Shane Stegmeier Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 My wife and I are looking for ways to get me into a larger shop, and she hit upon the idea of moving the animals out of our heavy corrugated galvinized pole barn, I am concerned about noise? It is a good sized barn ~30 x ~60and the roof is pretty high. The lowest point is probably ~15' with the peak about ~24' My question is... I am not particularly worried about the noise level for me, though that is a bother and if I want to teach out of my shop I will have to do something..., but I wear hearing protection in the shop all the time just as a mater of course. BUT my immediate concern is about running the power hammer and the compressor, with bare metal walls, especially in the summer time. I am on the edge of a small creek valley and most of my neighbors are a 1/2mile away or better. But I don't want to have to insulate and seal the shop up so I can work late into the night as I am wont to do:-) THose of you with power hammers and metal pole barns... How far? and how badly does the sound carry. Does your wife wander out in the middle of the night and tell you to stop so she can sleep, or that the neighbors have called... ANd for those of you who have insulated thier barns? What did you use? How expensive was it? And how well did it work, to prevent the barn from acting like a giant sounding board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 I have a 35x50 three sided hay barn with metal poles set in concrete. Almost anything done inside that building will echo 500 yds down to the neighbors. However, my blacksmith shop is a metal building wrapped around large WOOD poles, because that was what I had at the time of construction (about the diameter of a phone pole). Does not ring at all but my wife can occasionally feel the power hammer running at the house, which is about 50-60 yds from the shop. It doesn't rattle the dishes but she sometimes can tell when it's going. Fortunately, my neighbors cannot tell when I am working and say even on a calm night that the sounds from vehicles and other sources drown out anything I do. The only time anyone knows I'm there is when the lights are on or they see an arc flash. If I were you, I'd take an old galvanized trash can inside the barn and whale on it a bit - with doors shut and open. Let your wife move around outside from spot to spot to see if it's objectionable. Your barn may ring like a bell or be relatively quiet. The can will be noisier than anything you will likely do for real work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J W Bennett Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 My shop is a 32'x48' pole barn with 10' walls, I have insulated the walls with 2" styrofoam. The power hammer is a smaller one with a 24# on one side and a 65# on the other. I keep a 10' sliding door half open when working for ventilation. The house is only 20' from barn and I don't run the hammer at night or I wake the wife up. :shock: However the closest neighbor 600'+- has told me several times he can't hear me working. I think Hollis has a good idea with the trash can. JWB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Stegmeier Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 The barn has heavy creosoted wooden beams as it's uprights and wooden trusses, so it should be a little more quiet than a totally steel structure:-) And at the moment it has a dirt floor so it doesn't seem loud in there at all, but we also have hay storage and stalls and animals in there too, so it will be a little better about absorbing the sound and not reflecting it all over the valley:-) I am just concerned about stripping all the stalls out and moving the hay and getting a decent concret floor poored if that is going to change the accoustics greatly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 neighbors and concrete floors can both be a pain in the --------back. I rezoned my place to industrial under a conditional use permit so I wouldnt have to worry about the neighbors. I am like a lot of the older smiths as in I prefer a dirt floor. The main reason that I rezoned the property was so that as my neighbors changed and the county officials came and went I wouldnt have to worry about what I could or could not do leagaly. I am in a very rual county that is sadly starting to experience a great deal of growth and as it grows the restrictions on what I would be allowed to do would most certainly increase without the protection of the proper zoning in place. This way I can open a store , teach or do anything and everything up to and including the uses allowed under the M1 industrial permit. MIKE-T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce wilcock Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 Of all the tools the one likely to cause comment ,is a angle grinder an sheet steel ,and brass finishing , in a empty shed . On still frosty day my son says he can hear the heavy hammer working ,across water 3 miles away the other side of the bay, and thats in a stone building with slate roof ,we have no background noise to lose it in, often i get folk in the smithy ,say ,you were hard at it last night ,and i know they live a way of On thing we can forget with a lifetime working in the smithy,is that the bulk of the population have hearing like Bats, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Bruce, my son has heard my anvil being used outside during the summer at 4 blocks distance. Being used inside tends to kill the distance quite a bit. During the winter or heavy air the sound travels even better. Across water moves sound well also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Fionn, that shop will sweat if you close it up. good idea to get the foam insulation. don't know what to tell you on the noise, sorry.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Plant shaggy fir trees *now* to create a natural sound deadening barrier. The part about finding nodes (quiet places) to put the hammer sounds right on---but you need to do it with the hammer so you get the nodes for it's primary frequencies. Can you extend the roof and stack hay around the outside---both insulation and sound deadening... Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogvalley Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Don't worry about the neighbors, they'll be fine at that distance. What ya gonna do with the animals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny D Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 I bet if you get the spray on insulation on the inside that would deaden it up real good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I would want any of the foam insulations where a hot piece of metal might hit them, even the ones treated to not burn still give off nasty stuff when hot. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 When I say foam, I mean sheet foam insulation. This is ( as Thomas notes ) nasty stuff when it gets hot stuff on it. Where there may be contact with hot stuff, I would just nail ( screw whatever ) some drywall over it. Light furring strips will hold sheet foam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J W Bennett Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I have the sheet foam on the inside of my outer walls, Haven't had any problems. It's easy to install and takes water and flying objects well. JWB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Stegmeier Posted February 3, 2006 Author Share Posted February 3, 2006 Well the animals are staying, but I have to build her a new barn for them, we think it will be cheaper to build her a new barn than to build me a new shop. As far as spray on insulation, I don't think so I have heard it is expensive. I am doing this on the cheap, as much recycled materials and cheap or free as I can. I think Thomas's idea of trees around the shop will help some. But I suspect that the noise it going travel a bit, and that I will need to watch how late I forge in the summer when the neighbors windows will be open. Though my wife can sleep through me forging right now and the shop is 10' from the house:-) I suppose it is very much like living right next to the train tracks;-) after a few years you get used to it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWE_Karl Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 i dont realy konw what the law says in the USA, but in Sweden its says that; untill 10 at night ( dont know it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 It varies from each municipality so for america there are probably 50,000 answers. I'm out in the country and the unwritten law is "don't annoy your neighbors". In the city in OH I used to live in there was a "reasonable" noise law that went from around 8 am till 10 pm but there is also a noise ordinance that limited loud noises at any time---measurement being done at the property line. Now these ordinaces also depended on if your area was zoned industrial or residential as well. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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