Cabin

everlast75

Hi folks, hope this is the right place to ask.

I had a cabin built for the back garden, 6m by 4m roughly.

There was a damp proof membrane

I want to make it as sound proof/ insulated as as possible.

I was thinking roll out insulation inbetween the joists and sound proofing slabs. Maybe lino on the floor?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

everlast75

everlast75 wrote: »

Hi folks, hope this is the right place to ask.

I had a cabin built for the back garden, 6m by 4m roughly.

There was a damp proof membrane

I want to make it as sound proof/ insulated as as possible.

I was thinking roll out insulation inbetween the joists and sound proofing slabs. Maybe lino on the floor?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Check the thread belonging to Lumen on his cabin.

There's also another build by someone else.

Lumen

You haven't stated what exact levels of insulation you're aiming for, but in general terms...

For soundproofing, there are two complementary approaches: isolation and mass. Isolation means decoupling the inner and outer surfaces of the wall, so that sound cannot pass through. In the ultimate setup you create a self-supporting room within a room. For mass, a couple of layers of plasterboard might do it. There are "acoustic" versions of thermal insulation e.g. "acoustic rockwool" which are slightly higher density but won't achieve that much. Obvs you need to consider ventilation. A hole in the wall will let sound in and out.

For wall insulation between studs, my favourite is Gutex Thermoflex, which is denser than acoustic rockwool and provides better thermal mass and moisture buffering. If the studs aren't very deep then you're going to need to consider continuous insulation. Again I'd use woodfibre for the same reason, but the higher density stuff like Gutex Thermoroom.

https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/thermoflex
https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/thermoroom

Pavatex is also worth considering:

https://www.pavatex.com/en/products/wall/

That's an unusual choice though: most people would use solid foam insulation like PIR, EPS, or XPS. I don't have any experience of those but I don't like them for reasons I can't be bothered to fight over :-)

However, for the floor, in your case you have a suspended wooden floor with presumably thin joists so probably a continuous layer of PIR over your current floor is best to keep as much headroom as possible, and the the finished floor over that. Make sure you ventilate under the subfloor.

From my own experience 80-100mm of continuous high-density woodfibre is enough to play loud music or watch movies in the shed without much leaking out, and I have taken no measures to isolate and there isn't even any plasterboard, it's just the continuous high density woodfibre with 12mm OSB (and DIY triple glazing) I'm relying on. But if I was going to use it as a music studio or torture chamber I'd go further.

Bear in mind that my shed cost maybe 20k all in, because I largely disregarded cost of materials when building it. But it is warmer and more comfortable than my house, and I will be working from home in it forever, plus chilling in evenings and weekends so to me it was worth it.

everlast75

Lumen wrote: »

You haven't stated what exact levels of insulation you're aiming for, but in general terms...

For soundproofing, there are two complementary approaches: isolation and mass. Isolation means decoupling the inner and outer surfaces of the wall, so that sound cannot pass through. In the ultimate setup you create a self-supporting room within a room. For mass, a couple of layers of plasterboard might do it. There are "acoustic" versions of thermal insulation e.g. "acoustic rockwool" which are slightly higher density but won't achieve that much. Obvs you need to consider ventilation. A hole in the wall will let sound in and out.

For wall insulation between studs, my favourite is Gutex Thermoflex, which is denser than acoustic rockwool and provides better thermal mass and moisture buffering. If the studs aren't very deep then you're going to need to consider continuous insulation. Again I'd use woodfibre for the same reason, but the higher density stuff like Gutex Thermoroom.

https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/thermoflex
https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/thermoroom

Pavatex is also worth considering:

https://www.pavatex.com/en/products/wall/

That's an unusual choice though: most people would use solid foam insulation like PIR, EPS, or XPS. I don't have any experience of those but I don't like them for reasons I can't be bothered to fight over :-)

However, for the floor, in your case you have a suspended wooden floor with presumably thin joists so probably a continuous layer of PIR over your current floor is best to keep as much headroom as possible, and the the finished floor over that. Make sure you ventilate under the subfloor.

From my own experience 80-100mm of continuous high-density woodfibre is enough to play loud music or watch movies in the shed without much leaking out, and I have taken no measures to isolate and there isn't even any plasterboard, it's just the continuous high density woodfibre with 12mm OSB (and DIY triple glazing) I'm relying on. But if I was going to use it as a music studio or torture chamber I'd go further.

Bear in mind that my shed cost maybe 20k all in, because I largely disregarded cost of materials when building it. But it is warmer and more comfortable than my house, and I will be working from home in it forever, plus chilling in evenings and weekends so to me it was worth it.

Legend, thank you!!!