VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Jason Huggins]

Ok, so in April of next year, I will be moving into a new house. I have a place picked out for my new studio that I think will work out pretty well. It is directly above the garage, and is accessed through the walk-in closet of one of the bedrooms. That bedroom is going to be the library in the house, so it won't be annoying to have to go through somebody's bedroom to get to work

Anyway, the room is 17x11 with a 10' ceiling. It is currently just framed with a subfloor. It is super cool that there are already two doors isolating it from the rest of the house, AND it doesn't share any walls with the rest of the house either (other than the one shown in the diagram below.

I personally am not a big fan of working in a booth, so I plan to have my computer in the room with me, but the iMac is quiet enough that I have it 2 feet from my mic currently with no issues. I plan to have my mic on a stand to the left of the chair so I can easily sit down or stand up to read.

Also no pictured are the cloud panels that will be 6 2'x4' acoustic panels I have in my current studio filled with 6" recycled denim.

I plan to have a siding glass door from the closet into the studio, 50" hd TV on the wall for script reading and editing, and a small sitting area in the back of the room for reading and hanging out with my wife when she needs to get away from the noise of our 3 boys

The current room has roof trusses on the outside of the walls, so I'd love some thoughts on how to best soundproof that room. I can put multiple layers of drywall on the inside, but can't do drywall on the outside because of the roof trusses. No windows to deal with, but I did think about putting a surveillance camera outside the house and piping it into the TV so it ACTS like a window Thoughts?

Also, I do need to float the floor, but only to isolate from the garage below. Oh ya, and the floor will be carpet.

I'd love your thoughts!

[Frank F]

Floor isolation can be accomplished easily with Iso Pads: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Powermate-4-in-x-4-in-x-1-2-in-Vibration-Isolator-094-0137RP/202593096

http://www.homedepot.com/p/KE-Shake-Away-Vibration-Control-Utility-Pads-with-Slip-Guard-Indoor-Use-Only-Weight-Under-250-lbs-63141/203451668

http://www.zoro.com/i/G2279121/?utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Shopping_Feed&gclid=CM6c5bbzyMICFYdcMgodUmcAtA

Or you can use MLV/MLR (more expensive) under the floor boards.

A double wall (double layered dry wall) is the easiest for side walls and ceiling. However an easier way on the ceiling is to super insulate above the ceiling drywall and add a cloud inside the studio.

Make sure your sliding glass doors are double doors or you will have noise bleed.

Good luck on your project... as it looks, it sounds good.

Frank F
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[Monk]

Those room dimensions fail the Walker test (BBC) if you change things so that it's 13' wide, it scores much better. Final interior dimensions 17x13x10

The 11 is to close to the 10 dimension.

Alternatively, drop the ceiling down to 8' to score better as well. so then you can keep the 11x17 interior dimension.

There will be a little bass bump at 49cycles, but that can be handled with bass traps in the corners.
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[Jason Huggins]

Thanks guys! I could probably drop ceiling a bit. I did plan to do traps in the corners, and one thing that is not mentioned is that the current side walls (the 17' ones) have an angled section at the very top. The wall goes up, does a 45, then is 18" and then does another 45 to the ceiling. That probably messes with things. Is that a good or bad thing to keep? I plan on doing some bass traps in all the corners as needed.

I had a thought. Would it be worth it to put plywood on the outside of the walls (and just cut it into the shape to go around the trusses) and plywood on the inside and then fill it up with a good spray foam and then use clips to decouple the drywall. I plan on doing at least 2 layers of drywall on the inside with green glue, but I could do 3 if it was necessary. I just want to make sure thunder doesn't stop my chances of working.

[Monk]

To create a completely sound proof room can take some serious money. Tackle the sounds you need to contend with and make it as quiet as you can afford.

For the exterior walls, spray foam isn't a bad idea, it acts as an insulation and also seals air gaps.

As you're building, there are two mantra's to repeat to yourself. Mass and Air. Mass and Air.

