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 Soundproofing a room
Author: locke9342 
Date:   2017-08-12 08:11

I'm moving into a condo and might not have access to a dedicated practice room. What are some good cheap ways to soundproof a room? I've seen some like foam panels that looked relatively cheap, but I'm not sure if that's what I need or good enough to dampen my practice. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: Tony F 
Date:   2017-08-12 10:12

Marine chandlers sell sound-deadening foam, or sometimes felt, which is used to sound-proof the engine compartments of boats.

Tony F.

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: Wes 
Date:   2017-08-12 10:20

In California, the condo construction codes call for isolation between adjoining units, with wood uprights not touching both walls. This may not be so for your condo however.

Before I moved into my condo, I considered buying a small practice room to erect inside a room. Check the internet for them. However, my bottom bonus room with concrete block walls between me and both neighbors isolates well and they don't seem to be able to hear me practice at any hour, even with a loud baritone sax.

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: hans 
Date:   2017-08-13 03:45

FYI - Styrofoam (if that is what you are considering) emits toxic fumes if it catches fire, so that your building code may require it to be covered by drywall (gypsum board).

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: locke9342 
Date:   2017-08-14 22:30

I don't think I have the luxury of concrete block walls anywhere, but it could be worse lol.

I've been doing some research and a lot of the foam padding I'm seeing is "sound absorbing" rather than "sound proofing" so it's not supposed to isolate as well, but will this stuff do the trick for blocking some of the noise, at least, from getting out? I guess my question is, how effective is the sound sound absorbing foam?

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: fskelley 
Date:   2017-08-14 22:55

I live in a townhome community and have considered this question myself. My office / practice room shares a wall with a next door bathroom of a unit rented short term (week to week) to families visiting Orlando, and is not always occupied. And visitors are often absent during the day (yay Disney!). But I've had friendly chats with visitors who say they do hear me, not sure nice folks would tell me if they were bothered. So I never go past about 7:30 PM. I wish I had an easy way to tell whether anyone is home next door.

Anyway, I have always thought a "vocal booth" (look on that auction site) would be a good start. Anything good at filtering out external sound has to be equally good at filtering internal to the outside. And they can be had for not too much $$$. Inconvenience is another matter (no matter what you do). Has anyone worked with these?

I will say, though, that there would be great power in knowing I could play any time of day or night without any chance of bothering anyone. Almost certainly I would play more- unless every time I played I had a cumbersome setup/teardown to do.

Stan in Orlando

EWI 4000S with modifications

Post Edited (2017-08-14 22:59)

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: Mark Charette 2017
Date:   2017-08-15 00:55

Truly "soundproofing" a room is an expensive undertaking. My son has a soundproof room that was designed in by his architects. Just the price of a triple gasketed latching door could take your breath away. But the stereo can be blasting at orchestral levels and you can't hear it outside the room.

Egg crate acoustical foam is going to be better than nothing, and doing offset stud walls will certainly help for those mortals like me on a tight budget.

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: locke9342 
Date:   2017-08-15 01:33

"offset stud walls"?

And would the foam help just talking in general, for example, would it keep a phone call from being heard outside the room?

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 Re: Soundproofing a room
Author: Mark Charette 2017
Date:   2017-08-15 02:33

locke9342 wrote:

> "offset stud walls"?
>
> And would the foam help just talking in general, for example,
> would it keep a phone call from being heard outside the room?
It'll help. But not as much as you hope.

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