Fred99:Porboynz: Soundproofing your garage so your sons drum practice is bearable sounds like a great idea, very community focussed. Nothing to do with the council unless you don't do it and someone calls the noise control department. Bedroom or garage? As long as there is no cooking going on or renting to strangers then where is the harm? A bedroom has to be a safer insurance risk than the stuff I have stored in my garage, paint, thinners, glues, petrol powered gardening tools. I bet more fires start from incorrectly disposed of oily rags that self combust. So what if your son sleeps in his custom recording studio after a hard days night? I would advise my insurance company but the Council? Not me.
Yes.
There will be - somewhere buried in council regulations - some rule on what constitutes a "permanent dwelling" or part thereof. Duration of occupation is probably what it''s based on.
However, they have not intruded into our lives enough yet to tell us where we're allowed to sleep. You can sleep in your dog kennel, under your dogwood tree, or on your roof if you like. Might have to alternate on a monthly basis to keep those appointed to "save us from ourselves" happy, but they probably don't snoop that hard.
From memory it's to do with cooking facilities. A second dwelling is one which has a built in hob. A benchtop oven doesn't have any effect on this, however...
In any case, that's besides the point. As you said, any change of use like this needs a building consent and not having one would directly affect your insurance in the event of something happening. If the garage is attached then this would be much more worrying for me than if it was detached.
Options for sound proofing are pretty wide ranging including doubling up the Gib (or other) plaster board linings. 2x 13mm soundline layers does a pretty good job of general higher and midrange frequency noise but some absorbing tiles would make a far better job of it. Glass/Polyester insulation will also lower the higher frequency noises from the drums somewhat but any lower frequencies wouldn't be as affected. For those, proper absorbing tiles would do a better job. A soft flooring would also help here by reducing the impact noise of the drums themselves. Perhaps a rubber mat directly under the drum set would suffice. I don't have much experience here.
What type of garage door does it have? If it's a tilt/sectional door you could add insulating tiles to this easily without much effect on the operation of the door long term.
How about the ceiling? If it's a lowered ceiling you could just double up the insulation above the drums, or lay more tiles on the underside of the ceiling above the drums. Lots of noise will leak out from here.
I can see a pretty great bedroom being put together in the garage in any case.
Trusted
. And before everyone has a go at me, by low risk I mean a single level property where there is a corridor to an additional bedroom, bathroom and living room that happens to have a sink and cupboards, but NO cooker i.e. can be separate accommodation. Or, a conversion of a garage into a bedroom that could easily be turned back into a garage.
