Folderol wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 4:39 pm
What are you doing about the floor? Concrete is not exactly the warmest and most comfortable material!
Very true, the concrete sits on a damp proof membrane to inhibit moisture take up from below, that will have 75mm of rigid insulation, a vapour barrier, and two layers of 18mm OSB. That will make up my long term floor of the building and I'll probably put underlay laminate and rugs on top of that to provide aesthetics and comfort.
James Perrett wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 2:41 pm
I'm thinking of something like resilient channel - although you would need to talk to others about it as I've never used it for any of my studios.
The more I think about this one the more it seems like a no brainer to fit it from the outset, the channel doesn't seem too pricy and, if I understand correctly, I screw the channel to the studs and the board to the channel, with lashings of appropriate sealant.
Hopefully I'll finalise the BOM for the shell and get that ordered next week, then there will be pics.
I'm still concerned that you are going to run into issues with noise escaping from the building and disturbing the neighbours... James' studio has a brick shell and mass is what you need to prevent lower frequencies from passing through the structure. Do you plan to record electric guitars and/or drums in there?
Sam Spoons wrote: ↑Thu Apr 03, 2025 4:54 pm
I'm still concerned that you are going to run into issues with noise escaping from the building and disturbing the neighbours... James' studio has a brick shell and mass is what you need to prevent lower frequencies from passing through the structure. Do you plan to record electric guitars and/or drums in there?
No drums, I wouldn't want to be in a room that small with our drummer and a full kit. Maybe some electric guitar recording, but to be honest I am liking the tonex sounds a lot so that may not be mic'd up and loud. Maybe some occasional cajon. Also I don't monitor fantastically loud when I'm using speakers.
I appreciate what you are saying about mass, but as far as I can see I'd need to go to a blockwork build to take the next step up in soundproofing, which would be a different skillset and cost.
Yes I guess you would and, as you say, cost goes up significantly. As long as you are happy with the inevitable compromise that's fine, it just hadn't been mentioned in the thread.
OneWorld wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 8:50 pm
When you open your studio and if it's a paying (eg customers) venture, will you charge extra to sit in the Lotus for a pretend drive photoshoot, or will it be included in the cost?
No paying customers ever, and the Lotus is full of spiders
This is why I'm wanting some noise reduction but not professional levels, no customers, and if a take is spoiled by noise, We'll do it again.
"No paying customers ever, and the Lotus is full of spiders "
OneWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 11:46 am
Really? Sure it's not an Alfa Romeo?
I only had one alfa, a 2.5v6 156, one of the sweetest FWD cars I have ever driven, never had electrical gremlins and eventually succumbed to rust, a lovely engine.
The comments on sound proofing have lead me to think harder on that topic, thanks to all for that nudge.
I'm thinking of abandoning the idea of PIR insulation and going to rockwool instead, it's cheaper and has better sound deadening properties. I'm also thinking to use a thicker external osb and add an inner layer of osb. This should make the structure a fair bit heavier. I'll still use PIR on the floor. The OSB on the floor will have a thin mat under it and a gap all round so it doesn't contact the walls. I'll then use vapour barrier and resilient bar on the inner OSB to mount my plasterboard. Because of the two layers of board I will reduce the RB spacing to provide extra support. The plasterboard will rest on the floor OSB. The ceiling will be similar.
It should look a bit like this:
I may need to put some thin rockwool in with the resilient channel to prevent resonances in the wall, but otherwise I think that should do it.
Random Guitarist wrote: ↑Mon Apr 07, 2025 11:39 pm
I may need to put some thin rockwool in with the resilient channel to prevent resonances in the wall, but otherwise I think that should do it.
That's part of the job of the green glue. It's not actually a glue, it's a flexible compound that absorbs energy from the flexing of the panels.
Also having panels of different thicknesses reduces the tendency to resonance because they have different fundamental frequencies.
OneWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 11:46 am
Really? Sure it's not an Alfa Romeo?
I only had one alfa, a 2.5v6 156, one of the sweetest FWD cars I have ever driven, never had electrical gremlins and eventually succumbed to rust, a lovely engine.
