I have a problem. I work night shifts, and I have noisy roommates that I can't get them to shut up. I also have paper-thin walls that I'm not allowed to modify. And earplugs are a shit. So I need to soundproof just my bed area. I've come up with three ideas so far:
>Build a pvc pipe frame to lay down a soundproof curtain over a few cubic feet of breathing room over my head
>Pros: cheapest option
>cons: looks weird, shuffling around in my bed might throw the curtain off, will get stuffy
>Get a bunkbed and cover the lower bunk with soundproof curtains
>Pros: Least weird, In rare chance of ever getting a gf, can stack the bunk beds side by side for instant king
>Cons: probably $250 for bunk frame and new mattresses, not including curtains, might get stuffy
>Get Plywood/MDP/drywall and build a 4'x4'x8'(big enough for a double bed) enclosure to shut myself in at night
>Pros: can decorate to look like a gothic coffin, most likely to work well as soundproof curtains don't have perfect reviews, can easily cut a hole to add a fan for less/no stuffyness
>Cons: not a goth and dislike subculture, Building it would be more difficult than the other 2, roommates might be a dick and set weights on top of it.
Ideas for better soundproofing? Problems with my ideas? Any one else ever do stuff like this? General thoughts?
![Imation-Audio-Headphone-Testing[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/TV8KtvP.jpg "Imation-Audio-Headphone-Testing[1].jpg")
>>976410
Get acoustic foam and make one of these:
http://www.whisperroom.com/
Earplugs are shit? How? They block like almost all noise. Buy some construction foam plugs, and learn how to put them in properly (twist them so theyre thin, slide them in).
You're over complicating this if you don't just use ear plugs.
Use a sound maker. I use Relaxation sound app with Bluetooth speaker, some say a fan is good enough but it is cold here. It take s a little to get used to but you can create a sound that works. It is the only way I have tried all the foam and barriers, none worked until I used sound.
>>976422
>Buy some construction foam plugs
very bad idea. they may work fine in a noisy environment, but when you're asleep and moving your head against the pillow, they making crinkling noises that drive you up the wall.
for bed, you need soft plugs made from silicone rubber. these mushroom-shaped ones work very well. i usually cut the stem down about 1/8-inch so they dont stick out of the ear, and rub against the pillow/
>>976410
Better yet, why did you choose to live with such inconsiderate obnoxious individuals?
I have 5 room mates in my 6 bedroom house and you don't know who's home until you run into each other in the kitchen.
>get better friends
>I have a problem. I work night shifts, and I have noisy roommates that I can't get them to shut up
You've got a discipline problem, you can't make them respect you, get serious you faggit, the "I'm afraid he's a psycho" kind of serious
Anyway, if you're too much of a pussy, try wat I did :^)
If your bed is touching the wall move the entire room, put the wardrobes against the wall, ideally with foam between the wardrobes and wall, the thing is to put as many furniture against the wall as you can and move your bed as far as you can, this will help quite a bit.
Don't abandon the idea of noise, I personally like airplane noise.
>>976410
I've always felt the best defense is a good offense. When your roommates are noisy, play anime sex noises at top volume from a speaker pointing out your door. If they persist, escalate to anime tentacle rape sex noises overdubbed with a .wav of you groaning.
Pretty soon they'll either get the hint and be quiet, or just won't want to spend any time in the house anymore. Either way, you can bask in victory.
>>976445
The construction plugs I buy are silicone rubber, I just call it foam.
Go full coffin hotel.
>>976455
>>976451
>>976410
It's nothing to do with everyone else being inconsiderate.
OP works nights and sleeps days.
The entire rest of society works days and sleeps nights.
You can't ask five people to just not live for eight hours because you want to sleep when everyone else in the whole entire world is awake and active.
This is a problem that can only be solved by earplugs, or by moving out and rooming with other nightwalkers.
>>976422
I second this.
Ear plugs work great, you just need to stop being a baby and learn to put them in correctly.
>>976410
Three things to make your sleep better.
1. Ear plugs - I like the foam ones
2. Box fan to generate white noise.
3. Blackout curtains or nightmask to block light.
4. ???????
5. Profit
>>976410
Ah reminds me of the times I had to work 14 hours at a bar 5 days a week for months. Good luck OP. Night shifts are never good in long term. Also work more so you can pass out.
> work more
> more munniez
> more exhaustion
> sleep like a dead
> ???
