I know, getting into the realms of the obscure. I’m about to replace my garage doors and I see an opportunity to reduce the noise level from all the banging, crashing and cutting going on inside.
Anyone have any info, anecdotal or otherwise, on the noise insulation properties of wood doors over aluminum with insulation ?
Get either a belt or screw drive door. They also make derilin wheels, those really quiet the door down.
Aluminum with insulation is lighter, so you wouldn’t need as big a motor.
The doors on my last house were pretty heavy and dense. Not exactly sure what they were. I assumed some kind of composite. The door was pretty good as blocking sound but the edges, rubber seals and lines between the slats would let sound leak. Neighbors could hear my MPCNC even with the doors closed but it wasn’t annoying for them. I would say that was a great choice.
Oh and to help make the door quiet while opening and closing. Use Nylon rollers. World of difference. The door would sound like it was about to rattle the house down as it opened and closed before I replaced those.
Right now I’ve got wood doors with antique openers. Rattle I can live with, it’s the antisocial noises inside I’m more worried about !
Are you trying to get a quiet door, or have the door make the noises inside the garage quieter? It seems like people are answering both.
Indeed. Make the noises coming from inside quieter.
Well, I work at a garage door company so I have a ton of info. If you are going to replace the doors look at steel back insulated metal doors (they are also called “sandwich” doors). They are available in a ton of different styles, colors, even faux wood grain finishes that look amazingly real. The polyurethane insulated doors will give you the most “R” value and best insulation you can get. It should reduce the noise coming through about as much as you can possibly do. Polyurethane is quite expensive though, polystyrene is the next level down but should still quiet it down a decent amount. I do not have much info on wood doors as nobody in town does whole doors in real wood anymore. The closest thing you can get to that is a wood covered steel door (which you can have custom made) but they are usually VERY expensive.
As for the noise of the doors themselves, you 100% want to get nylon rollers for the door tracks as this will eliminate the metal to metal sound. You want a torsion spring assembly (not extension springs). As for door operators, a name brand belt drive operator. Preferably one with a one piece rail (we sell LiftMaster and they are very good). I used to be able to hear my door open from the back of my house, opposite the garage. I replaced my old door and operator with a polyurethane steel back door, nylon rollers and a belt drive operator and you can no longer hear the door opening at all inside the house unless you are right next to the inside door to the garage and even then its not that apparent.
Ton of good info, thanks.
Not related to stopping sound but you may want to consider a wall mounting jack-shaft opener so you can reclaim your ceiling area.
If you are hiring a pro to replace your door, then you can add mass (best method according to physics) to stop noise from penetrating outside the door. This might be done with a solid wood door. It is important your door tracks are adequately sized and supported to handle the weight of the door, and that the spring is balanced to the weight of your door… even 20lbs off balance is too much and will ruin an electric opener. This is why I mentioned the pro installer earlier.
I can’t speak to wooden doors as mine have always been metal.
The front door on the shop has a metal insulated door. Insulated doors in Texas are rare. Most are just metal. I can say that the big insulated door does block ‘some’ noise. I’m not sure if it stops any more than the other doors on the shop facing the other directions.
The only reason that 1 door is insulated is because it faces north, so it helps cut down on cold winds from that direction.
Either way, I typically have most of the doors open for a nice breeze. Otherwise it gets too hot in there to work.
Buy a storm rated and insulated door. You’ll probably end up with a sound proof vault.