new studio design in ireland, advise and wisdom needed.

Hi all, I am new to the forum and feeling very inspired by the work i have viewed in the posts. I will try and follow the guide lines for posting…So the story so far… I have a multimedia business here in Ireland, very close to Dublin but not to close and I work in the areas of music production, video production, graphic and print design, web design and marketing, photography and multimedia workshops…The business has grown a lot in the last year and it is not possible for me to work from home any longer, new baby girl arrived last month and our house is crazy. Most of my work in the last year has been music production stuff, short film scores, a bit of mastering, a bit of folk and traditional music recording, some work through a workshop with a hip hop collective, the list goes on. What I mean to say is that music seems to be my primary source of income again, second to video work and workshops, the other areas of the business are becoming less important. So, after all that waffle, I will get to the point. I have decided a year ago to construct a multi- functional studio and spent some time trying to find a suitable premises nearby. Not knowing exactly what I was looking for, I mentioned my plight to my mother who lives quite close to us. She suggested I renovate the back of her house which is a 1000 sq. feet (approx) extension that my father built onto the original bungalow about 15 years ago. He has since passed and the space has never been used. My mother lives in the original part of the house. The pictures will reveal the details of the space but essentially it is a ground floor with a very decent attic space above. Here in Ireland we tend to have large wasted attics and no basements. Please view the 3D aerial views to see what I am trying to describe…. Control Room/ machine room - approx. 384sf Main Live Room - approx. 309sf Drum room - approx. 131sf each Lounge/ waiting Room - approx. 115sf Bathroom - approx. 58sf Hallway- 36sf Here are the floor plans of the building, I haven’t drawn the original building but I have pointed to where it is. THE GROUND FLOOR • FOUNDATION & FLOORS When I ripped up the carpet on the ground floor it revealed concrete floors underneath, except in the room where the stairs is, this room is part of the original dwelling and the floor boards under the carpet I presume are sitting on joists. All the rest of the building I want to renovate is sitting on concrete slab…I don’t know how thick this slab is, or if the external walls are independent of this slab. I have the original plans that were drawn up for the extension and below you will see scans of the FOUNDATION PLAN and some notes that were attached to the plan regarding the foundation…I hope someone can decipher them, for example, are the concrete floors independent of the internal walls…anyway here goes • EXTERNAL WALLS Here is a cross section of the external walls… • INTERIOR WALLS All of the interior walls are a 4” solid block with plaster on both sides… • THE CEILINGS All the ceilings are 8’-9” high, ½” foiled backed plasterboard with a textured stipple finish. They are connected to 7” X 2” Joists which also form the floor for the Attic space. Which brings me to the Attic… I propose to use the Attic as my multifunctional control room, with machine room attached and possibly a vocal booth as well. Below are some pics of how it stands at the moment, the rafters are 4 ½” X 1 ½” and the floor boards you see are just temporally laid out to check if I have enough of them to cover this floor when I’m done constructing. The roof is Tiles sitting on 2 X 1 battens on felt on rafters on 200mm x 75mm purlins… In this photo, where the stud wall meets the other wall, this wall was the original back gable wall for the dwelling, you can see the line of the old roof and the new roof over it, very confusing… This is my stairs up to the attic and it runs adjacent to old gable wall…. In the recommendations regarding posting it said to include as much detail as possible so I will keep going with the photos and 3D models. Here is a elevation drawings from the original plans REAR front east west THE GROUND FLOOR ROOMS AS THEY ARE NOW I will be breaking through the wall to the right of this room to create the L shaped space you see in the 3D models above… So, if you are still with me after all that viewing, my questions relating to designing this studio MY QUESTIONS 1. Am I making the right decision locating the Control room in the attic space, with the machine room next to it… and possibly a vocal booth 2. If I have made the right decision, how difficult from a design point of view is it going to be to isolate this attic room from the rooms below and from the exterior noise of dogs, cars, etc… I am very concerned about ceiling in the attic, what ceiling design could be used in conjunction with wall design to get a decent level of isolation from the outside world… 3. Is there anything about my initial layout for the studio that would concern you, if so alternative suggestions are very welcome. 4. Can someone tell me from the foundation plans if my external wall are sitting on the concrete slab or are the walls independent of the slab... I have many other questions but I first need to determine is my layout ok… Thanks for taking the time to read my post and all contributions are welcome, I look forward to keeping my post updated with on going construction of my studio Warm regards hally

ANY TAKERS Have I posted properly or do i need to re format my post, I think everything should be allright, anyway, look forward to hearing from you guys thanks hally

i think having the control room and tracking room on two different floors challenging... and as i mentioned on the other forum - i think having an entry into the drum room from outside makes isolation tough as well as inconvenient for people going in and out. if the not available space was available, that would make things a lot easier...

Hi Glen, I aggree, the room marked as unavailable is potentially very valuable space, I think it is time to speak to my mother again and explain how important it is to have access to this room, all she can say is no again which i suspect will be the case. If this space came available, how would you move things around, keeping in mind I am looking for plenty of space in the CR. The wall between proposed drum room and unavailable space is supporting the floor joists above but the wall dividing main tracking room and unavailable space is not a supporting wall. both walls are 4" solid block... what are ur thoughts regards hally

my first choice would be to make the unavailable space the CR and the other room your drum room. then i'd use the upstairs room for amps, lounging, rehearsals, etc. then have the bass and guitar folks sit in the control room while the amps crank away upstairs. maybe add a vox booth into the main room.

hi glen, i had a frank conversation with my mother today about getting access to the other room, its not going to happen in her lifetime so i have to work with what I have... I can't see any other layout for the studio as is but maybe i have lost my objectivity over time... Do you have any other suggestions. I hope to start the room isolation work in the next week so I am going to have to nil down a plan warm regards hally

have you done any testing? using hammers (metal and rubber) to check the structure borne transmission between rooms and upstairs/downstairs? also check to see how much sound is actually getting out of the existing structure? it looks like from the drawing you have a 12" slab (nice) on a compacted base and its connected to the walls... the walls look to be 2 layers with insulation in the cavity so it may already be performing decently. one risk is adding another isolation wall inside it and creating a 3rd leaf which would likely reduce your isolation... so maybe bring in a drum kit or PA and blast some bass and drums and see how the building is behaving. meanwhile, i think without the added room, you go with your design - if possible use RSIC isolation mounts to hang a thick drywall ceiling in the rooms to isolate to outside and the attic. in the attic, consider a similar construction to reduce sound escaping from your control room.

thanks glenn, i'm on the the job, i will get back to you when I have my testing done. "RSIC isolation mounts" are these resilient channels? difficult to get the ones that "thick drywall ceiling in the rooms", when u say thick, how about I start with 2 layers of drywall, do some tests and then decide if more needs to on... Lots to do and plenty of food for thought.. thanks hally

check out www.pac-intl.com, www.kineticsnoise.com, and www.masonindustries.com to meet your isolation product needs :-)

Hi, Would there be a chance to alter the entrance to the "not avaliable" room. Make drum room the waiting area. add a vocal booth to the back, and keep control and tracking rooms on same level. abit like this????

lilith_envy wrote:

Would there be a chance to alter the entrance to the "not avaliable" room.

i'm guessing from hally's response after speaking to the higher authorities, nope... :cry: