Small Wooden Shed Studio

Hi everyone I live in a two bedroom Victorian cottage in a small rural village near Ipswich, England. Due to the imminent arrival of my first child in september, I am retreating to the back garden to make way! I have of course bought 'the book', and have been doing my research on this site for a few months, but I have many questions still, as no-one else it seems, has to make do with a small garden shed. Despite this minor complaint, I am a one man band, with not much more than a laptop, some monitors and a few guitars, and rarely play loudly. Fortunately, my garden backs on to my five neighbours' back gardens, so I am about 30 feet away from anyone's back door. As you can probably guess, this is a budget project, and as I've already spent £1500 on getting a good quality wooden shed, the budget is smaller still. I'm looking to spend around £500 more to complete the project- although I do have a wonderful girlfriend who has more money than me! So my main aim is not to gain professional level sound isolation, but to make the best of what I've got in the now limited 10 weeks before a small bundle appears. Below is a sketchup of my shed along with its dimensions. One of the first problems I have encountered is obviously the size, which I will have to live with, but more specifically the height. If I use to much insulation on the floor and ceiling, I will end up with a very sore neck. Because of this, I am going to have to come to a compromise with the floor and ceiling insulation and have them no more than 100mm deep each. I have bought a few materials for the floor so far, including a rubber mat that I intend cut into strips and use as pads under the decking of the sub floor. I've also bought some 'thermawrap' foil-backed bubble-wrap to go between the floor joists, as it can get pretty cold in the winter. I was thinking of making a grid-like frame for the floor that sat on the rubber pads, with the thermawrap in-between, polysterene or rigid fibreglass on top of that (still between the frame) with a layer or two of either MDF or plywood over the top. This is not ideal, I know but I have to work with what I've got. I had originally thought of filling the floor frame with sand, but I think it may be too heavy for the floor to take- but I don't know! So I guess my first question is, will this be adequate, or is there a better solution in terms of materials I can use?

Welcome Ross, I would suggest being extra nice to your girlfriend! You will be amazed how quickly your budget can get eaten up. To get you going, check out this link: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... hed+studio It's an entire thread of "shed to studio" that should be a good place for you to steal ideas.

Thanks for your reply Delusion. Mmm, food for thought. I will have to post some photos of my progress so far, and some sketchups to illustrate my intentions soon. I'm currently beefing up the door, as I realised I could go no further with the floor until this was done!

Ok, I've beefed up the original door now, and it's much heavier. I made a frame around the original framing, filled the gaps with plasterboard and completed it with some 12mm plywood- and of course some extra heavy duty hinges! Below are some drawings illustrating my thoughts on how to construct the floor. I have bought some 30mm thick rigid fibreglass sheets, which I could use instead of the polystyrene, which would leave room for an extra layer of plasterboard, therefore increasing the mass. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Polystyrene is useless as a sound absorber. The roof will be your weak link. I suggest building the floor from mass. Multiple layers of plywood, gypsum, or poured concrete. Andre

Whoa! You have the bad guy hide out thing going on with the shed exterior! Your door modifications look like an improvement. Maybe I'm just missing it in the pics, but I don't see any seals on the door/frame. You definitely want to seal that up as it's an inexpensive improvement that pays off. You would be amazed how much sound can get through a little gap/crack. Do the seals in the daytime so you can use the visible sunlight leak to determine if you're good or not. What are you plans for the walls? Can the structure take the weight of modifying the ceiling with more mass?

