Beginning studio design - total newbie here

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:30 am

Hey there. I've been wanting to build a studio/rehearsal room in my house for the longest time, and I finally have the time/money to do so. I've read the reference section, but I have some questions specific to my situation.

First some background: I live in a densely populated neighborhood of Arlington, VA. I have neighbors very close; there's a house approximately 15-20 feet on each side of us. My neighbors, well...let's just say they don't share my musical vision. Sound isolation is the most important consideration. Ideally, I'd like to be able to play any time of day or night without bothering my neighbors or my wife & kids. This means rocking out on the drums and/or bass at midnight if I feel like it. I know this may not be possible, but that's the goal.

The big question: basement or garage? I have two good options for studio placement. I have a half-finished basement; the other half is laid out in an L-shape; the main rectangle is roughly 13 x 20, with an additional 10 x 10 enclave off of one corner. The floor is concrete and the walls are cinder block, except for the wall separating the finished from the unfinished parts of the basement, which is drywall. This wall is one-sided in that there exposed studs facing the basement side. The ceiling is unfinished; its basically the underside of the floor above. The hot water heater and heater/air conditioner are down here also, and I'd need to isolate them from the room I'd be playing in. Also, there's a fusebox along one of the walls facing my neighbors; a ton of sound escapes through there, as a moderately loud stereo can be heard clearly outside the house directly opposite the fusebox. If I go with the basement option, what can I do about the fusebox? Is it wasy to move? Or should I leave it where it is and concentrate on stopping sound from escaping there?

I have a detached 2-car garage. Above the garage storage space, which I could possibly use studio. This is about a 20 x 25 room, with a diagonal roof that's maybe 3 feet high near the walls increasing to 12 feet high in the center. The garage is further away from my neighbor's houses, maybe 40-50 feet to the nearest house. The outside of the garage is vinyl siding. One question is whether the garage structure was designed to support the weight of a studio upstairs. How would I find that out?

Which sounds better? The basement seems more difficult in that there are appliances I'd need to work around, plus its more cramped in general and closer to my neighbors' houses. On the other hand, its about 80% undergorund; wouldn't that greatly facilitate soundproofing? The space above the garage is essentially a blank slate; I could do literally whatever I saw fit there, but might be more difficult to acheive the level of sound isolation I'm after.

Opinions?

Thanks,

Kevin

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:35 am

I'm not the handiest guy you've ever met...contractor recommendations would be very helpful and greatly appreciated.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:52 am

Kevin, your questions combined with your statement about abilities make me hope your budget is pretty big (you didn't mention it yet) - studio construction requires attention to detail and a firm understanding of what works and what doesn't - neither of these come cheap when hiring it done, which is why most of our members opt for DIY -

Your electrical box is likely leaking sound because it is probably just a metal box that's not sealed well (if at all), has no mass, and no double leaf construction (as you probably read in the reference section) - fixing that could be a real problem and still meet code for clearance in front of the box.

I can pretty much guarantee that your garage was NOT designed strong enough to allow a sound proofed room upstairs - construction costs are too high to just arbitrarily over-design everything. However, if there is already a room overhead it is possibly sturdy enough - I'd need much more detail on construction as it is now - spacing and sizing of framing, thickness of the flooring and type of material, lower wall stud size/spacing, roof framing details, etc -

I'm assuming your basement is typical and won't allow much extra in the way of headroom - still, overall it's likely the basement would be your best bet for getting decent isolation; it just won't be easy or cheap, especially if you HIRE it done - and you do NOT want to have it done by someone who isn't familiar with sound proofing techniques, or you will just spend a lot of money for nothing.

I'm sorry but I don't have any contacts on the east coast other than Rod Gervais and Wes Lachot, both of whom share moderator duties with me on another site - If your budget is enough to spend maybe $75-80 a square foot to soundproof your basement, I can ask them for recommendations - that's about the minimum you would need when having this type construction done by someone who won't mess it up, and it could go higher than that depending on the number of "problem" areas that need solutions.

If you have more time than money, as most of our members do, eventually you should be able to do this yourself for a huge savings in cost - for a prime example of this, check out Dietcookie's thread in the reference section - he'd never built ANYTHING before coming to us... Steve

JCBigler · Post by **JCBigler** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:32 pm

knightfly wrote: check out Dietcookie's thread in the reference section - he'd never built ANYTHING before coming to us... Steve

And where would this reference section be? I couldn't find it on the main website or the forums. Thanks,

AVare · Post by **AVare** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 4:35 pm

Here it is directly.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1589

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 4:42 am

JC, if you're looking for the reference section later and can't find Andre's link, it's an ANNOUNCEMENT near the top of the Construction Forum... Steve

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:01 am

Dietcookie's story certianly was inpiring...hey, maybe I'll hire him!

