A garage is basically a section of a house where people park their cars. However, beyond being a place where people keep their cars out of public view, a garage can also serve other purposes. It is a perfect place for band rehearsals.
Although it was not built for this purpose, it really does appear to be the only part of the house where bands can have intense rehearsals.
While rehearsing in a garage might seem great, it has a major downside- it can be a major source of disturbance to you other people in the neighborhood.
It really does not matter how good the sound you are producing is, most neighbors will be unable to hear the sound of the music.
All they will hear is noise which is associated with the sound you are making. This, therefore, makes it important that you discover ways to soundproof your garage.
Contained in this article are some easy and cheap ways to soundproof your garage. Let’s find out what some of these ways are.
Contents
Soundproof the Garage Door
Soundproofing your garage can actually be very challenging. And one of the most challenging parts of soundproofing your garage is actually soundproofing your garage door.
You can look for some of the best quietest garage door openers, or when looking you’re to soundproof your garage door, you can either make use of acoustic blankets or sheets.
Making use of acoustic blankets in soundproofing your garage door might be a little demanding because of their size.
You might need the help of a couple of people to cut acoustic blankets into the size of your garage door. Also, you will be spending some money as these blankets are made from fiberglass and are not so cheap.
If you are running on a fairly tight budget, you can decide to soundproof your garage doors with the use of moving blankets. They function just like acoustic blankets. They are, however, not as expensive.
Take Advantage of Resilient Channels
A resilient channel can be used if you do not want to create a room in your garage. They can greatly reduce the level of reflection of sound in your garage.
Basically, the resilient channel is a metallic channel that is effective in making ceilings, walls, and dry walls more efficient in absorbing sound.
To get the best out of the use of resilient channels, it is important that you place them about three feet from your garage floor and your ceiling.
Soundproof the Windows
Your garage is not exactly a residential part of your building. As a result of this, doing away with its windows might not have lots of downsides. I’ve done a detailed article on soundproofing a window on this blog.
There are quite a number of things that you can do to the windows in your garage which will help make your garage soundproof. Some of them include –
Bricking Your Window:
This is very straightforward. Doing this will leave you with a very small proportion of glass and a large proportion of brick. It is common knowledge that glass is not as dense as bricks and therefore allows more sound to go through.
So, having a large proportion of your window replaced with brick will ensure that less sound leaves your garage. This might not seem very comfortable.
Nonetheless, you really do not need windows in a rehearsal room as there is no need to see your surroundings.
Make use of a Windows Acoustic Plug:
An acoustic plug for your windows can also be called an additional window of some sort. To get the best out of this, you have to measure your window and then cut your acoustic plug to the exact size of your window.
Doing this will leave you with an air seal which will help in capturing some of the sounds that would have found its way out of the garage. Here is an article that explains how acoustic foam works.
Amazingly, an acoustic plug is not permanent. You can, therefore, decide to leave it on your window or take it off just after rehearsing.
Make use of Acoustic Sheets for Garage Ceiling
The door and the window of a garage are not the only points through which sound gets out of a garage. The ceiling of a garage is also one of the points through which sound gets out.
As a result of this, if you decide to soundproof your doors and garage windows and leave the ceiling untouched, you might not have a perfectly done job.
To ensure that your neighbors are not disturbed by your music in the slightest way, you should also soundproof your ceiling.
When soundproofing your ceiling, there are lots of materials you can make use of. Some of them are acoustic blankets, soundproofing tiles, sheets, and foam panels.
When making use of soundproofing foams in soundproofing your ceiling, cut them into wedge shapes and attach them to your ceiling with small nails. They will not only stop sound from getting out of your garage, but they will also reduce the echo in your garage.
Create a Room in Your Garage
Creating a room in your garage might be a very demanding way to soundproof your garage. Nonetheless, it is one of the most effective ways to soundproof your garage.
This method is very effective in soundproofing your garage because it is all about the creation of more layers. The more the layers sound has to go through to make its way out, the less the sound that will find its way out of the garage.
To get this done, you will need drywall and wooden pallets. Drywall has the ability to absorb sounds of high intensity. As a result of this, you will get better results if you are able to make use of more layers of drywall.
Soundproof your Garage Floor
Your garage might be on the ground floor, that, however, does not mean your garage floor should not be soundproofed. When left untouched, the floor in your garage can reflect the sound that is being produced to the walls and the ceiling.
When soundproofing your garage floor, you do not need to do much. All you have to do is locate any carpet that you do not have much use for anymore and lay it on the floor.
The carpet basically acts like means of absorbing all the sounds that will normally bounce off the floor.
Make use of Sheets and Acoustic Blankets for Walls
There is a huge likelihood that your garage walls are not thick. The implication of this is they will also need some form of padding to soak up the sound that is being made in the garage.
There are lots of materials that can be used in soundproofing the wall of your garage. Of all these materials, acoustic sheets or blankets are some of the most available.
These materials are able to absorb more than half of the sound coming out of your garage. So, they just might be ideal especially when combined with other soundproofing methods.
Making use of sheets and blankets in soundproofing your garage walls is amazing.
Nonetheless, these materials do not just soundproof your walls, they also give your garage a beautiful design as they can be gotten in various patterns. A lot of people also considering using soundproof wallpapers.
A Combination of Various Soundproof techniques
The many techniques for soundproofing your garage that is mentioned in this article are very effective in keeping sound from getting out of your garage.
Well, regardless of how effective all these methods are, no one really has an efficiency of up to a hundred percent. What does that imply?
It simply implies that if you must have a garage that is anything near a hundred percent soundproofed, you will have to make use of more than one method of soundproofing your garage at once.
Now, the methods of soundproofing your garage which is listed in this article are quite plenty. As a result of this, it might not be possible to make use of all of them at the same time. This, regardless, a couple of them can be combined.
Combining various soundproofing techniques in keeping your garage soundproof is lit dependent on your budget. If you are not running on a tight budget, you can make use of a combination of creating a room in your garage and taking advantage of resilient channels.
On the other hand, if you are running on a fairly tight budget, you can simply soundproof your walls, your floors, your ceiling, your door and your window all at once. Although this will cost you a little, you will not need really special materials to make this happen.
Although it appears like a lot of people, young people especially might make attempts to soundproof their garage because of the sound of music, there are other reasons why you might want to soundproof your garage.
It really does not matter what the reason you want to soundproof your garage is, the above methods of soundproofing your garage can be trusted to keep you out of unwanted confrontations with your neighbors. All you need to do is adhere strictly to them and you will be glad you did.
