garage doors

[thedankben]

i have moved into a new place and there is a two car garage and a single car garage that i will be turning into the tracking and control room. i dont want to take the garage doors off or build a wall in front of them. my question is what would be the best solution for this? is there acoustical curtains that i could hang in front of them or would putting foam on the doors be good. i used the search function on here and couldnt find an answer. any help would be great. thanks

[jwl]

Are you trying to prevent sound from escaping or entering the garage studio? Or do you just want it to sound good inside the studio?

[thedankben]

just for making the inside of the studio sounding as good as it can

[Padje]

I'm in the almost the same situation. Only, don't want sound coming in or going out and want the doors to sound good on the inside.

I've heard of merford acoustic doors, but they cost quit a heap. Maybe there are some diy solutions ?

[thedankben]

i also had an idea of maybe making some big bass traps and hang the from the ceiling in front of the doors and basically making the whole wall where the doors are absorbers.
i dont know much about studio acoustics cause this is my first tme i have had rooms dedicated to them and only know from what i have read about it.

do you think this would work or is it not good to have that many bass traps?

[Energie]

I have my composing studio in my garage, and I was in the same situation. What I did was make acoustic baffles that sat inside every hole thingy on teh garage, 16 of them, stuff with insulation and covered with fabric. Really kinda ghetto looking but really helped keep sound from bouncing off of the garage. Really, in hindsight, I think putting up a fake wall is a good idea, you can keep the garage door intact, just take down some of the hardware, and if you are going to be there for a bit, just put up a wall, and its pretty easy to convert back when done.

here is a pic (really old) and maybe you can see my hack job on the garage door, ha. Looks tacky, but for my purposes, it has been fine. I will make sure i do it nicer next time, which will be soon.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by thedankben

is it not good to have that many bass traps?

It's impossible to have too many bass traps.

--Ethan

[chamfer]

Originally Posted by Energie

I have my composing studio in my garage, and I was in the same situation. What I did was make acoustic baffles that sat inside every hole thingy on teh garage, 16 of them, stuff with insulation and covered with fabric. Really kinda ghetto looking but really helped keep sound from bouncing off of the garage. Really, in hindsight, I think putting up a fake wall is a good idea, you can keep the garage door intact, just take down some of the hardware, and if you are going to be there for a bit, just put up a wall, and its pretty easy to convert back when done.

here is a pic (really old) and maybe you can see my hack job on the garage door, ha. Looks tacky, but for my purposes, it has been fine. I will make sure i do it nicer next time, which will be soon.

I can't see the attached thumbnails to your garage door insulation/wall. Could you please re-post?

While on this topic, anybody know of any other threads that deal specifically with garage door insulation i.e. Keep unwanted noise from outside out keep noise inside in. I've done plenty of searches. thnx.

[RedWallStudio]

Yep. I have a two car garage and the same dilemna. I actually built a drum room inside the garage.. thats a story unto itself. But I wanted to isolate the garage door as much as possible, so I did it with Owens Corning 705... even though a few acoustic experts said I would be wasting my time & money.

Basically, I purchased eight 10 x 4 sheets of Owens Corning 705 that are 4" thick (got them from SPI). Then I glued two of them back to back, so it effectively made a sheet of 705 that is 8 inches thick. Then I found some fabric on E-bay and covered the giant panels on one side. (just glued the fabric to the panels with 3-M spray adhesive... it worked great).Then I stood the panels up in front of my garage door. I cut them to the exact height of my floor to ceiling height, then when I added the fabric (which wraps around the 705 sheets to give them a clean finish) it made them a bit thicker which achieved a pressure fit from the floor to ceiling. The only problem I had is that I had to cut around the center track and the two side tracks of the garage door. I did a pretty good job of it though and just filled the three cracks with loose insulation.

In the end it works great. Is it totally sound-proof? Not quite.. but it is a HUGE improvement. People here will say that 705 should be used as a sound treatment, and not for sound-proofing. I can tell you first hand that an 8 inch thick wall of 705 WILL do wonders for isolating the garage door... its not sound proof.. but is really really good. It takes a very loud car on the street (15 feet from my garage door by the way) for me to be able to hear it.

I should also add that my live room is in a garage that is in a town-home.. so I had lots of potential issues to deal with. I've been operating my home studio and tracking lots of bands for the past year and a half.. and I have not had ONE complaint. I have also asked my neighbors if they can every hear music and they rarely can.

And when and if I am ever ready to return my garage back to a garage, I can just pull the 705 sheets out and voila.. garage is back. They are way too heavy to move around too much, but it beats the hell out of building an actual wall out of drywall etc... and it probably took me less than a day to build.

[chamfer]

Originally Posted by RedWallStudio

Yep. I have a two car garage and the same dilemna. I actually built a drum room inside the garage.. thats a story unto itself. But I wanted to isolate the garage door as much as possible, so I did it with Owens Corning 705... even though a few acoustic experts said I would be wasting my time & money.

Basically, I purchased eight 10 x 4 sheets of Owens Corning 705 that are 4" thick (got them from SPI). Then I glued two of them back to back, so it effectively made a sheet of 705 that is 8 inches thick. Then I found some fabric on E-bay and covered the giant panels on one side. (just glued the fabric to the panels with 3-M spray adhesive... it worked great).Then I stood the panels up in front of my garage door. I cut them to the exact height of my floor to ceiling height, then when I added the fabric (which wraps around the 705 sheets to give them a clean finish) it made them a bit thicker which achieved a pressure fit from the floor to ceiling. The only problem I had is that I had to cut around the center track and the two side tracks of the garage door. I did a pretty good job of it though and just filled the three cracks with loose insulation.

In the end it works great. Is it totally sound-proof? Not quite.. but it is a HUGE improvement. People here will say that 705 should be used as a sound treatment, and not for sound-proofing. I can tell you first hand that an 8 inch thick wall of 705 WILL do wonders for isolating the garage door... its not sound proof.. but is really really good. It takes a very loud car on the street (15 feet from my garage door by the way) for me to be able to hear it.

I should also add that my live room is in a garage that is in a town-home.. so I had lots of potential issues to deal with. I've been operating my home studio and tracking lots of bands for the past year and a half.. and I have not had ONE complaint. I have also asked my neighbors if they can every hear music and they rarely can.

And when and if I am ever ready to return my garage back to a garage, I can just pull the 705 sheets out and voila.. garage is back. They are way too heavy to move around too much, but it beats the hell out of building an actual wall out of drywall etc... and it probably took me less than a day to build.

Thanks a lot. I'm pretty convinced on what to do now. My only concern is that I won't have as soft an air spring as you may have a since I do want to sandwich the mineral fiber that I have on the garage door with 3/4" mdf. I will double up on the mineral fiber that I already I have in there.