Home Gym Acoustical Treatment
The nature of a gym with its drywall or concrete walls, hard floors, and (usually) metal ceilings are the typical example of an echo chamber. They are always very large or fairly large rooms and people doing loud things use it. So, it is usually needed to do acoustical treatment for the gym and the room is always made more comfortable. When there is an inquiry about treating a gym three questions are usually asked by people. What product is suggested, how much is needed and where to put this treatment?
What product is suggested?
Many different answers can be provided for this question. Most of them pertain to the room itself. Varied panels are obtainable that can be glued easily to the ceiling or on the walls high up. There are impact or abuse resistant panels, cost effective panels, and custom panels which are obtainable typically in a wide variety of colors and sizes.
If you do not worry about how the appearance of the room will be affected by the panels, then you can consider going for cost effective panels. If for your needs they perform well enough and you do not worry about their appearance, they can save a lot of cost.
If you really don’t care about their appearance, but your worry is regarding them getting hit, then you would want to consider panels going to be impact or abuse resistant. A lot of damage can be taken by these without displaying wear or tear.
If you are trying to maintain the look of the gym and acoustical panels are not suitable for the design, you may want to consider customized panels. These will be found to cost the most, but your acoustical and design needs will be met by them.
How much is needed?
Unfortunately no “easy” answer is there for this question since the right answer is dependent on your comfort level just as much and the use (s) of the room as anything else. Experts have suggested a thumb rule. That is 3% of the total volume of the room (height x width x depth) will give you the area to be covered by panels.
Where to put this treatment?
Wherever you would like place the treatment and basically have the same result. The end user is left with a lot of freedom for installing the panels in locations that flying objects will not hit, be distant from damage or impact, blend into the room, act as a decorative element in the room, or be installed in areas having the available surface area. This means that the panels can be put on the ceiling or the walls and sound the same.