John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

Looking to start my home studio with the floor. I'm reluctant to use elastomers to isolate structural sound leakage because of the risk of miscalculating the system.

Is there an alernative to using elalstomers to isolate a floor (i.e. many layers of gypsum)?

Btw, the existing floor is 11 ft x 9ft over 2" hardwood, supported by large steel beams.

I have read that erring on the side of "too much compression" for the elastomer is preferable, but results in a shorter lifespan for the elastomer?


Thanks.

Extra layers of mass don't decouple, that's the job of the elastomer - and virtually anything that will decouple IS by definition an elastomer - see this

http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/Elastomer

Don't be scared off by over-thinking - I can tell by your questions who you've been listening to, and all I can say is that, while all the info is pertinent, we've had hundreds of people build floated floors with excellent results and NOT obsess nearly so much -

As I understand it (sorta) the higher priced, more exotic elastomers may last about the same time as EPDM (about 25 years) but exhibit greater damping, which is a good thing; neoprene under the same conditions will only last about 10 years, so EPDM is the better choice. In any case, it's important to "tune" the elastomer to the job; this entails calculating the TOTAL weight of materials to be supported by the elastomer, and sizing/spacing the pucks so they are compressed somewhere around 15-20% of their thickness - I've outlined a way to do this here -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=839

Beyond that, regardless of WHICH elastomer you choose, it's still important to damp whatever floor you're floating, even concrete - this is done by a complete, slightly compressed fill of (typically) mineral wool in the floor cavity. This keeps the sections of floor from ringing at whatever resonant frequency the combination of floor mass and cavity depth causes.

I'm not saying that our English friend (Hi Paul ) isn't right, it's just that not everyone has the $$$ or desire to play/record at 250 dB while "woman" sleeps next door -

I'm so buried right now I don't have time to follow (and remember) everyone's situations, so if you outline your situation (and desires) I can help you find a usable solution that works for YOU... Steve

PS - see my response here

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3037

If you just continue that thread, it will help keep things in one place and I can stay up on your particuar situation without jumping through so many threads to see what's been covered already... Steve