Need some help converting a single garage into a mixing room

Hi all, I just wanted to gather some advice on the design/construction of my garage conversion. I've been searching through this forum for a good few months to get a good idea as I can on things. I've learnt alot but i'm still a bit of noob with it. I just want to get some more specific information if possible, and to make sure I'm not doing anything silly! Its just a room within a room job. I've also been doing some work at Metropolis Studios, London recently. Its an inspiring place to work at to say the least. I'm starting to do more producing work, while recording my own bands album. The plan is to build a recording studio down in Reading in the future. I'll use this as a mixing suite and for my own writing needs. Anyway...here goes! It's a long one! Situation and Location. I basically live in a 3 story townhouse. Its a row of 4-6 houses which are all connected together so I want to move my setup to the garage so I can mix at a proper level and not have to worry about disturbing the neighbours. All I'll be using the space for is mixing, writing and recording DI sources like bass and guitar. There won't be any loud things like drums or guitar amps. Perhaps vocals though. The garage is unfortunatly a single garage (every other neighbour has a double garage dam them!) so it's going to be tight...but it's going to be better than what I have now (which alot of the time is just headphones). I'm trying to do it all so that if we were to move house, it could easily be removed for reselling. Anyway here's some photos of the garage (sorry about the light) View from garage, looking outside the door towards the houses. From main garage door Garage door The garage is seperate from the houses as you can see by a good few meters. It's also a meter or so lower than the houses. It is connected to neighbouring garages...but this shouldn't be a problem as they are only being used for typical garage use. I'm planning to block off the main big/car garage door so it can't be used. I've tested the garage recently by putting one of my KRK monitors in there and cranking it to level i'd typically mix at. Considering there's just a thin door with a single plane of glass seperating it ...the leakage isn't too bad when listening in the garden. Mainly a bit of sub coming though. The houses are new, so I don't really know the neighbours that well. Ideally I don't want them to hear anything...especially since I do alot of writing at night when i'm in the groove. Now I was hoping to do this myself...but I think i'm going to get a builder involved or else i'll never get round to doing it. Dimensions & details. The rough dimensions of the garage are L: 542cm W: 260cm H:240cm Most of the walls are just brick except for one side which are conrete blocks. I think the main areas of concern are the wall facing the neighbours, the ceiling and the main garage door wall. The builders of the house have already fitted some form of plasterboard below the wooden roof frames/joists. I am worried that alot of leakage could come from the ceiling: Can this be cured with enough leafs and insulation? Noise escaping into the neighbouring garage shouldn't be a problem as they just use it for storage etc. Its whether it would then escape further into the garden and then the houses. Layout & Design Sketchup File (not finished) The small area left over is just a small storage space for tools and my amps/rack gear. Should hopefully be a useful air barrier between it all also. It looks like a coffin but it should suffice. I'd to have some kind of hessian infront of the boards to give it a nicer look. Then the side/back walls would be a lumber surface which the builder has suggested. I'd also put some acoustic panels relative to the mix position. The two mobile panels at the back I thought i'd put there since I have them built at the moment so i may aswell make use of them. Questions Most critical/concerning points Is there anything generally that sticks out which could be problematic? What would be best to do on the wall next to the main garage door? Is it worth perhaps just building a rectanglular stud wall room. Then add the angled front end of the design into it as a 2nd layer of stud wall? So Garage door > some form of weathering layer > stud wall > slight gap > THEN the angled stud walls that are on the design? The neighbours on this side are further away but it still needs to be as quiet as possible. The ceiling is my main concern. The builder recommended adding some insulation above the existing Ceiling panels. What would be the best setup here? Walls I need to decide on the amount of leafs, stud dimensions on each wall etc. I keep getting stuck at this bit. I'm thinking for the long walls (parallel to concrete wall) that I can get away with thinish stud walls? Say around 5-8cm and a single leaf perhaps? What would be the ideal setup here (exampe Existing wall > 5cm (??) air gap > Plasterboard > Stud/insulation > Plasterboard ? (Although i've read some posts that suggest its best to fill the airgap with insulation aswell?) Perhaps this layout would work for the long walls?: I was thinking of making the rear wall (closest to house) thicker than the long ones. Just a thicker stud wall/insulation thickness. Is this worthwhile? The builder recommened using Celotex for the Insualtion. Has anyone here used this? Is it worth going for some insualtion with acoustics in mind rather than thermal? Or is it all pretty much the same stuff? Floor Is worth doing much to the floor? Or just some form of underlay then laminate wood flooring which is what im planning since the garage is a good meter lower than the houses. Doors I'm just going to leave the main garage door in place and keep it locked. Is it worth fitting something behind it to make sure no one tries to forcefully open it? Also what should go directly behind the garage door bearing in mind weathering/air gaps? It is very dry in there as it is but this side is a slight concern...dont want the walls getting ruined after time. I'm going to leave the current rear door inplace for now. For the stud wall door I assume more mass the better? My friend has built a few rehearsal room's and just uses some £40-50 doors from Wickes and addes extra layers like carpet etc. He uses two of them but they do a great job. Hopefully this will do the job but will i get away with one or would two be worth while? Surfaces/asthetics The builder suggested some kind of lumber for the surfaces. Would this work? And could something like this be used instead of plasterboard...or as an extra leaf on top of the plasterboard? For the front end of the design I want some kind of hessian to kill the sound of a little. I assume it would be fine to layer this over the plasterboard? Ventilation I could just open the door every 30 minutes for some air haha. Is it easy/cheap to install something for some ventilation ? Treatment and room acoustics Does anything here stick out regarding angles, bass traps, flutters etc? A diffusor or absorber on the door perhaps? I'd probablly add some corner absorbers for the two corners at the back of the room. Or would it be worth while angling off those two corners every so slightly with the stud work? Budget Well if I do decide to get a builder involved we'll be spending just under £2000. Thats the max. I'm still tempted to do this myself so I can spend more of the money on materials, abosorbers etc. But i don't want to screw it up haha. Sorry that theres alot of questions. I have read through the reference section...i'm just a little unsure on what would best suit me. I just want to get everything straight before I go ahead with it all! Hopefully I've given enough details. If i've missed something important, I can easily let you know. Thanks in advance. Acle

