Studio - Garage Conversion.

Let me start off with an Introductory, My name is Michael and am from Sydney, Australia. I want to convert my garage, well half of it into a professional internet radio station. So here are my ideas and room information. I also have 20,000Euro to spend on it, which equels into 40,000 AU dollars, It is an overseas investment but this is not really their main business venture they are into, they want me to set up a professional internet radio station so people know there is something there before they invest alot of there money to television on demand services which will also be internet based, the reason I want to have the garage conversion done is to keep it as professional as possible at all times, that will also cover all equipment needed. We will build the studio ourselves with some collegue builders of mine. So lets get to it :) 1. I have these bricks in my garage extruding themselves from the rest of the garage inside and I presume most of them are structural supports for the garage, while some are not as some just seem to be there for no actual use. They are all in the same width obviously, except for those at each corner of the garage. As the image shown above, they are all at 23cm. And in between these supports is a gap of width (numerous lengths) but the depth is always 12cm but will also increase by say 5-6cm when we drill in supports to gun in the dry wall. What I want to achieve in these “spare” widths and depths are sound insulation of some sort but am wondering on what I can do where there is double brick as shown above, or would that be enough? 2. Actual building width and depth from extruding layers of brick, width is 5.390m. with depth 5.440m & height is 2.6m. Half of the garage will be used for the studio and this is how it looks like in half. I am actually showing you guys the clean side with the car in it, the other side… we need to hire in a tip bin to remove a lot of unneeded crap. 3. In this step I will show you the garage door details that will obviously need to be addressed thoroughly. Here we have a garage door, what I am hoping to do here is to at the top of the garage door and push in is a single beam to drill in and lock in the garage door and disallow it from being opened, I do not want remove it and fill in the space with bricks because it will just look like crap from the outside, where a garage door is meant to be. I will also remove all support beams for the garage door that are used when the garage door is open as they will not be needed. though, only for the side that the studio will be in. With the garage door going to be locked in place, we have room on the floor and this is where I hope to drill in the start of the support beams for the studio. As shown above, I want to start the drilling of the base of the studio at the edge before the indent into the ground so I may fill it up with sound insulation, it will give me around 15cm of sound insulation room, but first I have to come up with a good way to completely block out noise from the gap of the garage door to the inside as shown below. At the moment, my flooring is your average garage floor cemented base. I am not sure as to whether there is any moisture protection below the base for the garage, but I am pretty sure there is, will have to check exact plans. What I am hoping here to do in regards to the studio flooring is to elevate it with two beams as shown below and firstly put in moisture protection, followed by the sound insulation and that wooden flooring? Than carpet. Now I come up to the point where the L shape of the studio comes in place, where the door is. Where is where it begins,, I stand on the exact corner where the wall will head straight down to the centre where the extruded bricks support is. Followed by the corner which will go straight to the other extruded set of bricks as clearly shown in the image below, the light switch will have to be moved over a bit or removed completely. Where the door is, I am hoping to have a glass windows at this end to where the studio support walls will be, will have to be double layered special windows for sound treatment, as will the door required to get into the studio. That’s all I have in terms of ideas for my studio at the moment, hopefully others can add in some input as to what else I am going to need to do for construction.

Hi Michael, and welcome. There is an announcement at the top of the forum about what to do to assure getting as many responses as possible. The announcement leads to this post. Actually, several people, who are experts on this forum, will not reply if you do not do what is written in the post. Many others who are very helpful, will not reply out of respect for the moderators' wishes. Having said, that I have a comment on your plan for the floor: You said:

What I am hoping here to do in regards to the studio flooring is to elevate it with two beams as shown below and firstly put in moisture protection, followed by the sound insulation and that wooden flooring? Than carpet.

That sounds suspiciously like it will resemble a floating floor, which is not a good idea. Read this: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8173 Yes, I know your intention is not actually to float it, but your description says that you will be building a thin, low-mass floor on top of an air gap, with another floor underneath, and it will bring you the same kind of issues as a floating floor. I'd suggest you re-think that floor. Resonance is a good thing inside a kick drum, but a bad thing inside your floor...

That’s all I have in terms of ideas for my studio at the moment, hopefully others can add in some input as to what else I am going to need to do for construction.