>profit allday errday
I can't think of any materials that will stop sound that won't also stop air, unless you construct some sort of elaborate system of baffles out of acoustic sound dampening tiles. Sleeping in an airless box seems worse than sleeping with some noise. I know I adjusted to it eventually... (working nights for over 28 years now) I can sleep through the monthly tornado siren test now... and its only a block from my house and spins to point right at my window.. (well I wake momentarily and then realize its the test and go back to sleep before the test ends.)
The bright sunlight is my bane... too much and I find it tricky to fall asleep still. Black contractor bags put on the windows work pretty well.
Sounds dumb, but meditation practice in a noisy environment may help you remain asleep, calm and not get amped up later when they get loud.
(Isn't there a golden period where they go to work during the day when you can sleep? Or are they independently wealthy as well as loud?)
>>976410
soundboard or styrofoam from hardware store are both better than prob any other ... enclosure.
You could just nail together a 4' x 8' x 4' box (no bottom) to place over your bed - hinge 1 side or end - unless it's styrofoam , that can just push into place.
1. Get better roommates
I lived with two guys and we all worked different shifts. I worked 1st. One worked at a bar so 2nd. Other worked as a night auditor so 3rd. None of us put our life on hold for the others, we just weren't dicks about it. It's a matter of keeping the volume down, it doesn't mean they can't make any.
2. Get a loud fan. White noise drowns everything out. I have an old box fan and when that thing is going, you could probably kick my front door down without me knowing.
3. Earplugs, there are several different kinds, try them all.
4. Blackout curtains, light is the biggest factor in sleep, not sound. If your room is pitch black, you'll sleep better.
Now, if they're being loud as fuck (as in yelling and blaring music) and never leaving the house. You just need to be a fucking dick back until they learn their lesson or move out.
i also have noisy flatmates and i use plugs like >>976445, they work fine. but when the noise is just too fucking much i use this: http://simplynoise.com/
it fucking changed my life, i can read or sleep with it as if in silence. trust me, youll be amazed by how good it works. the mind does not need silence in itself, it only needs something consant. noise bothers cause it aint constant, the mind is distracted by the different
sounds.
>>976410
>get an aluminum baseball bat
>be awakened by breaking glass and Justin Bieber music
>put on loose flannel pajama pants and black heavy metal band t-shirt or something with a skull on the front
>serious bed head helps
>grab your baseball bat
>wander near the dancing people, limp like a wounded zombie
>once you've got their attention, start clearing your throat and coughing.
>suddenly perk up and begin singing the National anthem in the best reverb solo voice you have
>smash a random object at the end of each line, while stretching that last syllable.
>once the song is complete, retire to your foam room-within-a-room.
>>976417
I'm actually interested in building one of these for recording, and I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the proper structure for it. Obviously I'll want acoustic foam, but that's more for muffling your own noise to prevent echo. Does anyone know what they normally use to build it to block out external noise?
>>979674
It's built heavy as fuck, basically.
>>979681
Is it just as dense as possible, or would it help to have layers of hard and soft material?
>>979682
The one I've been in is made out of metal. I'm not sure if there was anything else in the walls. Rigidity and isolation are key.
As a temporary solution, at least, try listening to an audiobook with headphones when you sleep.
Personally, The Silmarillon or A Brief History of Time does it for me.
Monotone, and that sweet spot between interesting and dull that's easy to drift away on.
Looking at what Whisper Room builds their pods out of, and it's just 3/4" medium density fiberboard, which Home Depot sells online for pretty cheap. Does anyone have experience using this to build something?
>>976410
Try saving, so you can move
Dudes ...
Go to an acoustic shop. Let you make a custom-made ear-plugs for in-ear-monitoring. Say 'em without speakers/phones. Then you have perfect fitting plugs which does not hurt at all and damp sound as fuck.
... seriously, what'y wrong with you? .. building a "sound proof" wall and shit .. like yeah .. sure ..
>>976410
Build a bunker in the woods and sleep in it
>>976410
get a trazadone scrip
>>977232
>local man found asphyxiated in sex coffin
>>979863
agree with this guy, custom fit ear plugs are like 69x better than normal plugs and aren't as distracting when sleeping
some other options:
sound canceling headphones/earmuffs; only works if you dont sleep on your side. i sleep on my back and a good pair lasted me throughout college. you can play white noise or shit like that and literally not hear anything
the bunk bed idea seems the best, you can probably mount sound cancelling curtains pretty easily, but I would actually suggest panels permanently attached to all sides except one. in my experience curtains are kinda annoying and more prone to sound leakage, they look less ghetto. make the panels removable (i.e. have them mount onto a rod that slips onto something)
>>979725
Continuing on, it looks like Drywall might be more effective at getting raw mass. Put together a rough preliminary idea on how this might come together and would really appreciate advice. I haven't worked with drywall before, so I'm not sure how viable what I've laid out is on its own. Will I need a support frame? Can I use the cut drywall to make the door?
