Studio in a Shed

I saw the idea for the Studio in a Storage Container and thought it was an awesome idea, but those are really expensive. Would it be possible to do the same thing in say, a shed from home depot? Would I have any luck at all doing this? I'm a college student living in Chicago, and I have been to 4 different practice spaces, and they all have horrible bleed, or leaky ceilings, or mice, etc. so I'm looking for another solution that won't cost me an arm and a leg. Any input would be GREATLY appreciated. -Tim

Hi Tim, and welcome. If your concern is about good isolation (keeping sound inside, or outside, and not allowing it through the walls), then no, a Home Depot shed is not the answer. According to the laws of physics, there are only two ways to block sound from getting from point "A" to point "B". Either you have to remove the medium that is conducting the sound (which in the case of a practice room means that you would need to surround it with a vacuum!!!), or you have to put something very dense and massive in the way, to prevent the sound from leaving. Home Depot garden sheds do not have anywhere near enough mass to make a difference. And you also cannot surround them with a vacuum. :) Unfortunately, the laws of physics apply to everyone, so there are no other ways of isolating your room. Mass is the only solution, and Mass-Air-Mass is the bet possible low cost solution. But you can't do it in a shed. Or at least, not easily. The best way is this: Pour a thick concrete slab on grade, build decoupled double-stud Mass-Spring-Mass walls on top of the slab, build a totally decoupled ceiling and roof ("room-within-a-room"). Install HVAC system. Seal it all air-tight (both the inner leaf and the outer leaf). There are other ways of doing it, but that is by far the cheapest. - Stuart -

Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry if I made it sound like I just wanted the shed to do the isolating! My actual idea was to buy a shed, probably 12' x 14', as opposed to a shipping container, and kind of use it as a shell, then basically build a room inside of it, by first creating a frame for a floor, filling it with insulation, using sheet rock, then flooring board. I would then create the walls, filling studs with OC705, then throwing some sheet rock over it, then two layers of drywall with green glue in between them. I'm not sure what I would do for the ceiling yet. Does this even sound plausible?

The first thing you will have to do is set realistic expectations. It's a shed:) Next you have to establish a strong foundation for this shed. Once you begin the process of adding isolation materials, the structure will begin to settle. It is the first place you have to really fret over, one place of many as it turns out. Simply placing blocks on the ground and putting a shed on top will not be an effective foundation, especially with the type of design you are suggesting. If the shed comes on skids, then you will still need to develop better support for the entire perimeter of this structure. Gravity is what you will be fighting here. Once that is in place, constructing an interior wood framed floor on top of a wood framed floor is no help. Your time would be better spent adding the additional plywood directly over the existing floor to add the mass to help in some small way to stop sound from getting out. I would also nix the room in a room. It's a shed. If you have developed a strong foundation you can add mass to the exterior walls. I am making assumptions that this structure is an all wood and not an all metal. Your budget at last view was 0 after buying this shed, so even these things may be out of reach. And we didn't even get into doing the ceiling, developing a plan for hvac, powering this thing up, exterior doors and windows and how to isolate these. And many other aspects still yet to pop up, Good luck, Brien

I should first mention this has been done: http://web.solid-state-logic.com/news/SSL_Shed.html now, while this has been done, the shed in question was no run of the mill shed by any stretch of the imagination, and was purpose built from the ground up. Enjoy.