Well, it's really hard to say anything at all about your design, since you didn't actually post a design! And it really hard to say anything about your available spaces, since you didn't actually post an accurate detailed fully dimensioned SketchUp model of your space! You also didn't provide any of the basic details regarding what you want to achieve in terms of isolation: What are the sound levels that you expect to have inside the studio, what levels you are aiming to have outside the studio once it is built, and also the other way around: What is the loudest exterior sound that you absolutely must prevent from getting into the studio, such as; do you live next to a noisy street with heavy traffic / have an airport, freeway, railroad close by / have noisy neighbors with loud lawnmowers / dogs barking / parties / garage band... Etc. You need to put actual numbers to these concepts, with a sound level meter. Measure the levels inside and outside at the noisiest times of the week, and also the quietest times of the week. Play music / pink noise in your garage as it is tight now, and slowly turn it up until your wife / family / neighbors / police tell you it is too loud, then measure the actual SPL at that point: Etc. It is impossible to design your isolation if you don't have the numbers on which to base the design. It's like saying "I need to build a road", but not knowing where the road has to start, where it has to end, or what traffic it has to carry.

width is 5.390m. with depth 5.440m & height is 2.6m.

But you say that only half of the depth is available, so your available space will measure 5.39 x 2.42 x 2.6. Chop off 20 cm (minimum) on each edge for isolation, and you are going to end up with a room that measures about 4.99 x 2.02 x 2.4. That's pretty small. You have to put equipment and people in there, not to mention HVAC. And that's just the dimensions to interior bare walls, without even considering the acoustic treatment that you will undoubtedly need. Is there no chance that you can make it a bit bigger? You didn't say, but I assume that you will have some form of isolation booth in that space, either for the equipment, or for the announcer, since you can't have equipment in the same room as the microphone. That shrinks your space by another 40 cm (at least!) in one of the dimensions, just for walls around that booth.... But once again, without seeing the layout that you have in mind and the numbers, it's impossible to say. Check the link I gave you regarding posting, and try to provide all of the information requested there. - Stuart -

Hi & Thank You for your already detailed response. It may seem like a floating floor, but wouldn't it be required if their was no moisture protection in the concrete slab? Also would it not be required because I will still be having the garage door in place and it is a thin metal? But I will take your advice if you say not to build it. The loudness around my area may reach up to around 80-100db and that is from numerous machinery and noises, at times it may even reach 120db but that is rarely with neighbors having parties but it still has to be addressed. I also have a dog but he rarely barks, he only barks when he finds crickets on the floor :P. I was also advised by a friend who does audio that i should expand my roof by lifting it a bit higher I really need the studio to be isolated from the sounds of outside. I should be able to expand by a few cm in width, I can expand all the way in terms of depth to completely cover the door and instead of my proposed L shape end. I did plan to have all the equipment in the same room except for computers which provide the real noise problem. I will do this because I see numerous radio stations which do have equipment in the same room. I will have all network communication equipment in a server cabinet to hold UPS, music server, network connection equipment etc... I will create a sketchup design soon, just have to create it :)

The loudness around my area may reach up to around 80-100db and that is from numerous machinery and noises, at times it may even reach 120db but that is rarely with neighbors having parties...

Wow! That sounds pretty loud! Are you sure your numbers are correct? How did you measure them? 120 dB is roughly the sound level you normally find standing a few meters in front of the speaker towers at a large rock concert. Do you live next door to Pink Floyd?

I really need the studio to be isolated from the sounds of outside.

If you really do have levels of 120 dB SPL right outside, and you need to block that enough so that you can record vocals inside, then you have a problem! You are going to need some pretty massive isolation do accomplish that! I don't think anything other a couple of thick concrete walls with a large air gap is going to tame ear-splitting 120 dB party music down to a level where you can record vocals. Even if the level is only 100 dB, you still have a big job ahead of you, but killing 120 dB is going to be really tough. I think you should re-check those levels with another sound level meter, one that is correctly calibrated. Use the "C" weighting, and "slow" response.

I did plan to have all the equipment in the same room except for computers which provide the real noise problem. I will do this because I see numerous radio stations which do have equipment in the same room. I will have all network communication equipment in a server cabinet to hold UPS, music server, network connection equipment etc...

Well sure, you CAN have equipment in the same room as your mic... provided that the equipment is specifically designed to be used in that kind of situation! ie, no noisy cooling fans. It has to be totally silent. Some equipment is built like that, some isn't. Anything that makes a noise has to go in another room, or a closet, or an isolated rack. And don't forget that when you put equipment in a small enclosed space, it needs ventilation air flow (air conditioning). So you need to consider that when you design your HVAC system. - Stuart -