Soundproofed garden room - advice / experience

[Butchmanda]

Thinking of a garden room - soundproofed - to use primarily as a music practice room. Can't afford an extension to our house but have a nice big garden. Might use it as a home office / study too. Anyone any stories / views / advice? Would also be interested in costs although have emailed a few companies for quotes. Do you feel it adds value to the property?

We are about to start our build for a soundproofed room for our son who plays drums.
We are building a room within a room, double stud work construction. I have spent too long researching and planning this to make sure we get it right. Budget is £15k, we are employing a carpenter to work on it rather than a building firm. We are providing the spec to save money. We could easily spend twice this, but will have a great garden office once he leaves home. Overall size is 6.5m x 3.5m.
Happy to answer questions ...

Our designer recommended acoustic absorbing panels from Amazon for our laundry room as it backed on to a study . They work brilliantly, I often forget I put the washing on though

I think it depends on what kind of music is being practiced. Drums are one of the hardest sounds to contain, it would be easier if its something like piano

Thanks for your replies. I think I may have found a company we'd like to go with (based on recommendations from colleagues) but still depends on exact cost. Eeek. Luckily it's not for drums (although my DS's are now plotting to get some of those ...) but for piano/violin/trumpet/trombone/electric guitars. It's the brass that are the killers. Even I can't bear being in the same room as the trombone for very long. And, of course, the kids would be delighted to actually be able to plug guitars into the amps and turn the volume up. At the moment every time they do that, I unplug them and spoil their fun. Also, the piano is on the party wall in the dining room so I'm very aware that it must carry to the neighbours. They've never complained but I'd be happier if I knew we weren't in danger disturbing anyone.

Fab41: that's a lovely big room, isn't it? Despite having a big garden, I think we'll still only be looking at 3 by 4 m maximum. Although, I could think of a million lovely uses of a bit of extra space. Before we know it we'll be fighting over its use: home office / cinema / gym etc etc! I'm also thinking that we'll have a nice room once the kids have left home. Although I dabble in quite a bit of music myself, so it'll retain its original purpose too. I have read that - with the type we're looking at - you can dismantle and take them with you if you move (which probably also means you can sell them??) I'd say we'd look at £15k or so (haven't talked to the bank yet ....), but it'll have to go on our mortgage, so it's a long-term investment and will probably mean an extra couple of years on our mortgage as well as an extra payment every month. Just don't have that kind of money hanging around .... Slightly worried about the life-span. They seem to come with a 10 year guarantee, which makes me wonder whether they don't last long beyond that. That would be really crap as we'd still be paying for it!

We had quotes of over £25k for a specialist company down to £7k with no soundproofing. I am hoping that our budget, on a 5yr loan..., will do what we need. I am researching and project managing, so saving money that way. The concrete base is being poured next weekend and the carpenter starts on the 21st. I will keep updated.

Fab41 - that's interesting. From what I can gather from the company my colleagues have used, a basic non-soundproofed room would be £10-12k in the size we want. I'm wondering JUST how much the soundproofing costs on top of that. I don't think it's the 'room within a room' method, but extra soundproofing between the layers, or something. I need to have a proper look at the website on my laptop instead of my tiny phone screen.
I guess I should just ring them up and ask them to come and give me a quote. They also have a showroom which we should visit.
Problem is getting some action from my DH who's the main wage-earner and therefore - I suppose - gets a say in all of this. Pity his wealthy parents can't lend us a few bob, but that's another subject entirely.
Looking forward to hearing about your progress -it'll spur me on!

"Room within a room" is the only method of making it totally soundproof.