home theatre, same idea.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/soundproofing_pt1.html
http://www.axiomaudio.com/soundproofing_pt2.html

Soundproofing works by using materials that either reduce sound or absorb sound. A thick wall or other material is used to reduce sound. Foam and curtains are the materials that are used to reduce sound. Soundproofing materials for reducing sound are often made out of wood and fiberglass.

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Soundproofing
how to soundproof a room