How does one go about soundproofing a room. What material is normally used?
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
When I was servicing tv’s and stereo’s etc we made a neat sound room by hanging carpet on the walls. It was built in the corner of the store and had a cemicircular wall. Altec Lancing Voice of theatre speakers could handle any stereo we had and did they ever sound good. You could still hear them outside the room because there was no door on the room,but you could talk in a normal voice everywhere else in the store.
ps Altec Lansing Voice of theatre speakers have about 15" woofers
It’s called “anechoic foam”. You can find all you need to know from NetWell Noise Control, of Minneapolis, MN
TT
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
–James Thurber
Insulating the walls is a good start.
Covering the walls with soundproofing material is next. A simple material is an “egg-crate” mattress, foam that has lots of ridges similar to an egg carton. You can get them at a furniture store. If you do this, you’ll get a very “dead” room, which is good for a recording studio (some will argue this), but bad for a living space.
One key thing, there’s a weakest link concept here: The least soundproof part of your room will leak in and out, so it’s important to get thorough coverage on all walls, floor and ceiling. Pay attention to corners and edges.
If you really want to go all out, you can float a room within a room. You build a room, insulate the walls really well, then put an array of corks (2" in diameter, 2" tall) on the floor, every 12". Put a floor on that, and build walls and a ceiling on this second floor. Again, be sure to insulate all the walls, ceiling and floor well.
What are you trying to accomplish here? Soundproofing a garage for a band playing music? Noisy nextdoor neighbor? In the landing path of an airport?
Nothing. I was just wondering how they do it. I don’t think my landlord would appreciate any major construction on her apartment. 
Thanks for the answers, guys.
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
neutron star wrote:
Ah, say no more. You either have a noisy, passionate mate, or a habit of chainsawing your victims in the wee hours. Either way, your secrets safe with me.
No, I chainsaw most of my victims in the afternoon. Seriously, though, I’m not chansawing anyone. I use a scythe.
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
one way I’ve heard of, to sound-proof (not just deaden the inside of) a room, would be to have staggered wall studs.
as in, build a wall with the studs at 16"-on-centre, and cover ONLY ONE side with sheet-rock. Then, between each of those studs, put in some more stude (also 16"-O-C), staggered by about an inch, so that when you sheet-rock those on the other side, both sides of the wall are totally isolated from each other, so that the sound vibrations don’t travel through the studs to the outside wall. then, of course, you’d stuff that with insulation. IIRC, that’s the way some recording studios are isolated.
I don’t suffer from insanity…
I enjoy every minute of it!
How does one go about soundproofing a room. What material is normally used?
The carpet and foam answers were good, I always favored hanging carpet, since it was always cheap and/or free, but I’m gonna’ take a different approach here.
you can also soundproof,
By putting your speakers up off of the floor,
this uncouples the bass from the floor, and the vibrations wont transmit, to other common walls.
You can still hear it clearly, but the thumpa thumpa, won’t carry thru to the neighbors.
Sound equalization works both ways, cutting a particular frequency, makes others seem louder.
Bass frequencies, because of their longer wavelengths, couple and vibrate walls, while treble bounces, and is more easily contained within the room.
But once you uncouple the bottom end, and adjust the treble, you can get away with some pretty high SPL’s, in the room with you, and still not annoy the neighbors.
Sound balance is not only an additive practice, it’s a subtractive one as well.
And loud, is of course relative.
When we were thinking about finishing our basement in our last house (never got around to it), I asked Owens-Corning for information about sound-proofing rooms. They sent me stuff about using insulation, of course, but also some metal things that transfer the noise across the sheet rock instead of through the studs. I’m sorry I don’t have the information anymore. Anyway, if this is a room that is unfinished and you can work behind the drywall, I’d recommend contacting them about it.
Duh, they are on-line now with this stuff. I didn’t think about checking until I posted. http://www.owens-corning.com