I am about to undertake my second studio construction project in a rented warehouse. and I have been contemplating ways of building the basic shell Ie Floating floor walls ceiling etc in a way that is cheap offers great soundproofing and can be taken down and moved if we have to change premisses. Here is my solution and I would value anyones opinion before i begin construction. basically I have been looking at cool room and freezer room construction as I believe thermal properties translate very well to sound , I have found a company called panel tech that produce 150 ml thick foam filled panels that are load bearing . I can build a 7m x 6m x 3.4 m with no frame for $5000 au . the outer and inner metal skins are completely decoupled and apparently I can attach resilient mounts to either surface and ad multiple layers of plasterboard etc to the interior or outer surface .
You can see where I heading here , It seems to me that a basic shell of this size for $5000 and can be assembled in a day or two seems to good to be true .
Alternative construction method
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eskimo
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- Location: Melbourne
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knightfly
- Senior Member
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- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
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You're right, it does sound too good to be true; one thing to watch out for, is that thermal performance doesn't ALWAYS equate to sonic performance. For example, if you have a building with (using your example) 172.4 square meters of wall surface (including floor and ceiling) and it's all insulated to R-38, then you cut a 1/10 square meter hole in one wall, unless you put a fan in the hole in such a way as to cause air to be moved in or out the hole (causing more air to replace it) then your total heat loss will only suffer by 0.1/172.4, or in other words a very tiny amount - it's only proportional to the size of the opening.
If you do this with sound, totally sealing the room, then cause a tiny crack in one wall that's maybe one MILLIMETER by one meter in area, you will lose anywhere from 10 to 20 dB of isolation; in other words, anywhere from twice to four TIMES as loud in the room as before, when listening to outside noise.
Also, the only type of insulation that counts for much in sound wall construction is the breathable kind; like fiberglass, rockwool, etc - many of today's heat insulation products are closed cell foam; these work fine for heat, but are essentially an open window to sound by themselves, and do very little to help cavities between two masses for sound walls.
That being said, I did a little experiment a few years back when looking for ways to quiet a noisy computer with 5 7200 rpm SCSI drives; I cleared a tall shelf in my refrigerator, set a boom box on it, measured the SPL with a meter (95 dB, C weighted, at 3 feet) - then I closed the door; SPL dropped to 56 dB, same distance from the source. So, the reefer did OK; I know the main help there was the soft, magnetic sealed weather stripping on the frig door, but still, not too bad.
I think you could do better for isolation with permanent construction, but if portability is important this might just be a good way to have your cake and eat it too... Steve
If you do this with sound, totally sealing the room, then cause a tiny crack in one wall that's maybe one MILLIMETER by one meter in area, you will lose anywhere from 10 to 20 dB of isolation; in other words, anywhere from twice to four TIMES as loud in the room as before, when listening to outside noise.
Also, the only type of insulation that counts for much in sound wall construction is the breathable kind; like fiberglass, rockwool, etc - many of today's heat insulation products are closed cell foam; these work fine for heat, but are essentially an open window to sound by themselves, and do very little to help cavities between two masses for sound walls.
That being said, I did a little experiment a few years back when looking for ways to quiet a noisy computer with 5 7200 rpm SCSI drives; I cleared a tall shelf in my refrigerator, set a boom box on it, measured the SPL with a meter (95 dB, C weighted, at 3 feet) - then I closed the door; SPL dropped to 56 dB, same distance from the source. So, the reefer did OK; I know the main help there was the soft, magnetic sealed weather stripping on the frig door, but still, not too bad.
I think you could do better for isolation with permanent construction, but if portability is important this might just be a good way to have your cake and eat it too... Steve