New studio build progress

Hi Marz, thanks for the post, my initial plan was a concrete roof, but now its too late for me, the ibr has been taken down now and the pitch of the roof has been built up to to support the tiles, the whole roof is being taken down and the rafters are being rebuilt to support a tile roof, thats what happens when builders rush into a job without planning! but i am now trying to take advantage of a bad situation and make it work in favour, with the rafters being rebuilt i have the option now to increase the roof height for the live room, which could be close to 5 metres. here is a pic of what option i now have for the roof and how i plan on improving isolation. Atleast the noisy ibr is now gone, so thats a good enough improvement already, not the best option idealy but definitly an improvement! my control rooms roofs rafters will then be built different than the live room (as in my previous pic) if i decide to go that route or i can stick with all the rooms as previous with my rafters but i think i could benefit from a higher ceiling in the live room and a lower one in the control room

Sorry to write this... You want the the roof to be separate from the inner walls. The ceiling is then supported by the inner walls. This gives you the room in a room construction. Nothing should connect the roof to the ceiling. Andre

thanks for the link Marz!

Andre is this a huge problem? i only need enough isolation to prevent my neighbours from being bothered, the closest neighbour from my studio is +- 10 metres away, i am trying to get isolation aswell as improve acoustics at the same time, my main concern is when recording drums and guitars.

Preludetojune wrote:

Andre is this a huge problem? i only need enough isolation to prevent my neighbours from being bothered, the closest neighbour from my studio is +- 10 metres away, i am trying to get isolation aswell as improve acoustics at the same time, my main concern is when recording drums and guitars.

Only you know right now the details of how much isolation you need. We (everyone here at JLS' RSD) have no details. If I was building a studio that had drums as a major instrument in recordings, I would make it room within a room. Especially with the great isolation in the brick cavity walls. If we had more details, we could give better answers than generalized guesses. Andre

marz wrote:

Perhaps as Ro suggests, you could even put a Concrete slab on top of your walls, though I could suggest a concrete slab (Tar sealed and options for extra rooms later!) on your outer walls and a timber inner ceiling on your inner walls.

That's indeed THE option, sorry I said "inner" walls when I meant exterior walls for the roof and inner walls for a false ceiling. Thanx for correcting me Marz. Prelude, I'd really take a deep breath and think for a moment, if it's not too late, and draw up some good plans. You also need to worry if your roof's gonna be up to code. Don't rush it!

one question i also have is, during building the cavity walls, obviously cement from building the brick walls could have fallen between the cavity at places, would this be a major cause of concern?

concerning the concrete slab, would a single brick wall be able to carry the weight of a concrete slab the room size is 14m x 5m

PreludetoJune, For the cavity walls, typically one needs to clean them out at the end of each day of bricklaying with water. This practise is often not followed in SA, but really should be done to avoid Water Capilliary action across the cement between the 2 leaves of the wall. I suspect that this will have some small impact along with the wire-ties and brick-force wire between the leaves, but the double brick wall on the inside is going to give you a lot of isolation if you can resolve the ceiling and roof with similar levels of isolation. For the concrete slab - this is typically how it is done. Though usually the slab will sit on the inner leaf. IE A single leaf brick wall should easily carry the concrete slab, as long as your foundations are up to it. 5m span is typical and should not be a problem. Note that this concrete slab will not be cheap and also needs to be engineered, though often the engineering can be done by the slab supplier / contractor in the price. regards Marz

thanks for all the info Marz, we have decided to stick with the tile roof, its going to be too costly to change the roof again, im sure that i can further treat the rooms and ceiling to improve isolation further. i now have the option of extending the live rooms ceiling from 3 m to 5 m. i will draw out my dimensions and post it, for my my live room

Live Room dimensions

would it be recomended to make the ceiling higher (3m at one end to 4.5m at the other) a splayed roof) now that i have the option for acoustics or would it be better to keep the live room at the 3m. how do the dimensions look to the more experienced studio builders? i have also thrown the slab today with expansion joints seperating my three rooms. pics will be added later. my floor slab shown in the picture above showing the ceiling is wrong, i noticed now aswell, the slab is only touching the inside faces of the brck wall and not the outer walls aswell.

the tiles we decided on are heavy , concrete/clay Marley tiles, so that should help with the mass for the roof. anysuggestions on my live room dimensions and would it be better to angle the roof from 3m at one end to 4.5 at the other.

outside look of the studio and expansion joints

progress 29/05/08

more pics

entrance/vocal booth

looking through the vocal booth window into the control room and the live room

It's looking great! Andre

The new roof is up!! im so glad we decided to rip out the ibr roof, the new roof looks awesome and adds another dimension to my studio that i previously would not have had (higher ceiling for the live room aswell as splayed). In South Africa the builders have a tradition that when a new roof goes up we have to all "wet the roof" or in afrikkans "maak die dak nat" its like a house warming party but actually just an excuse for the builders to have a drinking session, the south africans here will know the capies love for wine and whiskey! haha My plan is to install laminated wood floors for the live and control room and make the ceiling sound absorbing, the effect laminate wood flooring has on atmosphere and looks is great but what is your experience on it acoustics wise?

Neurotic Outsiders, i just love the ambience of the drums on that album. I know it was recorded in probably one of the best studios with $$ of equipment but its a good reference for me to where i would like to go.....

Preludetojune wrote:

In South Africa the builders have a tradition that when a new roof goes up we have to all "wet the roof" or in afrikkans "maak die dak nat" its like a house warming party but actually just an excuse for the builders to have a drinking session, the south africans here will know the capies love for wine and whiskey! haha

PROOST! :)

My plan is to install laminated wood floors for the live and control room and make the ceiling sound absorbing, the effect laminate wood flooring has on atmosphere and looks is great but what is your experience on it acoustics wise?

Good plan. Check the acoustics section if you're not sure on what it will do for you, acoustically. Laminated floors are very common in combo with an absorbing ceiling. Tread walls the same, use absorbing panels and hang them staggered on oposite walls.

Thanks for the comments, im going to buy the laminate flooring tomorrow, ive started buying the interior rugs ect, i think its going to look sweet!

Hey all, im starting to get more excited as the raw building is complete but im also getting weary with all the work that lies ahead for me still in completeing the place. I want to start concentrating on planning the acoustics and further improving isolation, noise from outside and noise going out. With my current build, we have a cavity brick wall as the pic shows in this post, my plan is to put up a drywalling frame with drywall facing the inside room and then fill the cavity between the drywall and brick wall with pink aerolite or rock wool, apparently this is then a 3 leaf? Im am then going to put up absorbing panels on the face of the drywall staggered as ro suggested What suggestions do you guys have for a better option for isolation another guy i spoke to said i must stay away from drywall with the chalk center as it has a resonant frequency and it does not work but in my past experience i have recorded in a studio with drywalling as the outer face and the acoustics were amazing? The closest neighbour is +- 10 m from the studio and there is a semi busy road about 25 m away, there are no windows and the room is sealed well, im worried about the sound that will still get throuth the walls. I will be recording rock drums ect in the live room.

it would probably be useful if you could get some insulation in-between the brick walls. on the interior - decouple the drywall frame from the inner brick wall and use 3x 16mm drywall. this is a 3 leaf design but there's a couple of considerations - the drywall is less dense than the brick, the drywall with the insulation will act as a bass absorber, and sometimes you have to live with what you have. the other main consideration is your floors and ceilings - a lot of sound can get out from either of those places so plan on ensuring at least the same level of isolation for each.