New home build with one-room studio | John Sayers’ Recording Studio Design Forum archive

Hello from a new member! I live in central Minnesota and will be starting construction of a new home this spring that will include a one-room project studio on the main floor. Excavation for the foundation begins in two weeks. The studio will be used for mainly my own non-commercial projects and I will be tracking vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass and some acoustic bluegrass instruments. Any keyboards will be electronic - no acoustic piano. I would like to be able to record a drum kit on occasion, should the need arise. I will be doing mostly my own songwriting projects, ranging in style from folk and bluegrass to pop/rock and R&B. No metal or punk. The only commercial use might be the occasional demo for friends or a radio jingle for a small town station. Volume levels would be low to moderate. I have a sound level meter on order, so I hope to be more specific about volume levels soon. I mix with near-field monitors at low levels as I am already dealing with hearing loss from my R&R days. For electric guitar, I play through a Vox AC-15 and some smaller Fender amps. Bass is recorded direct - no amp. I have a day job, so no all-night music sessions. The house will be located at the end of a quiet, dead-end residential road, without much traffic. It is very near our present home, so I know the area well. There are three other residences within 200'-300' of the east side of the new house. No other homes are any closer than this in any direction. There is a fairly busy two-lane highway about 400 yards away across a river basin. This highway is on the edge of town and semi-trucks sometimes "jakebrake" loudly along this stretch of road. The usual residential noises will be present: lawn mowing, leaf blowing, dogs barking, garbage truck and road grader. In winter, the snow plow will come by about 50' away. Snowmobiles may also pass within 100' of the house. In addition, we are on the flight path of the air ambulance helicopter that goes to and from our local hospital at unpredictable times. It flies over maybe 200' high and is clearly audible in our present home, even with all doors and windows closed. The location of the studio within the house, and it's dimensions are pretty well set. There isn't much flexibility to change anything except maybe door placement. My wife has been fairly supportive of my "hobby", but we are through changing floor plans. I have Rod Gervais' excellent book on building a home studio, as well as several others. I have retained Ethan Winer to advise me on room dimensions, acoustics and sound treatment. I will be purchasing his Real Traps products when the time comes. My builder is a personal friend and I have shown him Rod's book. He has committed to getting the details right and is aware of the importance of this. I will personally be doing the backer rod and acoustical caulking of the sheetrock joints for the studio. The HVAC contractor and electrician are also aware of the unique requirements of the studio room. The house and garage will be heated with an in-floor geothermal system. Neither my builder or I have any experience with CAD programs, so I scanned some of his sketches to show plan details. Hopefully they will be clear enough to be understandable. I tried to reduce the size down to your requested maximum allowable. Please let me know if they are not acceptable. The studio room shares a wall with the double attached garage to reduce the distance that amps and other gear will have to be hauled. The external wall of the studio faces south. To try to minimize garage door noise, I plan to use belt-driven openers and garage door silencer kits from Acoustical Surfaces, Inc. The master bedroom is on the main floor of the house, at the opposite end from the studio. The mechanical room and other two bedrooms are in the basement at the opposite end of the house from the studio. The dimensions of the Studio, as you can hopefully see from the sketches, are 19'L x 14'W with a sloping ceiling that rises from 7'3" at the exterior wall of the room, to 11' high at the other end. We are following the room-in-a-room design in Rod's book, with independently framed walls and ceilings. The floor of the studio will be acid-stained concrete. The studio room will be built on an independent slab-on-grade, with expansion strips separating it from the foundation of the rest of the house and garage. The HVAC contractor has planned a through-the-wall Panasonic AC unit that will be placed in a store room downstairs in the walkout basement. This basement room is below the sunroom, which shares the wall of the studio that is opposite the garage. Sound treated ductwork with two 90 degree bends will connect the the basement room with the AC unit to the studio room. A low-noise, in-line fan within the duct will circulate air between these two rooms, as needed, for temp. and humidity control, as in Rod's book. All walls will be independently framed, double walls with staggered studs and a one inch air gap. All studio walls will have 2x4 studs. All internal studio wall and ceiling assemblies will have 2 layers lf 5/8" drywall on the inner surface of the interior wall and the outer surface of the outer wall, with staggered seams, Green Glue between sheets, and backer rod and acoustical caulk sealing all joints. Corning fiberglass rolled insulation will be used between all studs with a 1" air gap between stud walls. From the outer to inner surface of the exterior wall will be: Steel siding house wrap 2 layers of 3/4" CDX with caulked, staggered seams 2x4 stud wall with fiberglass insulation 1" air gap 2x4 stud wall with fiberglass insulation 2 layers of 5/8" drywall with staggered seams, Green Glue between and caulked joints All penetrations of the drywall for outlets, light switches, track lighting, etc, will be sealed with acoustical caulk and putty packs, where needed. I intend to purchase or build a heavy, gasketed sound-isolation door and frame assembly, as in Rod's book, With STC rating of 50 or higher. I have tried to do my homework by reading books and visiting this and other studio construction forums. I am most concerned with keeping noise out of my recording/mixing space. I'm not that concerned about bothering anyone else because of the volumes I play and mix at and the hours I keep. I don't have as much time as I'd like to spend on my musical endeavors, and when the opportunity or inspiration arises, I'd rather not have to worry about outside noises interfering with my work. My questions: Are there any glaring deficiencies in this plan? Does the plan allow for enough isolation to keep out the noises I've mentioned? Is the plan overkill for my needs? Will the three-leaf effect of the roof and/or the shared roof trusses over the studio and garage cause enough loss of isolation as to render the other design elements (double walls & ceiling, heavy door, etc.) ineffective? Thanks for a great site and for reading this very long post!