Soundproof air vents/shop


legenddc

Recommended Posts

My shop is directly under our family room in a townhouse. I realize there's no easy silver bullet to completely isolate the shop noise, just looking to quiet it up some of the noise so I can mill lumber whenever I want.

The rooms share the same air vent lines with the shop having the vents in the ceiling and the family room in the floor. You can pop a cover off and see where the vent in the other room is.

Has anyone made a sound maze for a vent and does it work? 

717971773_soundmaze.jpeg.14f75fcd2c4ea735c68185f97eef95cc.jpeg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add to this, I realize another layer of drywall on the ceiling with green glue would help a lot. We're also about to redo the floors in the family room so I could put some Rockwool insulation in the cavities if I want to pull up the subfloor.

Realistically, I'm not sure how long we're going to stay in this house and I don't want to spend a lot of time and money on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So based on my theater build here are my thoughts.

  • Yes your "sound maze" will help but not sharing that line will work much better. If you can pull the shop off that line then seal up that line add pink fluffy to the cavity and then add drywall if possible. To heat the shop build dead vent(s) similar to your "maze" and pull and return the air from another room in the basement. This assumes your shop is not the whole basement. Some pics would help provide advice based on your specific situation.
  • While Rockwool has its place for the price it doesn't provided enough added value my advice is to stick with pink fluffy on this one.
  • Decoupling and mass are king! While every little bit helps it really takes the whole picture to get a truly sound proof space, rm within a rm, decoupling, added mass, green glue, dead vents, door seals, etc.

At the end of the day if you keep your expectations in check everything will help but it really takes a comprehensive plan to make it truly soundproof. My theater is very close but not perfect.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/8/2022 at 11:55 AM, pkinneb said:

So based on my theater build here are my thoughts.

  • Yes your "sound maze" will help but not sharing that line will work much better. If you can pull the shop off that line then seal up that line add pink fluffy to the cavity and then add drywall if possible. To heat the shop build dead vent(s) similar to your "maze" and pull and return the air from another room in the basement. This assumes your shop is not the whole basement. Some pics would help provide advice based on your specific situation.
  • While Rockwool has its place for the price it doesn't provided enough added value my advice is to stick with pink fluffy on this one.
  • Decoupling and mass are king! While every little bit helps it really takes the whole picture to get a truly sound proof space, rm within a rm, decoupling, added mass, green glue, dead vents, door seals, etc.

At the end of the day if you keep your expectations in check everything will help but it really takes a comprehensive plan to make it truly soundproof. My theater is very close but not perfect.

 

The room is around 150 sq. ft. so far too small for a room within a room. If you're under a vent you can very clearly hear a conversation in the room above. I think I'll try the sound maze with some scraps just to see if it helps. Maybe I'll throw in some acoustic tiles or a mattress egg crate topper into the maze to help. I don't see any easy way to close up the vents and build the dead vents you're talking about while all still being reversible when we move.

Thanks for the advice about the Rockwool. I don't particularly want to pull up the subfloor if I don't have to and when I was looking at the price I was thinking I'd rather buy a 6" sander.

I have fairly low expectations with the limited budget/time I want to put into it. Hopefully a sound maze and maybe a couple acoustic panels can cut it down some. At least with those I could take them with me whenever we move.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.