Starting Room Treatments

[DSkip]

So I scoured craigslist this morning to find some 8'x4'x3" fiberglass panels for sale at $20 per. I wasn't really intending to build any in the near future, but at the price, I went ahead and picked up all 11 he had for sale (couple for me and the rest for other local polkies I gave a heads up to). This is my first venture into this arena and would appreciate any do's/don'ts or any other advice that could be shared.

I plan on putting one full sheet behind my projector screen. Another Polkie shared w/ me the mirror trick about first reflections, so I'll be doing that. Where else do I need to address? I assume I would need some directly behind the listening position? The room is 12x14.

[halenhoang]

So I scoured craigslist this morning to find some 8'x4'x3" fiberglass panels for sale at $20 per. I wasn't really intending to build any in the near future, but at the price, I went ahead and picked up all 11 he had for sale (couple for me and the rest for other local polkies I gave a heads up to). This is my first venture into this arena and would appreciate any do's/don'ts or any other advice that could be shared.

I plan on putting one full sheet behind my projector screen. Another Polkie shared w/ me the mirror trick about first reflections, so I'll be doing that. Where else do I need to address? I assume I would need some directly behind the listening position? The room is 12x14.

Attachment 80004

Skip,
You could always treat your garage doors. Cooler in summer and warmer during winter. The "Do's" my rec is to deliver them and the "Don'ts" is not charge for them. Hehehehe.

What I have always wondered about the mirror trick, is that you zone in to a central location aka sweet spot. If you shifted left or right a little, would the reflection be different in which the whole place must be treated? For movies that is. Or I are treatments strictly 2 channel?

[drumminman]

Man that is the most uncluttered garage I've ever seen!

Think about the wall behind the speakers, corners, side walls. Sorry, no good advice from experience.

[thsmith]

Keep them about an 1" from the wall. If you plan to cover with cloth material make plastic corners to protect the corners and makes it easy to slide cover on.

[SCompRacer]

Static double post! The second one is better.

[SCompRacer]

Man that is the most uncluttered garage I've ever seen!

Think about the wall behind the speakers, corners, side walls.

I agree with both of these comments!

Check out GIK Acoustics articles, they even have videos (under the education tab). The more effort you put into understanding room problems, the better you can plan to solve them.

http://gikacoustics.com/articles/

It is good to see acoustic treatment activity, either DIY or purchased as finished product. I started to use acoustic treatments late in my audio lifetime and regret not using them sooner.

What will you cover them with? There are suppliers that offer Guilford of Maine fabrics (they are sound transparent) by the yard with no minimum to match any room decor. My wife picked out the fabric color for mine (I'm partially color blind, never know what I might end up with...lol).

[Toolfan66]

WOW!! You can make some nice RT's. my advice is when you make the frames be sure to leave at least a 2" gap between the wall and insulation. You can see how they are made on the GIK website..

Have fun!!

[DSkip]

So I started by cutting 4 1'x8' panels for the corners of the room. I plan on doing 4 2'x4' panels, one on each side for first reflection, and two behind the listening position. I also will put a full sheet behind my projector screen as well.

My next question is this: Would this material be good for covering the door to prevent so much sound to resonate through the house? The way the house is set up, it kind of acts like a horn towards the front door.

[pablo_rodz]

So I scoured craigslist this morning to find some 8'x4'x3" fiberglass panels for sale at $20 per. I wasn't really intending to build any in the near future, but at the price, I went ahead and picked up all 11 he had for sale (couple for me and the rest for other local polkies I gave a heads up to). Attachment 80004

Where are you located, I'm in Houston/Katy? I've been looking in craigslist for acoustic panels with no luck.

[Phasewolf]

No it will not prevent nor really help with sound in the rest of the home. Closing off the room would but I think that is beyond the scope of this project.

[DSkip]

Where are you located, I'm in Houston/Katy? I've been looking in craigslist for acoustic panels with no luck.

I'm in the Dallas area. I searched for a bit before I found the magic key words.


Alright, so I've started the process. I've cut everything I'm going to cut for the time being. I scratched the idea of a full slab behind my PJ. I just really don't want to mess with it right now. I also modified my plans thanks to the GIK link S provided (ty sir!). At this point, I've cut the 1'x8' slabs for each corner, four 1.5'x3' slabs for first reflection points on side walls, and two 2'x3' slabs for behind the listening position. At this point, I've probably spent twice as much on fabric as I have on the actual material, but I don't want them to look cheap. I found two fabrics I really liked. The first pic shows what I wrapped the two back-wall slabs in. Its kind of a suede, so I figured it would be a good material to grab a little more deadening impact (could be dead wrong here, but I still like it!).



The second picture shows what everything else will be wrapped in. Its a pattern-stitched copper-tone silk that actually looks brown (almost black) or copper depending on how the light hits it. Its almost exactly what I had wanted to find when I started this project. Best thing is, its only $7/yard.



Wrapping it has been easy. This project gave my wife a reason to get the staple gun she's been wanting for about a year. I've done the covering by pulling it snug around the corners and stapling it to the back of the boards. I have yet to get these attached to the walls, but its been fun so far. This is quite a time-consuming process.

[txcoastal1]

Very nice Skip, like your choices of material

[PSOVLSK]

(In my best Randy Quiad voice):

Those are nice, Clark. Reeaall nice.



Hope mine turn out as well.

[pablo_rodz]

Those look very nice...

Do you mine sharing the magic words for the search? I wish you were closer, I would buy a few panels from you.

[DSkip]

I searched for everything I could think of with just about any combination of these words: fiberglass, acoustic, panel, panels, insulation, room treatments, wall treatments....

I don't suspect this kind of stuff comes up much. I did see where there is a studio in Houston selling their entire collection of room treatments. Guy wants $1k for it all. Doesn't look like its overpriced really, just a lot of money up-front and more than most would ever need. I really feel lucky having found this stuff for that price. For what I'm doing my entire room for, I could've probably only gotten roughly 3-4 pre-made 2'x4' panels.