Adapt to the noise. I worked nights for nearly half a decade. Light is the worst-get everything dark and yourself tired and try to keep a routine. In bed by no later than X time and up at Y time each day. All these ear plug comments don't take into account alarm clocks. Your body isn't on a normal rhythm doing 3rd shift and some of us have more trouble waking up than others. I still set 3 alarm clocks each night-two primary and the 3rd for a just in case scenario-all of which have battery backups.
While you can't ask all your other roommates to put their lives on hold, if they aren't asses they can be respectful and not blare music, hold parties, etc at certain times. If they can't compromise get better roommates.
You didn't post pictures of your room, tell us what size bed you currently have (material estimates), whether or not you are in a dorm, house, large apartment, etc, if people are above or below you. I am assuming no one is above or below you.
Working off your idea(s) in the OP: Can you move your bed to an isolated corner in your room? If you can get 2 sides covered by quiet walls (no noise on the other side), one lengthwise and one at your feet this idea could work. Buy a bookcase headboard for the front by your head for alarm clocks. You can then add to the back of it some sound proofing. Then build a decorative stand alone sound proof wall in front of your bed. Leave the top couple of inches shorter than the ceiling for ventilation. Your goal is to reduce a lot of the sound in a cost effective manner.
One thing that is versatile to work with is Unistrut assuming you have no welding experience this would make a good frame. Bolt a couple of pieces together, add a cheap plywood wall and putt the foam panels on it. Depending on available space you could even put the wall on castors. Having company over wheel it against the wall with the foam facing the wall and show the painted/decorated side that would normally face your bed.
>>976410
>how can i sound proof my room for around $1000
rent your own apartment that doesn't have roommates.
>>980226
Gonna resuscitate this thread, to ask if anyone has good tips on working with drywall. Would like to put together a sound proof booth, but I don't have any real experience.
>>976410
White noise. Mask out the chatter. Many people can sleep in environments with high white noise backgrounds. They make boxes with prerecorded rainfall, surf and other selections of masking noise.
>>981858
Dry wall is very weak, it can only cover a frame not be a structure of its own merit. You would also want to at least mud it and maybe p8nt it as well.
>>983152
I was talking with some friends about this last night, and one suggested that having a variety of materials would be more effective at blocking out noise at different frequencies. I was thinking of maybe using medium density fiberboard, and then using the sound glue stuff between it and drywall. Do you think that would have the structural support to hold it up?
>>976410
Why you work night shifts? Are you convicted felon or really ugly, or does it enhance the pity party you throw yourself daily? Or maybe you pay vidya every night until the sun comes up for same reason.
Stop being a morbid Lil bitch, work a regular job like the rest of us, and come on in for the big win.
Something like this would work.
>>983164
People who work nightshifts in hospitals sure are stupid. I mean, it's not like anyone has a heart attack at one in the morning.
Get some molded earplugs
>tfw you keep a thread alive to talk about building a recording booth and /diy/ keeps replying to the long gone op
Thoughts on Medium Density Fiberboard's ability to support drywall?
>>983222
>MDF would most likely support plasterboard but it would be easier just to make a timber frame
>>983236
don't know why that was grren text wasn't meant to be.
>>976808
Air products facilities I've been too have this soft green kind that are amazing. Next best I've tried are these purple and yellow ones that a basf site I go to has. You forget you're wearing them, and they work better than the 3m bullshit. I'll be at an air products site next week, I'll get the brand name.
>>983236
The thing is, I want to use MDF anyway as another layer of sound barrier, so if it can hold the weight, it would be nice to be able to just use that.
>>976410
>Ideas for better soundproofing
This isn't soundproofing, but I use a cheap desk fan (12" or so metal one). It's loud as hell and drowns out most noises, and I keep it on the 2nd setting (of 3). I used this through 2 years on third shift, and for years after that as an insomniac that sleeps shitty hours. Just be prepared to not be able to sleep without some fan noise when you go somewhere else. I can't do other noisemakers and sleep aids, but I can do a fan.
>picture related, but not mine specifically
>>979301
Some people don't sleep well with white noise. Perhaps they need this: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/i-sleeppro/n12875
