I remember as a kid I got a tour of a radio station, in the Deejays booth, they had carpet as a wall covering, apparently for sound proofing. Anyone have comments on this?

I was thinking insulating the walls but before the drywall or plywood goes up, to put cheap carpet up under it. This would be going into an attached garage that I would ike to keep noise to the outside to a minimum.
:rolleyes:

It is (believe it or not) very expensive. The cheapest ive seen it was around $3 a square foot. If thats not a big deal to you, then just google "acoustic foam" and order what you like. It also doesnt work much better than carpet as an insulator- thats not what it was mainly designed for.



EDIT

I now see that you werent even talking about the foam. Nevermind, i cant read. :P Id just use the scrap carpet. I have a closet inside my garage that has my air compresser that i hung in scrap carpet. Before the carpet was up, it was pretty loud even with the door shut. After i put the carpet on the walls it was really quiet.

Since you haven't closed in the walls yet, do a search on google for "staggered stud wall soundproofing". It is by far the best method other than a room within a room design for isolating noise. Make sure you seal off any outlet boxes etc, and put a layer of insulation in the cavity. By the inside wall not being in contact with the outside wall, it is much more difficult for sound to transfer though.

The carpet or acoustic foam on the inside walls will not reduce the amount of noise transfered though the wall. This is used to control the sound within the room, to essentially limit echos inside a space.

So is you goal to reduce the sound inside the attached house wall, or to ouside the garage? If you are trying to reduce the sound outside, your garage door is probably the biggest culprit. Any space that air can move through will let noise pass through as well.

Hope that helps!

Since you haven't closed in the walls yet, do a search on google for "staggered stud wall soundproofing". It is by far the best method other than a room within a room design for isolating noise. Make sure you seal off any outlet boxes etc, and put a layer of insulation in the cavity. By the inside wall not being in contact with the outside wall, it is much more difficult for sound to transfer though.

The carpet or acoustic foam on the inside walls will not reduce the amount of noise transfered though the wall. This is used to control the sound within the room, to essentially limit echos inside a space.

So is you goal to reduce the sound inside the attached house wall, or to ouside the garage? If you are trying to reduce the sound outside, your garage door is probably the biggest culprit. Any space that air can move through will let noise pass through as well.

Hope that helps!

IMO Kicker_92 is on the right track. I would also look into the :mad3: flammable :mad3: factor of anything you put into or hang on the walls.

45acp, the compressor, yes will be my biggest noise maker, so that I would also want in its own enclosure, but I ask how do you get air into the enclosure for the compressor to suck in? Holes down low? I may just stick to an enclosure for the compressor, Grinding and welding dont happen too much here yet.

Kicker, yeah I know theres nothing I can do about the garage doors but you are correct on both assumptions, I do want to limit sound into the house if i can as well be a good neighbour. Play nice with them, they dont call the cops!

I was simply floored at the amount of stuff you can google when you type in the staggered wall soundproofing gig.

Yes I also am concerned with Flammable materials, as it concerns the biggest purchase a guy/girl could make in their lifetime, a house. Thanks for mentioning it, it will be bumped up the priorities list.

45acp, the compressor, yes will be my biggest noise maker, so that I would also want in its own enclosure, but I ask how do you get air into the enclosure for the compressor to suck in? Holes down low? I may just stick to an enclosure for the compressor, Grinding and welding dont happen too much here yet.I didnt have to build an enclosure- its an actual closet in my garage (it also has the CH/A unit in it). The noise going into the garage was pretty bad, but the noise going into the house was unbearable. If i had the compressor on it was louder in the living room then it was in the closet. I just cut out some scrap carpet and did the walls, backside of the door, and floor under the compressor. As far as air getting in- its a pretty "loose" closet although the door is really tight it seems most of the intake airflow comes from the attic.

We have designed a couple places using a 1/2" layer of Homosote under the drywall where the added expense/wall thickness of staggered studs was too much. Lately we have used a membrane product that works surprisingly well for only being about an 1/8" thick. It gets a bit expensive, though.

Compressor noise has a couple of seperate issues. The air inlet creates some mid-high frequency noise, which is best dampened with some exposed absorbant materials (foam, insulation, etc), and is easily blocked by a staggered stud with single drywall.

The motor and compressor creats low frequency noise, which is much more difficult to block. Low frequency noise generally needs mass, and lots of it. By double layers of drywall on one side of the staggered stud, you can block much more low frequency noises. Again, beware that even small air leaks will greatly reduce your noise barrier wall.

The other problem with compressors is the vibration from the mounts. The noise will transfer though the concrete floor quite easily, which means the no matter how well you make your wall, it can sneak around through the floor. The best solution to this is to isolate the compressor from the floor. I think that the cheapest/easiest way to do this is the build a wood pallet type stand for the compressor, and use some rubber bumpstops on the bottom (not bolted to the floor).

A simple enclosure for the compressor made of a wood frame with a couple layers of drywall around it will reduce the noise inside the garage by a lot. For an air inlet to the enclosure, cute a hole and cover it with a couple layers of Rockwool or pink insulation (rockwool is a lot nicer to work with). Another way to do this is to use pegboard on one side (preferably facing away from the room) and cover the inside with rockwool.


Basicly to summ it up, you have two issues, isolating noise, and absorbing it:

To isolate, use mass and reduce any points that are connected on both sides of the walls. Also watch for any air leaks. Sounds waves are like water. If your room was filled with water, anywhere it would leak out, noise will too.

To absorb noise within a room, you need to have materials like insulation or foam exposed, preferably between you and the noise source. I would not use any foam in a shop since it is quite flammable.


I guess this got a little long, I hope it makes sense! Just taking some basic steps for sound control will make any space much more comfortable, take some photos and keep us updated on how it turns out!

Yeah I will update this project when it comes to it, I tend to do this alot, think about something ahead of time then by that time it happens Its been over thought! LMAO