It doesn't have to cost a fortune to soundproof a home studio.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to build a DIY soundproof studio. With just a few dollars and a trip to the home improvement store, you can set up a room that will effectively block noise from the outside while keeping noise in, ensuring that neighbors and other people in your house don’t get aggravated. You can temporarily seal up windows and doors so they can be put back to normal when you’re done.
Instructions
Choosing a Room
1. Choose a room that is far away from the street, i.e., the innermost room or basement of your house in order to get away from traffic noise.
2. Make sure the room is acoustically sound. A garage will usually not be a good place to set up a studio because of the thin walls and thin metal garage door.
3. Find a room that is not located below a busy room, such as a tap dance studio or a room that has a lot of foot traffic.
Soundproofing Windows
4. Make a repeatable window plug using sheetrock, glue, soundboard and a handle by first measuring the inside of the window sill.
5. Have the soundboard (also called Celotex or fiberboard) cut to fit the window and the sheetrock cut approximately 1 inch shorter than the soundboard on all sides.
6. Use panel adhesive to glue the sheetrock to either side of the soundboard. Next, bolt on a handle that can be used to move the plug in and out of the window.
Soundproofing Doors
7. Use glue or screws to install weatherstripping and gaskets all the way around the door frame to seal the door.
8. Screw metal-flanged felt wipers into the floor on both sides of the door to further prevent sound leakage.
9. Have someone take a flashlight to the other side of the door and shine it through, checking for any cracks around the door’s edges.
10. Cut a piece of sheetrock to size and glue it to the door with panel adhesive to prevent sound leakage if the door is hollow and light.
11. Screw wood screws into the sheetrock to hold it in place, or take it off the hinges and lay it on top of the sheetrock until the glue dries, usually in about four hours.
Creating Bass Traps
12. Cut several layers of sheetrock, enough to cover all the walls in your room, the same height as the walls.
13. Glue building insulation on every wall that is to be covered with sheetrock.
14. Screw 2-foot by 2-foot cedar molding into the ceiling a few inches from the wall to hold the top of the sheetrock panels, thus making the walls angled.
