John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

How much caulking do you think it would take to do a room that is 17x10? I just don't want to buy too much but then agian I don't wan tot be running to the store every 2 hours to get more.

John, first before I forget, could you edit your profile to include at least a general area you're from? City would be fine, even "west coast USA" is doable. The problem is that this site is worldwide, and we never know what make sense for given areas. Prices of a lot of the basic building materials run from cheap to "omigod" throughout the world, etc...

Do you have a local source for the REAL acoustic rated caulk? If so, you're talking the 29 or 32 oz tubes. You'll need typically 1/4" beads, and if you're doing double layered sheet rock you should caulk both layers as you go. You won't need to caulk under wall plates, because you'll caulk both layers of rock as you go. You'll put up your first layer on spacers (1/8" to 3/16"), then fasten the panels, then pull the spacers and caulk - repeat (with joints offset both directions) - so plan on 1/4" beads all around the room, TWICE, plus any other openings. If you look on the tubes of caulk, they normally tell you how long a bead you can expect for each thickness of bead - I'd figure actually getting about 80% of that for calculations.

If you do a drop ceiling with double sheet rock and Resilient channel, you'll leave the channel itself about 1" short of the walls, and the sheet rock with 3/16" to 1/4" gap between ceiling and walls. Caulk each layer there also, the only connection you want between ceiling and wall is the caulk. You should seal the space above the ceiling before you start, this makes your "two leaves, one air space" happen.

Bottom line for caulk - measure all places that need it (x2 where there's double layers), double check that, add up the total length of bead, and divide by about 80% of the length of bead the caulk CLAIMS to cover. That should get you pretty close... Steve

ok wow some of what you said went over my head so I'll need some explain, but forst off I'm from Norman Oklahoma, but I'll be helping a freind put the iso rooms together in NYC..queens to be more exact. Of course you could look at my website and it even gives my home address...so that should be specific enough

Ok..Explain Spacers like I'm a 5 year old..I did not get that..pics help too...I'mn a visual Learner.... And I plan on putting up 3 layers of sheetrock, and dropping a ceiling. (so they sell RC at home depot?)

Also in NYC or anywhere online do they sell some kind of pad or something to float the walls on? The floor in the room is ceramic tile (the plans changed form the orignal plan and now it is in a basement) so I don't see a reason to float a floor..especially when headroom is at a premium, but I'll need sopmething to isolate the walls from the floor I suppose.

I'm gonna be in NYC on the 6th for two weeks to build one room so that should be egnough time to doa bang up job, but still need some help from you wise ones

p.s...fell free to start this uder a new thread if you feel the topic is no longer relevant

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=503

This is the authority on sheet rock, from the company who sells mega-tons of it.

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=598

Those two threads have quite a bit of info that will help - As for spacers, here's the deal - some drywall suppliers have spacers, or you may have to make them. What you want are several small pieces of wood that are 3/16" thick - these are placed on the floor and the sheet rock is rested on them, up against the studs. You then fasten the sheet rock to the studs (or RC, depending on which side of the wall you're doing) Then you pull out the spacers and caulk that layer with acoustic sealant. Repeat for each layer, being sure to follow the methods I outlined in the second link above, for your particular framing methods.

You do the ceiling in a similar way - cut the RC so that it ends about 1" away from the side wall. Put spacers (taped in place) on the wall at ceiling level, so that they keep the ceiling wallboard away from the wall by 3/16" - again, caulk each layer before going on to the next. Always, whether wall or ceiling, stagger seams from layer to layer, so that ZERO seams match up with the next layer. Mud and tape each layer as you go, so you have no gaps in coverage where seams are.

When you attach RC to a ceiling or wall frame, always put masking tape markers at both ends on the adjacent surface, so you know exactly where the RC is after the first layer of paneling is on. If you're using RC on wood framing, you also want to use the masking tape method to mark where all wood framing members are - these markers will tell you where NOT to drive screws - you don't EVER want to have a screw penetrate thru the RC and into the stud, or it will negate the use of RC altogether.

The caulking you do after pulling the spacers out from under the layers of wallboard is your "pad" you mentioned - This keeps the wall from directly touching the floor, yet seals between them hermetically.

I wouldn't count on finding RC at a Home Depot - some people have gotten lucky, but the one in my area never heard of it. Usually the best places to find RC are commercial drywall and insulation contractors, if they will sell it to you. Same for Acoustic Sealant. If you have to get the acoustic sealant on the web, it's about $7.50 per 29 oz tube. Don't go to Supersoundproofing.con (con was intentional) unless you want to spend TWICE that. Local purchases are typically $4 or so per large tube, so it's worth it to ask around. Yellow pages under drywall contractors, that sort of thing...

There are different types of RC these days, the best for ceilings is Dietrich RC Deluxe. It has a wider web for screwing to, and is heavy enough for 3 layers of sheet rock on ceilings - 4 layers if you put it closer together, say 12" centers.

http://www.dietrichindustries.com/bigdp ... sories.htm

Do NOT, repeat NOT, get the RC-2 if you want best sound proofing - although the RC2 is stronger, it's also more conducive to sound getting through due to better coupling. The RC Deluxe is the stuff.

Where you caulk between walls and floor, remember to NOT put moulding that mounts to both floor and wall - the idea of the caulking is to keep that joint flexible and not in hard contact.

Hope that helped... Steve