Ventilation in basement studio (no HVAC)

I'm helping out a mate setting up his basement rehearsal studio and he's looking to me for some answers. There's this one question that I'm really not sure of the answer... His basement has 4 round holes close together in the wall through which outside air can flow freely in and out as it chooses. Would it be stupid or impractical to use plain, outside air for ventilation in his basement rehearsal room? Or would the ever changing outside air humidity slowly eat away his equipment?

All construction aside and only considering that there are holes or registers in the basement to allow the outside air in, I think that if they were on opposite sides of the house rather than close together would lead to a greater change in the barometer reading. that way there would be a cross breeze so to speak.

A sketch and a photo to illustrate...

pretty dark in there :o

True. I suggested removing the ceiling, but that seemed quite impossible due to the rest of the house was on top of it. :lol: Would've been great acoustic wise though...

Humidity can be horrible to acoustic guitars and pianos. Maybe any guitar. bowed necks, rusty strings, mold on the walls... Of course I hail from Louisiana, where it's almost always above 80% humidity outside. So YMMV

pianojam wrote:

Humidity can be horrible to acoustic guitars and pianos. Maybe any guitar. bowed necks, rusty strings, mold on the walls... Of course I hail from Louisiana, where it's almost always above 80% humidity outside. So YMMV

Clarification - Humidity variations can be damaging to the woodof our instruments. I live in the Northeast of the US and keeping the instruments in our basement is actually preferrable because the relative humidity stays within 50-70%. Basments typically are bufferred from environmental temp and pressure changes unless they are half exposed to the ground (walk out basement). You're asking about holes for ventilation of a basement. You've indicated that the holes have no ventilation control - or that they don't have a forced air mechanism. Given those two interests, I'd recommend plugging them up when and if your buddy wants to have work done. Your location is Belgium and the seasonal change there would fluctuate. I think taking advantage of a basement bufferring those changes would be good. Less airflow to that area may be better. If you are really going to do a room within a room construction, I think those should definately be plugged as cold air could flow in which would increase condensation behind the wall board. The construction would be - ------------------------ framing & insulation - vapor barrier (plastic) wall board ------------------------ I believe you are the same person who asked about the requirements from the owner for not affixing anything to the deck above or even the floors & walls of the concrete. I think that issue supercedes this one.

Thanks for chipping in guys. Truely appreciate it. Cram: Love your threads. Certainly the summary at the beginning of your building thread. Extremely useful. Yes, it's all part of the same design. Should this design come to actual building, I'll most certainly bundle all the threads preceding it like Cram did. So, basically you're suggesting to seal up all the holes, to separate the indoor from the outdoor climate. Is there any in-between measure I could implement (before actually considering HVAC systems) to make sure the musicians don't run out of oxygen? Arn't there building codes for extracting air from one enclosed space to another? I'll consult the local government and post their reply.

Sigert wrote:

Thanks for chipping in guys. Truely appreciate it. Cram: Love your threads. Certainly the summary at the beginning of your building thread. Extremely useful.

Sigert - that means a lot to see someone noticing that part of my thread. I always hope that my organization can pay off for future work people may need.