What material to use for noise reduction?

[Jim Lankford]

Thanks for your response to my question on Clear Vue DC! My anticipated shop is an addition to my house (14 x 28),which is being used for storage at the present but no access to the house itself. It has concrete floor and walls. My question is what to cover the walls to give me the most noise reduction for the buck! The ceiling is a slanted wood joist roof, which I plan to add regular insulation. Any advice for the walls and ceiling would be appreciated!

[keith ouellette]

are the walls just bare studs now?

When I added r13 insulation and 1/2" osb to cover the studs I noticed a considerable drop in noise to the outside of the shop. From what I understand fiberglass insulation is very good at baffling noise and I'm sure the osb helped also.

[Jim Lankford]

The walls are concrete foundation walls! 8 inches thick!

[Darius Ferlas]

Noise reduction is a pretty wide term. You can reduce noise so less of it gets outside the room. In addition, you can address reverberation, which will make working inside of the room more comfortable.

Without going through recording studio grade materials, some of the popular and most effective ones are fiber glass insulation compressed by around 60 to 75%, and layer(s) of peg board. The peg wholes "trap" sound waves, so the more wholes per square unit the better, although there is some math behind it that helps decide how many is too many. They have been traditionally used in recording studios as the external, or one of the internal layers.

I have seen people use cheap carpets under a layer of peg board.

The number of layers depends on the amount of noise reduction you want to achieve, and on the amount of cash you want to spend.

Btw. 8' thick concrete walls give you pretty good noise reduction.

[Michael McCoy]

I recently put some Reflectix radiant barrier on my uninsulated aluminum garage door to try and retain some heat but a side benefit was I was pleasantly surprised to find that the noise level outside was conderably reduced. It may be my imagination but it seems the level is also reduced inside, possibly due to less resonance against the bare metal door.

[Jim Lankford]

I want to reduce the machine noise within the workshop itself!

[glenn bradley]

I want to reduce the machine noise within the workshop itself!

I always wear hearing protection so the noise of the machines is of little consequence. I know some folks enclose their DC in a little closet and I have a baffle box around my compressor. Are these the type of things you are talking about?

[keith ouellette]

The walls are concrete foundation walls! 8 inches thick!

I doubt you can improve on the sound deadening properties of that much concrete without taking up room.

Are you going to finish the inside or are you leaving it concrete wall?

[keith ouellette]

I want to reduce the machine noise within the workshop itself!

I just noticed this. I thought you were talking about noise to the outside.

I don't think the concrete absorbs sound well. It seems to allow most of the sound to bounce so when your within the structure you get the full brunt of it. I think you need something to absorb the sound a bit but I don't know what material would work best. Try looking into this (assuming my link works)

http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/panels/alphasorb.asp?gclid=CPDhtZ3f65gCFQITswodpXW60w

[Eric Gustafson]

The Lowes here sells this sheathing for sound isolation. 4x8 sheets are about $13. It is a lightweight fiberous-looking material. It is called sound board.

[Jim Lankford]

Its a small area, so I want to keep as much of it open as possible! Maybe rip 2 x 4's for in half for studs.Then use thin insulation between the 1 1/2 " studs , then put some 1/2 or 3/4 " styrofoam between the studs on top of the insulation. Then on the upper half of the wall put pegboard all the way around? I'm just trying to brainstorm here a lil! LOL

[Jim Lankford]

Eric, thanks, that may be a thought! Never have seen it , but I'll look! Any more sugestions please throw them my way!

[Eric Gustafson]

Eric, thanks, that may be a thought! Never have seen it , but I'll look! Any more sugestions please throw them my way!

If you insulate the joists above with batt insulation and leave it unfinished, it will also absorb a lot of the noise.

[Doug Shepard]

Are you eclosing the cyclone? I got pretty decent noise reduction numbers just using 2" styro but that's with the ClearVue in a closet.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=64272
I think you could do even better than my numbers but what remaining noise there is, really isn't objectionable at all. Certainly nothing I feel I should be wearing hearing protection for anyway.