Thanks for the replies guys. I thought as much Andre- the polystyrene was given to me by my girlfriends' dad, so wanted to use it if was going to be of any use. I think I will do as you suggest and fill the floor cavity with gypsum, as it is less expensive than the high density fibreglass I've bought- I will probably use it in the walls instead. Delusion, do not fear, I bought seals for the door yesterday, just haven't put them on yet! I'm going to build another door jamb on the inside of the existing frame, 1 to bulk up the existing door frame, and 2 to increase the amount of seals. I'm going for a 2 leaf approach for the walls and ceiling. I'm planning to build inside walls on top of the new floor, and for these walls to take the weight of the new ceiling. On the inside of the existing outer walls, I've put in extra horizontal framing, and am thinking of filling this cavity with one layer of gypsum and then fibreglass. There will be an inch or so thick air gap between that and the inner wall. These walls will be stud work with high density fibreglass in between, and covered with two layers of gypsum on the inside. The ceiling will be constructed in the same manner as the walls. I have been advised to leave an air gap in between the outer shell of the shed and the insulation to help the timber to breathe and prevent rotting. However I am sceptical as I will then be creating a third leaf?

As usual, I've changed my mind once more! The floor's coming together nicely now, and I finally have something to show my girlfriend...

In that case, perhaps consider using John’s “inside out” wall design for the inner leaf to save on materials and highly valuable space! I used this concept in a small iso room that has similar final dimensions (9’8”x7’2”). I’m very happy with the isolation I’m getting and in a place that small every nanometer counts! You can just use the less expensive pink fluffy fiberglass in between your walls and get the same results. Use the denser rigid fiberglass/mineral wool/etc on the internal walls of the room for acoustic treatment. I’m talking filling the stud cavities of the inside out walls and then covering with cloth. Also, it looks fine in your diagrams, but in your pic it looks like your new floor is touching the outer wall framing at the door frame. Make sure your new floor does not touch the outer walls in any way.

Ross Peters wrote:

I have been advised to leave an air gap in between the outer shell of the shed and the insulation to help the timber to breathe and prevent rotting. However I am sceptical as I will then be creating a third leaf?

I'm not sure what you are talking about here, but in your head treat insulation as "air". What I mean by that is insulation is part of the "air gap" and does not count as a leaf itself. What are you doing about the windows?

It's been a long time since I last posted, but I never reached my goal of finishing the shed before my daughter was born- my new goal is to finish before she reaches a year old! I stopped posting because apparently I was spending more time on the computer thinking about what to do, rather than actually doing it- women! Anyway since the cold winter months have passed, my eyes have begun to open after the lack of sleep due to early fatherhood, and I've been working hard on the internal walls and windows. However, one thing about the design I had dismissed at first has now caught my attention-HVAC! Since the warm weather has appeared again, I've noticed how very hot and stuffy it gets in there, and am worried I won't want to use it in the middle of summer, that my computer and guitars may suffer, and that I won't be able to breathe... Plus I'm guessing it won't be too great when it's snowing outside in the winter. Therefore I'm considering a HVAC system, but despite looking in the forum quite a lot, I really don't know where to start. Do I take the measurements of the room, get a A/C unit to fit and go from there? How much space do I need for the silencer boxes, will there be enough room in such a small space to make them work effectively and not jeopardize the isolation? How much will it cost for a unit of this size? Any pointers would be gratefully received! P.S. new pics coming soon...

Hai Ross, welcome back :mrgreen: ps. fatherhood rocks, doesn't it?!

Cheers Ro, fatherhood is absolutely brilliant! ...but now I need to move out of her bedroom and reclaim a working environment minus teddy bears etc! I've done a bit more research on HVAC systems, and it seems that this just maybe total overkill for such a small space. Why not just open the door for a bit to breathe? If it's going to be too difficult/expensive, is it really be worth such effort? Any thoughts?

I dunno if this would work ... but in such a small space perhaps you could use one of those portable a/c units? I was just looking at them at our local Home Depot over the weekend. I have no clue as to how well they work but it might be worth looking into? No? You might need to have something running in there to keep your instruments at a somewhat constant humidity I would think. I love the looks of your shed! All the best to you the new(ish) Dad. -Doug

Hi, thanks Doug. The more I've looked into this, the more I think I may just forget it altogether. Even the portable ones I've seen require air from outside, which means silencers etc. The space I have now with all of the walls up (wahoo!!) is just so small that I don't think it's worth it- it's little more than a glorified vocal booth! But it's mine!! Anyway, here's some pics of my progress...

