4m x 3.5m Garden Drum Room
Published: 28 September 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes 30 seconds
Garden rooms naturally offer reasonable acoustic properties due to their multi-layer construction. However, if you're serious about reducing noise levels, it’s essential to work with a specialist in soundproof garden music rooms. While some garden room designers may add a layer of acoustic plasterboard and label it an upgrade, this alone often falls short of the sound suppression needed by musicians or those seeking a quiet workspace.
For a truly bespoke acoustic solution, a specialist will design the space based on your specific acoustic requirements. This could involve the use of resilient bars, acoustic membranes, Rockwool insulation, and double layers of plasterboard to achieve effective sound isolation.
Garden Spaces, a well-established name in the garden room industry, have made soundproof music studios one of their specialities. They offer one of the most extensive ranges of acoustic options available, including an innovative acoustic porch, which significantly enhances sound suppression. We have featured several of their music studios with this acoustic porch feature, which you can explore here.
In this article, we’ll explore a 4m x 3.5m garden music room designed by Garden Spaces, incorporating this acoustic porch, demonstrating how carefully considered design creates an ideal environment for music.
A Music Room for Drummers
Garden Spaces were commissioned by a client to create a room in his garden where he could practise playing the drums without disturbing his neighbours. Recognising that low-frequency sounds, like those from drums, are particularly challenging to contain, the client made a smart choice in partnering with a company that has a deep understanding of their building system and how it can be acoustically enhanced.
Acoustic Packages by Garden Spaces
Garden Spaces offer a variety of acoustic packages, detailed on their website, which provide different dB RW soundproofing levels. In this case, the client opted for the Platinum package, which enhanced the acoustic properties of the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Additionally, they chose to include the acoustic porch option. The porch comprises two doors: an external 900mm-wide uPVC door with acoustic glazing, and an internal solid timber door. Both are fitted with specialist acoustic seals. This arrangement allows you to close both doors for maximum soundproofing, or keep the internal door open while enjoying the natural light and garden view through the glazed door.
Surface-Mounted Sockets & Lighting
When designing a building with optimal acoustic properties, it’s important to minimise gaps where sound could escape. For this reason, surface-mounted sockets and switches are recommended for soundproof music rooms, as opposed to recessed ones that would require cutting into the wall structure.
As shown in the interior photos, Garden Spaces can position the sockets to your preference, with all these details discussed during the design consultation. Surface-mounted fluorescent lights are used instead of recessed lighting, providing ample working light in the room.
Unlike many companies, Garden Spaces also handle the final connection between the garden room and the main house as part of their One Stop Shop service, ensuring your new room is ready for use as soon as the installation team leaves.
High-Quality Interior Finishes
Garden Spaces finish the interior of their garden rooms to a high standard, with plastered and decorated walls and ceilings, and high-quality wooden flooring. In this case, the client chose a smoked oak laminate for a modern look.
Since the music room has no windows to minimise sound leakage, a specialist acoustic vent was installed to maintain airflow without compromising the room’s soundproofing. This vent allows for adequate ventilation while ensuring that noise does not escape, providing a well-balanced solution for both comfort and sound isolation.
A Combination of Exterior Finishes
Externally, Garden Spaces’ acoustic studios are designed for long-term durability and low maintenance. In this project, two robust finishes were used. The prominent elevations feature vertically fixed tongue-and-groove Thermowood cladding, which has a rich honey-brown colour and a beautiful grain pattern. Thermowood is a softwood timber that has been treated at high temperatures to enhance its durability, ensuring a lifespan of several decades.
The other walls were clad with cement particle boards, finished in the same RAL7016 colour as the uPVC door and aluminium roof trims. Cement particle boards are a durable mix of cement and wood particles, resistant to rot and dimensionally stable.
The roof was finished with an EPDM membrane, fitted in a single piece to eliminate the risk of leaks from joints.
A Complete Soundproof Music Room Solution
As mentioned earlier, Garden Spaces offer a One Stop Service, handling every aspect of the project, from initial design to planning approval (if required), right through the construction to the interior decoration. They even manage the foundation system and electrical connection.
In this case, the site presented challenges due to extensive tree roots in the build area. After careful assessment during the site survey, Garden Spaces designed a foundation system using 1250mm-long screw piles with adjuster plates, future-proofing the building against potential soil movement.
Learn More
When building a soundproof music room, it’s important to work with a company that truly understands acoustics—and that’s Garden Spaces. Contact their team on 0845 387 9 387 or via email at info@gardenspaces.co.uk. Visit the acoustic studios section on their website for more information on the different soundproofing specifications available.
