Building a sound proof door

[Justin00Stang]

I am building a sound proof room to run a dynamometer. The room is inside a concrete block building with a 10' ceiling and wood trussed roof.

The big issue, there are two residential garage doors on either end of the 20' W x 40' L room. I need to insulate the doors and make them as air tight as possible with gaskets, but I'm still afraid I'll only be able to achieve an STC rating of something like 20, most of my walls will be in the 55-65 STC range, and I need my doors to be at least 40 STC.

Only one of the 16'w x 8'h garage doors concerns me, as the other one is facing towards a direction that noise won't concern me much.

I have thought about installing a commercial roll up door on the outside of the building, but those things are not air tight and even the insulated ones have very little R value (more insulation = more noise reduction and higher STC rating, to some extent).

Thoughts? maybe build some type of multi piece door that swings side to side or up and down on hinges? and that I can gaskets around the edges to reduce noise transmission.

[Broccoli1]

I would frame the inside of the garage door to hold 2- 8x8 Doors that swing open.

Make the Doors a foot thick, fill the interior with Insulation and skin each side with Drywall.

The increase in Air Space will increase the STC number

12" Air Space with insulation should give 20-22db increase perhaps more with the garage door down.

This is just a guess from being around Sound Stages.

[fjk]

Here in the north, insulating garage doors is not uncommon
to keep the cold out in the winter.

Often what is done is to fit styrofoam insulation panels to the
inside of the door -- cutting/trimming/beveling/etc so that all
the mechanisms still work, that there is clearance, and so on.
To keep the cold air (and snow and ...) from infiltrating around
the perimeter of the door, a heavy vinyl weatherstrip is used.
As the door closes, it rubs up against the strip, forming a wind-tight
seal. That might do it for you.

Frank

[Justin00Stang]

To keep the cold air (and snow and ...) from infiltrating around
the perimeter of the door, a heavy vinyl weatherstrip is used.
As the door closes, it rubs up against the strip, forming a wind-tight
seal. That might do it for you.

Frank

Do you have any pics or info of the seal used?

[Sberry]

Here in the north, insulating garage doors is not uncommon
to keep the cold out in the winter

I would say its more widely used to keep the heat in.

[MAC702]

Here in the north, insulating garage doors is not uncommon
to keep the cold out in the winter....

It's just as valuable in the Las Vegas summer, my friend! And where the small cutouts are for the hinges the darn parts are often too hot to touch if the door faces west. The one I move into next week faces east!

Home Depot sells kits to do the whole door's interior spaces. After I install that, I purchase 2" styrofoam insulation and glue on a custom layer over the top.

But back to the OP, I'd go with the Veggie's idea.

[fjk]

I would say its more widely used to keep the heat in.

well, a bit of both perhaps

i once had a garage door that was a bit loose. right beside the door
was an exposed water pipe for the outside spigot. the looseness
of the door was "just right" and it focussed a jet of nice frigid
air directly at the water pipe, freezing it solid... eventually i
moved the inside shut off valve farther back.

[fjk]

Do you have any pics or info of the seal used?

no -- my garage now is an unheated detached building -- no need
for it.

but here's a product from home depot's web site.
(if the link fails, search for "weather seal"
and you should be able to find it as
"7 In. x 9 Ft. White Garage Door Weatherstrip Seal"

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...ctId=100154969

frank

[fjk]

It's just as valuable in the Las Vegas summer, my friend!

Las Vegas summer heat won't freeze & burst pipes
But I expect it does help keep the A/C bill down...

But back to the OP, I'd go with the Veggie's idea.

My impression from the OP was that he already had the doors,
etc and (presumably) wasn't in a position to make a double
door. If he could, I agree that it would be the best.

frank

[MAC702]

I think Ed is suggesting a second door of low-cost construction, solely for insulation value, put just inside the real door; not getting a fancy double-door or even modifying the existing door.