Hi Ross, can't see your pics ? I'm 15miles down the road from you, and am building a shed-studio thats almost the same dimensions as yours! Small world!! haha. Steve

Hi Steve, cool, where are you? Love to see some of your progress. I wonder if you'll have the same problem as me- a lack of ceiling height? I had problems with the pics yesterday- very tired Daddy forgot to resize them! Here they are...

And a few more, the last internal wall going up...

Hi Ross - looking good! I see you've built an independant frame for your inner leaf. I'm debating that currently - weighing up the increase in isolation against losing precious space from a 2.4m wide room. How many layers of Plasterboard are you intending to use, and what are you gonna do in regards to hanging that weight from the ceiling as your appear to be using 47mm studwork ? Im in Colchester btw. Regards Steve

Cheers Steve, small world indeed! Yes I've built an independent frame for the walls, which rests on 10mm neoprene rubber strips on top of the raised floor, which in turn is on top of 10mm rubber strips. The inner leaf walls will take the weight of the inner ceiling. The stud work is 44x34mm from B&Q (although in reality it's actually 44x32mm!) The construction I used for the walls from outside to in goes: (outer leaf) double sided foil-backed bubble wrap stuff (forgotten the brand name), 2 layers of 12mm plasterboard (cavity) 75mm cavity insulation compressed to 50mm (inner leaf) 1 layer 12mm plasterboard, 30mm Wickes rigid fibreglass. It's only going to be a little room, but I mainly program stuff and mix, so it's sitting down most of the time in front of the iMac, no outboard etc. I work at Suffolk college as a music tech, so if I need to record anything, I can do it there and bring it home. So space wasn't too precious, I just didn't want to annoy the elderly neighbours while they're doing the gardening. I would have made the construction more meaty, but as I mentioned, there would have been little point, because of the height restriction... I knew I should've convinced my girlfriend I needed a bigger shed!

Also, I am starting to look into the fabric I am going to use for covering the inside-out walls and ceilings. I was looking here: http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/screens/fabricmenu.htm Has anyone used these people before? It's about £10 per metre off a 1.7m roll. Does this sound about the right price point?

Ross - that looks like an excellent product as it's fire resistant as well as having a great range of colours.

Thanks John, that's what I thought. What is the neatest way of attaching the fabric to the walls and ceiling? If it is stapled, how do you hide them? Or is there a better method?

Hey Ross, good to see your project is back to life. As for attaching the fabric: yes, use staples. Stretch the fabric tight and then use plenty of staples around the perimeter. After that you can cover the "staple lines" with decorative strips of wood trim. -OR- Pull the fabric all the way around the frame and staple it to the back as in pic #3 and trim pieces won't be necessary. You can do bass traps modules by yourself with a little effort, although 2 people make it much easier....1 stretches and 1 staples. I would definitely consider walls and ceilings a a 2 man job though. Here's some pics of one wall that was done in this way.

I prefer the frame method - build your frame on the wall to make sure it's the correct size - then take it off the wall, brace it then wrap the cloth around it and staple at the back. With some cloth the weave allows you to see the frame through it - in this case you must paint the frame black so it isn't seen.

Thanks for your replies gents. John, I would like to use the method you've described, but due to the headroom I have now, I really can't add more panels to the ceiling. Delusion, I will probably staple the fabric directly to the frame as you described, but again, due to height restrictions, I won't be able to use a wooden trim on the ceiling- I'm thinking I may get out my mum's sowing machine to make a fabric trim which I can glue on instead. I've ordered the fabric, which will be delivered tomorrow, and I've now finished cutting up plasterboard and fibreglass (at last!!!), so it's now on to the details. Here are a few pics of recent progress- light at the end of the tunnel!