Lounge / studio partition door / soundproofing advice

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Hi all,

I am converting a garage to a music studio. The garage shares the "external" wall of the lounge. The aim is to have an opening between lounge and studio so that the space can either be (1) open to give the sense of one big room and (2) sectioned off, thus creating a private music studio.

The problem - how to create an open / closeable barrier which can be sufficiently soundproofed and is as large as possible?

The length of the wall is 3.6m and initial plan was to have an (approx) 1.8m opening and install pocket doors. However, having done some research it appears that soundproofing this is not really possible. I would really like to avoid normal hinged doors due to the intrusion into either lounge or studio and due to the doors taking up wall space when opened.

Does anyone have any thoughts / solutions to this conundrum? I would have thought this is not particularly uncommon as a problem but I can not find any viable solutions. Perhaps bi-fold doors???

Many thanks, Dan

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  • Heedtheadvice
    Heedtheadvice Posts: 2,460 Forumite
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    It is not going to be easy to get the best of both worlds.

    Part of this depends upon the amount of acoustic isolation you desire/need between lounge and studio?
    For best acoustic purposes aim for heavyweight doors that are well sealed otherwise higher frequencies can be well attenuated and lower ones not. Entrances to studios are often double 'air lock' types. I doubt if you can achieve good isolation with bifold ones unless they are heavyweight.

    You might get away with that sort of arrangement if you do not need high levels of isolation and you could always add an acoustic curtain (again of heavy material).

    You might need to decide how much isolation is required relative to isolation from the environment in the world outside your garage.

    If you are considering the isolation to be an issue (your reason for the question?) then perhaps you also need to consider the suitability of the garage as a studio. If it has parallel plain flat walls, concrete flat floor and the like you really should consider adding acoustic materials to modify and break up those audio reflections that will result from things like standing waves.

    It all depends on the quality you wish to achieve and the 'sound' of and limitations of your studio!
  • brightontraveller
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    Easy done but be prepaid to pay for it and as you describe then 10k + It can be done cheaper but to be honest if you have to ask on a forum you most likely lack the knowledge/skills to be able to do so :(.

    Type of products you'd need


    http://www.aaproducts.co.uk/

    Call salvage /shopfitters either being removed or replaced and adapt to suit, If your able to remove from Central London locations ( maybe other city too) most often minimum load of few van /skips full then you get all you require for less than 1k.

    You could faff about with acoustic blankets, insulation, boards etc but there not going to be as good as above and would cost more than above also .....
  • Dan_J
    Dan_J Posts: 29 Forumite
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    Many thanks for the responses Heed and Brighton (also from Brighton here)...

    Yes, will be hard to get best of both worlds. The reason for asking is not actually so much to do with noise penetrating external to the house, as I bought somewhere specifically where there are no direct neighbours to the garage conversion / studio. As it will be a rebuild from DPC internal acoustics can be planned accordingly to. However, any tips to minimise noise penetrating into the outside world are very useful!

    Mainly I want to prevent too much low end going form the studio into the adjoining lounge. Largely to save my partner's sanity.

    I am starting to think that heavy hinged doors are the only realistic way. However, this is very undesirable for us for a few reasons.

    I wondered about something form somewhere like http://www.iac-noisecontrol.com/uk/commercial-construction/doors-and-windows/acoustic-sliding-doors/ (similar to your suggestion Brighton?) but I assume that (1) will be very expensive (will call them next week and find out) (2) won't actually cut out much in terms of Dbs, and especially low end bass tones.

    As budget is an issue we may just go for standard pocket doors and make some kind of domestic agreements in terms of my low end output :rotfl:
  • Heedtheadvice
    Heedtheadvice Posts: 2,460 Forumite
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    Rebuild gives you lots of scope.

    A search on the net will give lots of info and tips such as one of the results for a "studio acoustics" search.
    https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/soundproof-room/
    and a subsequent link.

    Bear in mind stopping/reducing sounds from the outside to in will almost be the same as stopping noise getting out!
  • Dan_J
    Dan_J Posts: 29 Forumite
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    Thanks again Heed. Again, clever house purchase has resulted in an end of close location with zero passing traffic either vehicular or human...so noise from external is not a problem :)
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