Seriously, though, I'll give the DIY route a try. I've been able to understrand the things I've read in the reference section, so I feel like I know what needs to be done in the usual cases (i.e., floating floor, building walls, haning ceiling, etc). However, I'll still need some specific help with the problem areas; pretty much the fusebox and the water heater / air conditioner. I'll post pictures and solicit people's advice.

Thanks again,

Kevin

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:41 am

That's the spirit - we LOVE "fresh meat" to pick on

Just kidding, Kevin - bring on the questions/pix, we love 'em... Steve

(BTW, Dietcookie's made a booboo or two, but nothing that can't be fixed - the secret is asking and understanding totally, BEFORE you pick up the saw or screw gun)

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:12 pm

Sorry about the delay; this is going to have to be a part-time project I'm afraid.

Here are some pics of the basement. First, 2 pics of the space. Note one window in each pic, plus the fusebox. I have no idea what kind of insulation that is, but behind the insulation is concrete, don't know how thick, though.

Here's a closeup of the fusebox...

And a closeup of the Water heater and the air conditioner. These are loud, and I don't want sound from these things getting into the rehearsal room. Also, directly behind these is a closet accessible from the family room. I have no idea if that matters or not.

This is the wall that separates the basement from the family room. Obviously, the shelves will come down. I'm guessing I'd put insulation between the studs, and that would form my outer wall. Also, along this wall, inbetween the section pictured here and the appliances in the previous picture, is the actual door to the basement. I'd have to deal with that, too.

Here's what the ceiling looks like. It doesn't look like too big a deal to stick whatever insulation I decide on up there, above the cables/cords/etc but below the plywood ceiling. Is that what I'd want to do? Then I'd hang a ceiling fron the 2x4's with RC, or maybe have the ceiling supported by the inner walls of my room, right?

So I'm, trying to get all the details of the plan and design laid out before I make the first trip to Home Depot. Is there any other info that would be helpful? I'm especially interested in advice regarding the appliances and the fusebox, but any help would obviously be appreciated (and don't say "clean up"!).

Kevin

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 4:19 pm

Kevin, I don't have much time right now but I see you've hosted your pix on a different server; could you please resize them down to less than 800 pixels wide? That's what makes us have to scroll sideways to read the text - I'll look closer soon, and I think you're right about the length of this project -

One thing first; do you have a way to get combustion air to your gas water heater after it's enclosed? For that, you should get a gas appliance pro in there to figure out air supply, this is REALLY important... Steve

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:08 am

Can you flesh out your idea a bit so I can ask a better question of the waterheater guy? Obviously, combustion air is getting to the water heater now, are we going to be completely isolating it from the ceiling? If I'm hanging my own ceiling and building an airtight space, why would I have to mess with any of the existing pipes?

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 1:03 am

That's just what I wanted to make sure of; if your water heater won't be enclosed in its own little box, and it still has a good supply of combustion air, then there shouldn't be ANY problem. I've seen some builds where guys have fully enclosed a water heater or furnace without considering that it MUST breathe; I brought this up NOW, just to make sure you weren't considering that... Steve

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 2:43 am

Well, I wasn't planning on using the whole basement for a studio. Its used for otherthings; you might have noticed the weights in one of the photos. Can you believe my wife doesn't want those in the living room? She can be so unreasonable.

Here's what I was thinking. Here's a drawing I made of the basement, with the locations of the windows, door, fusebox, and appliances marked. The dotted blue line shows the space I was going to use for the studio. I don't know exactly how far over I'll build the wall, but the point is that I would leave that corner enclave and the appliances area essentially untouched. Oh, I suspect I'll be adding a door to the studio at some point also.

I suppose this would be a good time to ask if there's a plan that makes better use of my space. If what I've got is fine so far, we can talk about what to do about the fusebox.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:13 pm

The fusebox, relatively cramped quarters, noisy appliances and closer distance to neighbors makes me wanna see some pix of the garage; specifically framing on walls, ceiling, and a similarly done drawing; I think your goal of drums and bass at midnite might be closer to doable with the garage, from what you've said so far... Steve

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Beginning studio design - total newbie here

Beginning studio design - total newbie here

oh, one more thing...