I think you are way over the top, its a small space to begin with. Frame up just behind the garage door to seal it , and be sure you have a good seal on the entry door on the other side. Put down a rug, perhaps throw some FSK faced insulation in the rafters, and make some Corner traps, broadband diffusors and a cloud. The exposed brick will give some natural diffusion and great aesthetic vibe. Just add treatment until the room is comfortable, as no matter how well you design you will gave room modes to deal with.

As I'm not a big fan of long text; here's some short words: Leaves Build the frames as you posted in your picture, seems fine. you might wanna add a double stud frame for the wall seperation (where the door's in). The others should be single frame, single boards. The exterior wall is your first leave. Add as much mass to the inner walls as possible. Floor Depending on your current floor. As this is no live room I'd just add a finishing floor, that's all. your current floor is prolly concrete? That would be very good. You might even wanna paint the concrete. Read stickies to find out about floors and when to float it. Are you gonna add a second ceiling? your roof seems the weak spot in your design. Acoustics Worry about that later, focus on your floorplan first. It already looks great, you obviously did your homework :) keep on designing and asking (but keep it short, haha.) Stuart's the one who's goin' full lenght. Dunno how he can find the time to write such long posts... darn!

It looks like you had a sheet rock ceiling installed but took it out? What kind of roof material was installed on the exterior? Tile, metal, shingle, wooden shake, other?

Thanks for the replies guys. Sorry it was a long one :p OK sounds good. Single frame for the long walls and double for the door walls. The floor is concrete yes, i reckon i'll add some kind of wooden/laminate floor though mainly for aesthetics....and so i can go "weeeeeeee" on the chair :p The exterior on the roof are just tiles. There was no sheet rock in the ceiling (except for the bit in the picture on the concrete brick wall) I took pictures of the ceiling before the builders installed the boards beneath the roof beams. As for the ceiling yeah what do you think is best? Add some sheet rock above the current board perhaps? And then some form of 2nd layer *below* the current layer of boards? Thanks!