Standard sound-proofed music room

This case study exhibits the construction of a standard-sized music room, built to the highest soundproof specification. Although not everyone requires soundproofing to this extent, reviewing a project like this is great to show what lengths we can go to in order to achieve the desired requirement.

The “room within a room” method

In this case, we executed, what we like to call, a “room within a room” method.

When a "room within a room" is to be built there has to be acoustic insulation in each leaf (or thickness) of wall and roof panel which makes two thicknesses in two parallel walls. Subsequently, a third layer of insulation is fitted in the space between the 2 walls to create insulation that is of 3 layer thickness. If a client only requires mid-range soundproofing then this insulation technique is sufficient.

The multi-layer method

However, if like the client cited in this case study, you require soundproofing for bass and high pitches, then a multi-layer method must be used. In this case a second form of insulation is installed which includes rubber sheeting, strips, layers of special dense acoustic boards and insulation applied to the outside of the outer walls prior to membranes and claddings.

Unlike all of our other garden rooms, soundproof rooms, with their dense "soundbloc" linings, are too heavy to be prebuilt in our workshop. For example, a "room within a room" building such as this has 8 walls and 2 ceilings and dense extra layers on the floor. To put it into perspective; 3 tons of extra dense plasterboard went into this building.

Step-by-step construction documentation

Below you can see a number of images documenting the construction of this soundproofed music room.

1. Sliders for the soundproof window shutters ready to be fitted for the external wall (the internal walls have the same soundproof shutters fitted). Both the inner wall and outer wall doors are solid and are treated similarly so sound cannot escape
2. The walls before the doorway are fitted with a solid rubber lined, double acoustic "sound lock" door to each leaf. Each wall has rubber strips on the studs and specialised rubber sheeting between the plasterboards to eliminate the "coupling" effect of sound transmission.
3. Blue plasterboard being fitted on the internal walls. The blue plasterboard is a special dense acoustic board with 2 layers of special rubber sheeting and rubber strips on all the studding timbers. A similar process is applied to the outer walls but in addition, they have an additional 75mm of dense acoustic rockwool insulation fitted.
4. Dense sliding window shutters, integral to both the inner and outer walls, are fitted. Each shutter is manufactured to the same specification as the walls themselves. This means that they slide over the window openings and combine with the acoustic glazing to make what is often a weak link (the windows), into one of the strongest.
5. The delighted customer with a Bob Marley poster attached to an inner sound proof acoustic shutter. Once slid away, another set of acoustic shutters are exposed to the outside walls and then the triple acoustic glazing.
6. An specially soundproofed singing room, further isolated and sound deadened in order for sound not to travel into the main recording studio. As well having be acoustically insulated and sound deadened from outside noises, the singing practice room also had triple acoustic soundproof glazing between itself and the recording studio.