First Small Studio/Tracking Room in UK

Hi, It’s been my dream for some years now to have my own little studio. I play in a couple of bands but mainly I enjoy writing and recording. I bought rods book a few years ago, among a few others, and I stumbled on this site about 15 months ago. I've learned great things from both and found allot of the threads here really inspiring. (Especially Lou's) My project is not going to be as grand as his or many others on here but I want to have a good go at creating a nice little space for myself. My studio will mainly be for mine and my friends own amusement but if I could use it in a semi pro capacity I would. While I feel I have a good understanding of the principles behind reducing sound transmission from my room I’ve been unable to come up with an action plan as I can't decide on the best approach and don’t want to get it wrong. Also space is an issue and I’m concerned about the best way to utilise what I have. Anyway I’ll try and give as much info about what I have already and hopefully some of you experienced guys can give me some advice. I'm going to attempt to turn an unfinished room on the side of my house into a room that I can use to write and record songs. My ultimate aim is to be able to track some songs in there, occasionally playing acoustic drums and creating minimal disturbance to my neighbours. I will not need to be doing this at three AM or anything. I'm prepared to make do with an electric kit if I have to :( . I live near a fairly busy road (about 50m away) which I’m hoping will work to my advantage to drown out some of the sound that will inevitably escape. I've included a sketch up file of the existing structure. Here is a plan view with measurements. Here is another plan view so you can see the structure more clearly The room is connected to the rest of my house though the only two adjoining rooms are a storage area and a utility room. On one side it's connected to a neighbour’s garage which is seldom used. This garage is not connected to the neighbour’s house which is approximately 8m away. I have some good starting points but a few negatives too. Your walls are only as strong as their weakest point right? The studio area has its own concrete base. The majority of the existing wall construction is 100mm high density concrete blocks > 115mm Insulated Cavity > 100mm high density concrete blocks. The side shared with my neighbours garage is 100mm Brickwork> 115mm airspace > 4x2 studwork (Supporting the roof structure). The trouble is that none of this is isolated properly as you will see from my sketch up file The brickwork wall does not come fully up to plate level (The neighbour’s garage is slightly lower than my room) This leaves about a 30cm tall section which is just 20mm chipboard and roofing felt between my room and the outside world Another problem is that my roof is 2x8s directly on top of plate level this leaves gaping holes down the sides (Just facia board). Again, the roof is 20mm Chipboard with tar and felt on top Most of these holes I’ve managed to fill with more concrete blocks My plan is to try and reinforce all the weak areas I have at the moment then build a decoupled structure inside Does my existing structure count as one leaf? The block work has wall ties in between? Is what I’m hoping for achievable with regard to the space I have and the level of isolation I hope to achieve? Is RC any good? Would I get decent decoupling by mounting my plasterboard on RC attached to the existing structure or will I need to build a separate 2x4 stud frame spaced about 2” inside? I think I know what the answer to this will be but I’m just hoping to save some space When beefing up the ceiling and other awkward areas, can I use plasterboard adhesive or a grab adhesive to fix my the plasterboard up as I will struggle to find points to screw to or even get a winder in there. (Not looking forward to this part at all!) I have loads more questions I’m sure I’ve forgotten to ask. Also I have some rough ideas about layout, aircon etc. but I really need to work out how I’m going to tackle isolation before I can go any further. Been looking at this empty room for about the last year trying to work out what I’m going to do with it but always end up walking out with a headache! If i've left any info out just let me know. Any help or suggestions you can give me would be much appreciated. Steve

No takers it seems. If you haven't yet done a runner then I'll briefly chip in with a few thoughts. Do you share the flat roof with your neighbours? If not then stripping and reboarding on top of the existing deck would increase the mass somewhat so that it becomes closer to that of the concrete blocks walls. (you won't be able to match it for performance but the current 20mm sterling board is in no way adequate for an outer leaf) The blocks you have inserted between top of existing wall and roofdeck are a smart move soundwise, but you may now be restricting ventilation to the roof timbers. These must be ventilated and kept dry, so you will have to hermetically seal the inner room by using vapour barrier (plastic sheeting) or foil backed plasterboard on one of the inner wall layers. The timbers can still be ventilated by using mechanical extraction (ie: an extractor fan or two drawing air across the roof void) This will obviously need to have baffles on the in and outtake. You may get away with not doing this if you can insulate on top of the roof (warm deck construction) or can completely fill the roofspace with rockwool, right up against the OSB, before sealing in with plastic. Thus denying moist air the chance to circulate. You say the neighbours garage is seldom used. Could you afford to make 'em an offer for it?

Hi Deluks, Thanks for the reply. sorry i'm late getting back to you. i hadn't done a runner as i've always been looking round here for inspiration and techniques though i did give up hope of getting a response and i'm not quite sure how i missed you. Anyway, to answer your questions. The flat roof is kind of joined to my neighbours, it actually sits on top of it partly but stripping and reboarding is not really an option. I could beef up from the inside with plasterboard sections as in rod's book, but in my situation this would be alot harder as i have furrings on top of the rafters, to give the roof a slope, also trying to maintain an airtight seal round the edges, from the underside of the osb to plate level, would be a real pain in the arse job with lots of small awqward sections to try to fill and beef up. With regards to the concrete blocks restricting airflow, there are vents in the underside of the facia board at the front and back of the building, i asume the air is meant to circulate in the 50mm or so provided by the furrings, i haven't blocked these yet but obviously i would want to if i'm to use the osb as my outer leaf. At the moment i'm considering removing the concrete blocks i put up, fixing three layers of plasterboard to the bottom of the joists and using this as my outer leaf. i know technicaly i would be creating a three leaf system, but at least my roof can vent the way it was designed to and i feel this method would be easier to get consistent and airtight. Do you have any views on this? i have some new pictures from my skp with some ideas but still not really finished planning yet. excuse the rather nice couch! I have just spent three years renovating my house and have been dying to make a start on this but also a little hesitant having lots of theory but no experience. If anyone in the uk is interested i managed to get some fairly good deals for caulk on the net. http://www.powertools2u.co.uk, standard permanently flexible caulk was 71p per tube and ac50 acoustic sealant and adhesive was £2.12 (i saw this going for £9+ in some places) also i found very few supliers of backer rod but managed to get it a 30p per meter at http://www.protilertools.co.uk (13mm) This weekend i'm going to start by running an electric supply through the roof to the rear external wall for the AC (I got a mini split for nothing from a bandmate :) )

Sorry i forgot, buying the neihbours garage is also not an option. i very much doubt he would sell as he does keep a car in there, but only takes it out for about 30 mins every morning, i can't affford to buy it either!

Sparky - I'm going to move your thread to the Design forum as you need a design not construction info.

OK, thanks John