Garage Conversions - how "quiet" is yours?

[starfire]

Hi,

I've been reading and looking with great interest on all the garage conversion threads, there's some great conversions out there and I'm pondering whether to do one myself.

One question though that hopefully people who have converted can answer: for those with a garage attached to the house, how soundproofed is your room and how quiet is the rest of your house, eg. rooms adjoining, directly above etc. when your system is in "full swing " ?

Have you managed to soundproof to a good level such that sleeping children for example wouldn't be wakened by listening at a decent but not excessively loud volume level?

Thanks!

[smjxm09]

I am just starting an internal garage conversion. My internal garage wall that adjoins the hall of the house has a cavity which was insulated by the builders in 2000 so this must help. What I will get done will be to add 200mm of insulation above the ceiling. I guess the weak spot will be the door from the new cinema room to the hall.

[samhain]

in progress so don't know. Trying my best to get it reasonable.

Problem with my integrated garage is that the insulation and as such potential for noise reduction is not as good as it should be. On the other hand due to fire regulations there are two layers of plasterboard all round which makes a big difference.

I am upping the insulation to the ceiling by filling with 60mm of special acoustic insulation (it's hard as a brick) and another layer of plasterboard. My wee mans room is directly above so it needs it. I don't think its enough though but we will see.

As far as the outside wall is concerned, it is about 27mm short on insulation so I am putting that right, nothing more I want to do here as it is up to the same level as the rest of the house.

The garage door is a challenge. What I am doing is putting 25mm of very light insulation (mainly to stop condensation) but it also acts as a sound barrier. It is equivalent to jabaline called xtratherm and is silver foiled either side.

In front of this layer there will be a further layer of 50mm normal insulation, then 60 mm of acoustic insulation, with 9.5mm of sterling chipboard and 27mm plasterboard with therml lining. Hopefully that should be pretty good.

[starfire]

Thanks for the replies so far,

Any views from people who have already converted?

[Ste7en]

Mine is pretty good. I still haven't had my system up and running but I have tried it out with audio CDs.

I tried several discs (mostly Tool) and sound leakage was minimal. The room 'sounded' good too!

For insulation I used 25mm Isowool behind 15mm Soundbloc plasterboard. The room was also skimmed (plastered).

Hope this helps. Oh, see here:

Ste7en's Garage conversion

[starfire]

Great, been looking at your pics, looks very nice

I take it your garage was a single integral one built in with the house? ie room above and hall down one side? Do you have just a single layer of breeze block wall between the garage and hall?

Mine is just a single integral garage as above and my other concern is, will getting rid of a garage have a deterimental affect on the value of the house come selling time?

[willadunno]

just finished our diy cinema its fantastic and the insulated garage is sound proof you cant hear much at all even when its on +13db

[starfire]

Was this an integral garage and what steps did you take to insulate the sound?

[merlin41]

Hi starfire

If you have been trawling the threads you have probably already been through mine at Yet another garage conversion I have no real problems with sound leakage to the rest of the house, except for deep notes from explosions or heavy gunfire etc on soundtracks, certainly not enough to wake anybody sleeping above. The more layers of soundbloc/plasterboard the better and the double wall I used for the garage door has virtually killed any sound escaping.

Terry

[starfire]

Hi,

Yes, i've looked at yours with interest, I take it that was a single garage conversion? It looks like you left your garage door intact, was that for any specific reason like making it easier to convert back to a garage if you come to sell?

I filled in a preliminary form for my planning office and they've replied I will need planning permission to convert my garage because apparently my house has "condition 19 which prevents the garage to be used for any other purpose without planning permission" ?.... But they did say there will be no fee for my application.

Anyway, thats good news on the sound insulation front then - thanks.

Cheers.

[merlin41]

Originally Posted by starfire

Hi,

Yes, i've looked at yours with interest, I take it that was a single garage conversion? It looks like you left your garage door intact, was that for any specific reason like making it easier to convert back to a garage if you come to sell?

Hi

Yes its a single garage conversion and because I didn't get planning approval I could easily change it back, but also I didn't want a window in that position and it would have looked strange I felt to have a solid brick wall instead of a garage door, though it is purely cosmetic.

Terry