Dust collector noise

[Raif Harik]

Hi, I have a shop that is ... a bit unusual, I guess. I built it onto the backside of our "guest house". We rent this house out, and sometimes do airbnb. The shop is built on the only space humanly possible to build it on my property :). The wife, and to a lesser extent me, is afraid that the noise of the shop will disturb the tenant. When I say built on the back of, I mean I poured a slab attached to the slab of the house and used the exterior wall of the house as one wall of my shop. Now I did actually build a wall against that that I insulated and then skinned with that asphalt impregnated board and 3/8th in ply. That was all in hopes of reducing the sound impact. Now on to the point.
I have purchased a jet 2hp DC. It's pretty old I guess, I think in the picture online of the motor it says the date is 2002/7. making it about 20 years old. I'm concerned that it will sound like 1000 banshees. I have read about people taking apart their cheapo dc and making it more quite. I was wondering if anyone has any insight into how I might help reduce the potential noise.
I know this is kind of a crazy long shot. I'm just worrying, and wondering.
thanks,
Raif

[Carl Beckett]

I had my DC vented to the outside for years. Clearvue 5hp.

My closest neighbor was about 100yds away. I asked him about the noise of my shop and whether he was bothered by it. He said the only thing he ever heard was the DC whine.

So yep, it makes some noise.

If I were trying to nap in a rented/adjacent apartment I would likely be annoyed at it. Dont know if that will happen in your case.

Look up sound proofing for ways to reduce noise. A lot to it. The home theater forums can give some good insight on something like this.

[Alan Lightstone]

A lot of past threads on this topic. It's going to be a tough problem, but not insurmountable. Double stud walls with air gap, heavy insulation, Green Glue, Double thick drywall, sealing all air gaps in outlets, Sound deflecting/absorbing panels -- I could go on and on.

Once you start doing some of these things, you can use your phone as a sound meter and see how effective each step is, and how much more you need to do. Stand inside the house and measure the sound level. If it isn't ambient, you're going to annoy the renters. Once it is, smile, you're done.

[james manutes]

If possible , locate the DC away from the shared or common wall to the rental space . Soft surfaces will absorb sound , but ae dust magnets . Hope it works out for you .

[Bob Riefer]

My workshop makes up the 1st story of our barn, and the 2nd story of the same building is a fully-finished apartment (that we really only use for friends/family). I made zero attempt to control noise passage between the spaces, and my teenage kids are routinely up there hanging out with their friends while I woodwork. They can tell I'm woodworking but it isn't loud enough to bother their enjoyment of the space. Realistically, much of my shop time is spent figuring out, measuring, setting up... then a burst of machine use. Repeat. (except when prepping rough lumber which is longer machine use).

When we have guests stay in the apartment, I just avoid woodworking before (say) 9 a.m. or after (say) 8 p.m. and it has been totally fine. Guests are usually doing activities outside the apartment during times that I would use the shop, so it's never a problem.

I guess my point is... maybe run some equipment and get a sense of how "bad" it is, evaluate how often you run your noisiest machines vs. how often you have people in the space, and determine how much of a solution you actually need (in my case... the solution was "do nothing at all").