Garages are ideally not a place where you sleep, relax, or read a book, but still, there are many reasons why you should soundproof your garage. Many people use their garage as a place to carry out their DIY projects, mostly to repair their car or bikes, and sometimes even woodwork. Most of these projects tend to produce a lot of sounds and it can be quite disturbing to your neighbours as well as family members. Soundproof garage doors would ensure that the noise created from your DIY projects and repair works doesn’t leak outside.
Considerations
Before deciding the technique to use to soundproof the garage, one needs to assess what they want to use the garage for. The garage that is isolated and doesn’t have windows and would be used for only DIY projects present less challenges for soundproofing than the garages that would be used by a music band for practice sessions. Many people even choose to make their garages a personal home theatre. Such requirements are not only more challenging in terms of soundproofing but would considerably push the budget much higher as well.
Soundproofing a Garage
There are several steps involved in soundproofing a garage, which is as follows –
- Soundproofing door
- Sealing gaps
- Deaden the sound
- Wall soundproofing
- Creating room inside a room
- Double drywall
- Mass increase
- Ceiling soundproof
- Deadening the floor
How to Soundproof a Garage Door?
The door is the weakest area of any space when it comes to sound leakage. It is the primary focus of any soundproofing process as doors cause a lot of sound leakages, and garage doors are even worse. It is because garage doors are bigger than the normal ones and have gaps on the edges that need to be taken care of as well. For normal usage of drilling tools and car repair kits, using curtains and door sealing kit would do the trick. However, if you are looking to set up a home theatre in garage or practice music sessions with your band, building a wall inside or outside of the door is essential. It is the common answer to the question of how to soundproof a garage.
Using solid core doors is a solution in some cases if you do not plan to keep your vehicles in the garage. However, if you plan to park your vehicles in the garage, using solid core doors is not a practical solution as these doors are not very flexible and opening and closing the doors can take a toll on you.
Sealing the gaps
To stop the airborne sound leakage from the garage, it is necessary to seal the gaps below, on the sides and above the garage door. There are rubber seals available that would comprehensively suppress the sound from leaking from below the garage door. There are seal kits available that you can use to seal the sides of the garage door. The best part is that these kits and rubber seals are easy to install and doesn’t take up much time. However, your work doesn’t finish after installing the seal kit because there would still be some gaps left that need to be plugged with acoustic caulk.
Deaden the Sound
There are several ways you can do this, which includes by using curtains and by sticking drywall on the garage door. In some cases, sticking mass loaded vinyl to the garage door can be considered as well. It depends on the amount of sound produced and the consequences of it. If the sound leakage caused is at a tolerable level, using curtains should suffice in most cases. For complete soundproofing though, reliable core soundproof garage doors installation needs to be done, and remaining area needs to be dry-walled.
Soundproofing Walls
One of the best ways to soundproof your garage walls is to make a room within a room. It would provide better sound insulation and reduce the sound transfer from one frame to another drastically. It does cost a bit but is known to be the most efficient solution for soundproofing the garage.
Many people on a lesser budget can even choose to go for double-wall construction. For people low on budget with soundproofing, using sound isolation chips and resilient channels is a good idea. Garage doors installation should be done properly in order for the rest of the area to perform as expected in terms of soundproofing as it is from where most of the sound leakage occurs.
Soundproofing the garage doors may cost you a bit but would go a long way in ensuring your privacy in the garage, and you don’t have to deal with the neighbours’ complaints anymore as well.
