Construction new building with basement studio

Hello, I’m new here so first of all I want to say thanks to Mr John Sayers and all the other guys ( and girls ) on this forum for sharing their knowledge. So here’s my situation : At he end of this year, I’m starting construction of a storage room with a basement-studio in my garden. As you can see on the floor plans the space inside the basement is 10 m x 5 m. This space is fixed due to the building permit. The height of the ceiling in the basement isn’t fixed, so basically I can dig as deep as I want. I’ve come up with a floor plan which I think will fit a control room and a live room as well as some practical accommodations like a small chill room, storage room ( under the stairs) and an elevator for transporting gear like amplifiers etc. The other plan shows where the basement is situated and where my neighbours are. At the front of the house is a relatively calm street ( approx. 50 cars/day ) Here’s some other info you might want to know: 1.Live room will be used for rehearsals and live recordings. ( 5 piece band ) 2.Music style : Jazz/Fusion – Metal 3.Budget ( just for studio construction and acoustic treatment ) : 17.000 USD/24.000 AUD (construction of basement and storage room have a separate budget ) At this point I have a few questions concerning construction: 1. Dimensions live room and control room : Question : Are they ok for using them for rehearsals and live recordings (5 piece band ) a.I’ve tried to calculate the control room with a room ratio of 1:1,6:2,33, which means the ceiling would be 2,18 meters high, This might be too low on my opinion. b.The brick wall in the middle of the basement must be build to compensate the pressure on the 10 m wall. It can be moved between 1 and 2 meters to the left or right if necessary. 2.Ceiling height : Question : How high should I build the basement ceiling ? a. I prefer a wooden floor ( floated ) not only for cosmetic reasons but also for wiring ducts b. I need at least 15 cm of space between the studio-ceiling and the basement – ceiling for air co pipes c. Should I angle the ceiling in the control room or live room,? And what would be the highest point. That’s it for now Questions on acoustic treatment will be fired at you after I’ve read more about this topic. :? As you can see my main concern for now is the construction of the basement so it fits the needs for the studio. Thanks in advance for reading this and maybe answering my questions. Danny

Sorry about the bad pictures, here are the right ones

while i am new hear, you should probably read the 'read this before posting' rules. see if you can take off that gigantic picture

DannyZerafa wrote:

while i am new hear, you should probably read the 'read this before posting' rules. see if you can take off that gigantic picture

Thank you Danny. Andre

here i'm again Been playing around with sketchup and reading a lot on this forum, so i came up with a new design. The previous one had a few practical problems like people have to pass through the cr to get in the live room. So here are the new skp files, hope they make things easier to make suggestions or comments. I'm still going through the design fase, so i decided to build the basement-ceiling at 290 cm. That would give me enough space to float the floor ( or not ) or to angle the ceilings (or not ). Basement (concrete) construction starts next month.

Been playing around with sketchup and reading a lot on this forum, so i came up with a new design.

Well, reading threads on this forum is very, very recommendable. But I think you haven't read this one yet, and you really need to: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231

Ok, I guess the pictures are still too big. I resized them and made the diminsions more visible. What i'm looking for right now is a general opinion on the layout of the basement. Could this work with the appropriate acoustic treatment? or am i completely missing something here.

Danruy, click on the EDIT button in the first post and remove that large pic if you please. You can replace it with a smaller version if you like.

thanks, i removed that gigantic monster. Hopefully i did everything the right way this time.

a. I prefer a wooden floor ( floated ) not only for cosmetic reasons but also for wiring ducts

Probably not a good idea: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8173

c. Should I angle the ceiling in the control room or live room,? And what would be the highest point.

The general recommendation that I've seen is to angle your ceiling at 12 degrees, with the lowest point at the front wall (over your speakers) and the highest point behind you, at the back wall. Your side walls should be splayed 6 to 12 degrees too, and it looks like yours are splayed about that much. Have you thought about how you are going to mount your speakers? Stands or soffit? I don't see them shown on your plan, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of space there to put them on stands, so I guess you are going with soffit mounting? - Stuart -

Thanks Stuart I've read the topic about floating floors, and in this case "probably not " means "NOT" a good idea. Not just for all the reasons mentioned in the topic but also the fact that if you build a floating floor in a basement , the only way to keep moisture from slowly eating the frame is ventilate. which means more construction problems , more money, more time.... concerning the walls, it's probably not that clear on the drawing but i've splayed them at exactly 6 degrees. So splaying them even more (between 6 and 12 degrees) would give me a few extra cm of space without causing any problems ? The angled ceiling is probably a good idea. I will read some more about this before making decisions. Speakers : Soffit mounting would be the better option i think, the cr isn't all that big so this would give me another few extra cm of space. I'll make a new drawing of the cr with the angled ceiling and the walls. Maybe you'll find the time to look at it again. Final question : As you can see , the right wall in the cr is a single framed wall. From what i've been reading about this subject the concrete outside wall of the basement means "mass" next air-space (about 5 cm) - framed wall with insulation - 2 layers of drywall. The front wall in the cr is drawn the same way. I was thinking of framing the live room to prevent sound leakage into the hall-way but that means i would have (from cr to lr ) : drywall -framed wall/insulation - air - brick wall - air - framed wall/insulation - drywall. That's 3 times mass. Should i build the right and left wall of the cr directly to the brick wall ? Thanks, Danny