Brian's Tracking Space project (NJ)

Hi All: First, let me thanks to everyone who has provided the wealth of information on this site – for me it is much appreciated. I have been reading through the site as well as Rod’s book to do the preliminary planning for my project and I hope you can help me do this right the first time! Here goes: Purpose/Background: I have a decent size space in my home (NJ, USA) that is unfinished and will be dedicated partially to this project. First and foremost, I want to have a large dedicated tracking room. This would be used as much for rehearsal as for recording. The music played is very loud rock with the usual instruments - I am a drummer. Given the space I have (more on that below) I toyed with the idea of a separate control room, but abandoned it in favor of a larger live space. The house is configured such that I could always steal surrounding space later if need ever arises – probably wont. Our interests lie in playing and tracking mostly. We have no talent for mixing anyway!!! Requirements: Isolation: Although my nearest neighbor is 300 ft away and I am about 100 ft from the road, isolation is a large concern for me. A neighbor has mentioned in the past that once or twice they heard us and I would like to have the freedom to play uninhibited late at night. The current situation is an 11x12 2nd story room with the single pane window covered with foam+MDF (I know, not very effective). I have walked down the road at night (dead silent out there at night) and could only hear a whisper of music in the air, but you know how that goes. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Treatment: Yes. Larger room = easier to treat so not too much there. I estimate a volume of about 3000 cuft. Budget: Around 5k for materials. I will be doing all of the construction. I am experienced with that and the town will make sure I do it right. Still nervous about their take on this type of construction which will certainly be foreign to them in such a town. The Space: There is a 18’ x 32’ 1st floor space that is currently unfinished above my garage. Approx. 18’ x 18’ space (somewhat odd shaped) will be for the live room. The adjacent space is an office for my wife. The proximity to the studio is not an issue for her. Below is a garage that is partially below grade with 2 un-insulated doors. Above is attic – no second story. 2 walls of the studio will be exterior, both with windows. The ceiling will be raised by installation of a beam so I may have a ceiling as high as 11-12’ in part of the room (8’ lowest near roof edge). Construction is 2x10 floor joists + subfloor, exterior and interior walls are 2x4 covered with plywood sheathing already insulated with R13. Above is… anything. New beam going there. Windows are single pane. He Plan So Far: I plan to use double wall, 2 leaf construction. With about 1” separating the two framed walls. At least 2 layers of sheetrock on the inner leaf – also plan to caulk the existing outer leaf as necessary. I will fill the entire cavity with insulation. Not planning on GG due to cost, plus I think the floor is the weakest link here. I would like to keep the windows so one issue is the best way to do that maintaining best possible isolation (2nd window is preferable so they can be opened sometimes, polycarbonate inner window would be second choice and plug third). Entry will be only from the new office next door – probably will use a super door. Ceiling will be fully supported by the inner wall framing- no coupling to the roof/attic structure other than fire stops. Floor may be a problem. The garage air volume (not too well sealed due to crap garage doors) may be of help. The garage ceiling has sheetrock, some partially removed. Whatever is necessary can be done within the cavity of the joist spaces, but there can be no reduction of ceiling height in the garage. The existing space has duct work. I will rip it out as it is installed to the outer framing. Air handler (heat and A/C) is in the basement, so I am considering ether penetrating the floor with vents within the room or ducting through a chase to above and penetrating the ceiling. Not sure which would be best here. Not sure what code will allow yet. So, I guess main questions would be these: -Is my logic above correct? -Need advice wrt treating the floor for isolation if it really needs it. Not concerned with sound coming in from below, but am about out to the outside world. -Room ratio: because of the slope that the ceiling will have as well as the partially angular wall, how should I go about considering this? Is it of much less importance now? -The window thing! -What have I missed? Any other suggestions? Thanks so much, Brian Note: For the images below, white is existing wall, dashed is walls to be demo'ed, pink is proposed walls, green is new beam.

Hi. Two things. One is that your dimensions for the tracking room, 18 X 18, make it square. It is a known issue to avoid, being square that is. The other is the installation of the beam. In order for this to be of any use to you, the support for it must go to the bottom of the building to slab. It may, depending on where these points are in relation to slab thickness, require modifications to the concrete to support this load that eventually will support the roof load. Have you considered this yet? The other thing, this is where the rubber hits the road, is how to support this roof load temporarily while the days of demo and modifications are going on, in order to slip this, how long was it?, beam into the pocket. How do you plan to get this up into this area? Men lifting it? Well, glu lams may work, you can see the space better than I can and can see what is in the way. Hope that helps, Brien

Hi Brien, Thanks for the feedback. 2nd thing first, The beam will be supported at its end down through the girder below directly over piers, so there is no shear on the girder. The beam is ML sized by my architect. Regarding support during demo, the beam will be slipped by between the existing joists and fully installed with a shear wall to the roof ridge before any demo of the joists or walls below takes place. The beam is actually short of the full span by a couple of feet due to pier placement. This has been cleared by the architect to be compliant. 1st thing: Yeah, I know - that is a dilemma for me. I cannot go larger but don't want to too much space. The room is square for about half and then reduces to a decent ratio. How critical is this for tracking? I had read somewhere here that the ratios are more crucial for listening areas. Can I use treatment to neutralize it sufficiently - maybe some serious bass traps and diffusers along one of the walls? BTW, I had thought of using some of that space to place iso booths and closets, but due to the fact that my house has a septic system, I cannot legally create additional rooms that would be treated as bedrooms by the board of health (any my budget cant handle installing a larger tank!). Here, that means any room with a door and closet is a BR, so the closet had to go. Brian