Mass stops the low frequencies, airtight keeps the high frequency energy out.

For the walls, you have the ability to do a two leaf system, so it would be wall-insulation-airgap-insulation-wall. Let the bare insulation face each other. The outer wall can be foam, the inner wall a Roxul sound or dense fiberglass.
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[vkuehn]

Jason: The space you are planning has some things in common with my current space. I'm "in the attic" with a space above the garage. My entire house is a bit smaller than yours as there was not room for a 9- ceiling... in fact the 8' ceiling is "tamped down" a bit with the sloping ceiling down each side like a small Cape Cod Bungalow.

When we acquired this house I was not into voice and when I got home from the corporate job I wanted a work space close to where my wife would be so my "office/play space" was a bedroom near the kitchen. She took the upstairs space and made it into a work-room for her window treatment business.

Fast forward a few years and we traded spaces. What would I do differently if I had it all to do over again? THE FLOOR. The builder put down a simply plywood floor over the beams above the garage. We had carpet put over that. More problematic that noise coming THROUGH the floor are the squeaks where the plywood was not a securely attached to the beams.

I would borrow a technique that my friends in the church sound world do to the space where the pulpit and choir and other musicians function. Throw down a good thick gypsum drywall layer over the sub-floor and then a good solid layer of plywood or particle board over the gypsum. Then carpet pad and carpet. I am fascinated by the absorption blocks like Lee linked, and when my HVAC blows up one of these days, the new one will sit on a platform that is supported by the little rubber vibration absorbers. If I lived next to an Interstate with big heavy semis, if I lived near the quarry in our county where they blast rock loose, or if I lived near a subway, the blocks would look very appealing. I had the tree-service in my yard last week. They had chain saws and a wood chipper with a big water-cooled Perkins diesel engine. One of the trees about 60 feet tall was only 6 feet from the house. I went up stairs, turned on the recorder and let it run much of the day. I had trouble finding the spot on the recording where the 60 foot tall tree fell from the sky and I felt a small earthquake where I was sitting. I found the wood chipper on the recording once, but could not find the chain saw.

The other thing that would be different if I had the project to do over again would be the HVAC/air handling. On a good hot Georgia Summer day, you don't want to narrate an hour-long chapter of a book with the A/C turned off because it has bad behavior when it runs. (A/C running brings the noise floor up 6 dB.)

The other thing that will make your space different than mine: You appear to be designing a non-cluttered room, an idea which I think you prefer, and will make the room display very well in website and other promotional materials. My room is very cluttered by comparison, and for acoustical reasons I LOVE IT. Shelves to store wicker baskets full of recipes, genealogy records and clippings, family photos, and what remains of my wife's sewing and decorating materials. And MY BOOKS. This odd-ball collection makes for great sound diffusion and some absorption.

The reason I haven't posted a photo is that it is too "busy" looking to find a vantage point for a photo that makes sense.

Have fun with your project.

[Jason Huggins]

That is a very good point. When I first built my current studio I had subfloor noise where I glued it down...but once the glue dried it was gone That is a GREAT thing to keep in mind with this build.

Is weight ever an issue? A room with 3-4 layers of drywall and then a bunch of weight on the floor seems like it could put a lot of stress on the floor joists. Is it ever necessary to hire an engineer to take a look at it or are modern building practices such that it isn't something one needs to consider?

[georgethetech]

The weight isn't likely a problem as it's distributed over a wide area, but there's a reason we have licensed contractors, engineers, and city inspectors for building to code. How about the elephant in the room... HVAC?
Looks pretty good, otherwise.
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[Jason Huggins]

Yes! I planned to have a small vent from and back to the house. I was going to build an up and down and up soundproofed plenum deal. Then I would have the fans hooked to a light switch in the room. I haven't figured out where that will go (inside or outside or half in and half out. There is lots of room around the room to allow for construction outside if they would be soundproof enough.

I do plan to have it inspected, but do all the work myself.