Paul James

Hi Guys,

I need your opinions, I am building a home theater in my downstairs garage. The external brick walls of the garage are 8inches thick, I am thinking of leaving the brick walls as is, having them internally plastered to a smooth finish and then hanging thick heavy curtains in front of the walls, in terms of noise reduction (bass in particular) do you think the brick walls would be sufficient ? The receiver I will be using will be the Yamaha RXV995 (5x100w) and the subbie is an M&K MX120.

Soundproofing the room is my number one priority as the room needs to be quiet from the neighbourly point of view.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

PhilBoy

Is the 8" brick cinderblock (hollow)?

I assume the floor is concrete ?

simplicity is genius...

Paul James

Hi,

Yes I am pretty sure the block would be hollow, this is what I think it might be...



The floor is concrete as well.

Paul.

PhilBoy

I love your country... I'd love to see it someday.

To business. I don't think the walls and floor will be your problem for sound, the airspace in the cinderblock will act as a good sound barrier and the floor won't vibrate.

I think the only place that might need soundproofing would be the door. I assume there is one.

I know up here in the Great White North there are garage door blankets (for the inside to keep out the extreme cold) which would help soundproof, but I really doubt you will be able to buy one down under (or up on top depending on your perspective).

I would suggest hooking it up and see if you really need to soundproof.

Who knows if anyone complains, invite them over for a Fosters and a show.

simplicity is genius...

Andrew Steel

Hi Paul,
If you contact the local manufacturers like Boral they will give you the acoustic specs for the wall configurations you are considering.

The curtains will do very little to reduce transmission outside. The best bet is to build the plaster wall separate from the block wall. Use resilient mounts and fill the gap with insulation. Also consider any flanking paths like up through floors, penetrations etc and how they may get to the outside world.

I have a very good link to a document that will illuminate this but can't post it here??

Also I am in Brisbane and happy to have a chat if you want. Otherwise post more questions here and I'll do what I can

Andrew

Paul James

Thanks for the responses. Phil,

There will be an internal door to the HT room and then an external door leading outside, both doors will be of sufficient quality to be as soundproof as possible. With two doors I should be able to manage it fairly well.

Andrew,

Yes I initially thought of adding an interior drywall inside the brick wall but the size of the room at the momemnt without adding any internal walls is about 4.4m (w) x 5.8m (l) and thought that with all the added plasterboards etc that it would take too much space and make the room too small.

I intend to have a mounted 100" screen and want two rows of seating, just abit concerned that the room would not be long enough for that as the front row would be too close to the screen. So I thought if the concrete blocks would be sufficient on their own I'd leave as is. The curtains I know won't keep any sound in, they are more for acoustical properties than anything else.

The ceiling won't be a problem as I have about 3.0m now to play with, I will be installing a soundproof ceiling with insulation. Also the wall that will replace the garage doors will be properly insulated and proper acousic plasterboard i.e. 'soundchek' through Gyprock used.

I just wondered whether the concrete walls would be good enough, if i can get away without having to add internal walls I will only purely for space saving reasons.

Cheers,

Paul

PS. If you want to contact me at home, my e-mail is pajames2@bigpond.net.au

SteveLeach

Go to quietsolution.com/home_theaters.html they have several pdf's that talk about soundproofing home theaters. One pdf is on this page, the others are found under the top two product listing links.
Keep in mind that they are trying to promote their products, but there is good information to be found on this site, IMHO.
Hope this helps

steve

Eddie L

Paul,
You have about the same dimensions to your room as mine. Actually, yours is a bit longer. I can only go with a 92 inch screen myself, but still have 2 rows of seating. My wife thinks the front row is too close but not me.
Anyway, I have 2 walls of block. The screen wall and left wall. The screen wall butts up next to our driveway. At one time that wall WAS going to be our garage door entrance. Most days I can't even hear people drive up to the outside wall. A good example is our plumber who drives a diesel pickup. Our diesels are much noisier, than yours! Even knowing this, however, I still decided to add 1.5 inches of styrofoam insulation to the inside of the block and only 1/2 inch sheetrock. I know it will be plenty, and besides it will save as a chase area of wiring for my subwoofer and masking motors. I know what you mean in wanting to save space, every inch (cm.) adds up.
Ed