Yep, like a lot of Italian cars of that dynasty, really good drivable cars, but you opened the garage door each morning and it was more rusty than the day before, but as you say, the engines were superb and they would go round corners equally as without any drama at all. I do like the look of the current Alfa SUVs (AKA The School Run-Mobile) but I'm not the SUV type of guy
My thoughts are that I wouldn't bother with extra layer of OSB in the inside of the 4 x 2 - just go for the thickest you can afford for the outside layer. It may be counter intuitive, but layers of board that are too close together can reduce the soundproofing rather than improve it. A wider air gap may well be better. I've used RWA45 in between the studs in my walls.
I also wouldn't bother with 2 layers of OSB on the floor because the floor isn't going to be letting much sound in - I used 18mm on my floor in both the recent build and the previous build.
As Drew says, it is advisable to use Green Glue between the layers of plasterboard and seal the joints with AC50.
There is a potential issue with the floor is resonance... I have had to tank my studio which had a concrete floor. I did so using OSB on 2 x 1 battens over a waterproof membrane which has worked very well from a damp roofing perspective but has been less successful when it comes to playing/recording drums in there. With hindsight I should have laid the floor on a bed of sand butI didn't think of that at the time . I do have what I hope will be an answer, some 10mm thick vinyl dance flooring which is very heavy and I'm hoping a square of it under the kit will damp the resonances sufficiently for my modest needs.
James Perrett wrote: ↑Tue Apr 08, 2025 8:31 pm
My thoughts are that I wouldn't bother with extra layer of OSB in the inside of the 4 x 2 - just go for the thickest you can afford for the outside layer. It may be counter intuitive, but layers of board that are too close together can reduce the soundproofing rather than improve it. A wider air gap may well be better. I've used RWA45 in between the studs in my walls.
I also wouldn't bother with 2 layers of OSB on the floor because the floor isn't going to be letting much sound in - I used 18mm on my floor in both the recent build and the previous build.
As Drew says, it is advisable to use Green Glue between the layers of plasterboard and seal the joints with AC50.
Thanks, some good thoughts there, I will likely skip the inner OSB then. The two layers for the floor are mainly robustness rather than sound transmission so I will probably keep them in.
You are linking to images on Dropbox. I did try editing your earlier posts to display them but clicking on the link would just download the image to my computer. I don't use Dropbox myself so don't know enough about how it works to identify how to resolve the issue.
Links to dropbox images usually end with dl=0 or dl=1, which is accessing the image within the dropbox frame. Some browsers can show the image like that, but some wont.
Replacing the dl=x at the end of the file name with raw=1 provides a direct hot link to the image itself which should then show up in all browsers.
I have made that change to the wall construction image above... hopefully that's cured the problem for Adrian
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Re: Garden Room Studio Begins (Now I'm in trouble)
The image worked for me last night but doesn't work today...
Imgur is better for hosting forum images - if you click on the ... on the image it will even give you the correct phpBB link to use on this forum without having to use the image button that this forum provides.
Hugh Robjohns wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 3:47 pm
I have made that change to the wall construction image above... hopefully that's cured the problem for Adrian
Indeed it has.
Edit: and yes when I sign in to Dropbox it’s on Firefox not Safari
Hugh Robjohns wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 3:47 pm
I have made that change to the wall construction image above... hopefully that's cured the problem for Adrian
Indeed it has.
Edit: and yes when I sign in to Dropbox it’s on Firefox not Safari
Materials for frame and OSB cladding are here and I expect to break out the circular saw very soon.
Cost wise I'm heading for about £8k for the room and then another £1k for treatment.
I'm also still mithering on internal construction.
My local background noise is not terrible. Inside the house both my sound meters tell me I'm at around 30db A-weighted. Distant road noise and the local blackbird are my biggest noise polluters. Having looked at resilient channel and options I'm starting to think I might be best off with a light weight inner shell and sacrificing a few more internal inches. My floor is already separate from the outer construction so it all seems doable. Maybe a 3x2 frame and 2 layers.
I think I had best get building and then I can assess the noise through the outer shell and make decisions.
"
. I do have what I hope will be an answer, some 10mm thick vinyl dance flooring which is very heavy and I'm hoping a square of it under the kit will damp the resonances sufficiently for my modest needs.
