The Stakes Are Too High To DIY

diy mistakes diy soundproofing home recording studio design home studio build soundproof studio soundproofing costs soundproofing tips time vs money Mar 10, 2025

We all love a good deal. If you can put some elbow grease into a project and fix it yourself, awesome! You just saved a bunch of money... or did you?

Let me tell you a story.

Greg loves mowing his lawn. He invested $3,000 into a state-of-the-art mower. Every weekend, he mows his lawn, maintains his mower, and keeps everything looking pristine. Need an oil change? No problem—he finds a YouTube video. Carburetor issues? Another video and a few replacement parts later, he’s back on track. Greg’s yard is immaculate, and he takes pride in mowing those perfect pro-soccer-field lines.

Greg is the king of DIY lawn care!

One day, I asked him, “Greg, you love mowing your lawn so much—why not mow your neighbor’s lawn too?”

He laughed. “Of course not, Wilson! I don’t have the time. Plus, the most they’d pay me is $60. I make way more than that at my job.”

I told Greg, “If you aren’t willing to mow your neighbor’s lawn for $60, there’s no reason you should mow your own. Your time is simply too valuable.”

Mowing the lawn might be a classic American pastime, but it can also be a huge waste of time. And when it comes to researching and building a soundproof studio, the same logic applies.

What Is Your Time Worth?

Chances are you have a job. And chances are it pays you well. Let’s say you earn $75,000 a year. The average person works about 2,000 hours annually. That means your time is worth roughly $37.50 per hour.

So, if you’re doing anything you could pay someone less than $37.50 per hour to do, you’re actually losing money. You’re working below your pay grade and sacrificing your time and income.

How Many Hours Have You Spent Researching Soundproofing?

If you’re like most people I talk to, you’ve watched all my YouTube videos, read Rod Gervais’s book, and still feel uncertain about how to build your soundproof studio.

Let’s do the math. Watching my content alone takes around 81 hours. Add another 20 hours from other sources. That’s over 100 hours of research.

At $37.50 per hour, that’s $3,750 of your time. And you probably still haven’t built your studio.

Do You Know How Long It Takes to Build?

Let’s say you feel confident after all that research. You decide to skip hiring a professional and jump straight into building. You do most of the work yourself because you’re a true DIY warrior.

You’ve never built a studio before, and you underestimate the timeline by about six months. Instead of six months, it takes a year. You work full-time, so you give up every weekend for that year. You pull some late nights too, because the project is dragging.

That’s 8 hours every Saturday and Sunday for 50 weeks. 800 hours. That’s $30,000 of your time.

But hey, you saved $30,000 in labor, right? Who cares if you missed weddings, birthday parties, and time with your kids? Who cares if you lost your weekends and your chance to relax?

What If It’s Not Soundproof?

After all that, you close the door to your finished studio... and you hear your kids running around upstairs. The ductwork you tied into is noisy, and the sound of the vacuum cleaner travels right into your room. The acoustics are off; your homemade panels didn’t quite do the trick.

Let’s recap:

Research: $3,750
Sweat Equity: $30,000
Materials: $25,000

And it still didn’t work. You wasted $58,750 and a year of your life.

The Better Path

Sure, this is an extreme example, but it happens more often than you’d think. Can you build a studio perfectly on your first try? Maybe. But is your time really that cheap?

Would you build your own house? Remodel your own kitchen? Fix your car instead of taking it to a mechanic? Fly your own plane instead of buying a ticket?

You pay experts for expert results. You pay them to save time, money, and frustration. You pay them to get it right the first time.

So, do you still want to DIY your home studio? If so, more power to you. But if you don’t want to metaphorically mow your neighbor’s lawn, there’s a better way.

I call it DIT: Do It Together.

If you value your time and want to work with someone who can guide you through the process, let’s talk. Book a 30-minute Soundproof Clarity Call with me to see how I can help you build your dream home studio—the right way.

Apply here: Soundproof Clarity Call Application

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