MY BUILDERS PLANS for my studio!?!?!?!?!?

Basically, Im a 16 yr old music producing enthuasiast from Cork, Ireland. And for the last year I've been plucking away at the research side of things. And eventually, I have all cinstruction ready to go in about a week or 2! I gave my plans to the builder, and although he kept alot of it, he slightly changed some, so here is the final construction plans hopefully; 2 rooms, 12x15x10 inside for live/rehersal room, 8x15x10 inside for control room. The outerstructure I think comes to around 24'x18', with a hip roof. INNER STRUCTURE + OUTER STRUCTURE He is planning on building the inner structure first 100% seperate from the outer structure, literally. The inner structure is; 3/4"plywood holding rockwool in inbetwen the 4x2 wooden frame of the inner structure. Then aluminium isolating channels of some sort, separating the slab from the frame. The drywal slab is 15mm, and it is a sand slab. So basically its drywall with sand in it. The outer structure is just 9" concrete block with a 4" gap to the inner structure. So walls go, 9" concrete bolck, 4" gap, 3/4" plywood, 4x2 wooden frame gaps filled with rockwool, metal channel, sand filled slab. FLOOR Solid concrete base. And some sort of a flooring, not too absorbative. ROOF + CEILING Inner ceiling, same as inner walls. 4x2 wooden frame, filled with rockwool, plywood on top, metal channel and sand filled slab underneath. Outer roof, separate roof joists, tiles on top, basic roof construction. AIR SUPPLY I'm planning on using a mini split air conditioning unit, with 1 fan ad 3 vents from a local place here in Cork. 1 vent for live room, 2 in control room. Is there any features of the plans that are stand out wrong? As for room treatment, A few diy bass traps from the left over rockwool to start off with, and I might get some standard absorbers to start off with and I'll just judge the room by ear after that for what I want it to sound like! If theres any more info you need, ask please. p.s the builder is saying €29 thousand maybe slighly more! Sound right? Thanks, Mark.

Doesn't sound great to me, Firstly you have triple leaf. Blocks>airgap>plywood> airgap (insulation is classed as airgap)>sand/drywall. I don't see the need for any isolating channels. The inner room does need to be seperate from the outer shell, but seperating the inner room from the floor isn't necessary for most applications, and certainly won't be achieved by using any alu channel. You can either float the inner room (expensive and complex), make a cut in the concrete floor, or if pouring a new slab make a construction joint filled with flexible sealant. The channel may be providing a break between concrete floor and timber, which may be necessary for local building regulation, but you'd be better off acheving this by using a single course of engineering bricks and roll of dpc (damp proof course) Serously forget the sand (especially in the roofspace :shock: ) Just use an extra sheet of drywall in it's place. solid concrete block walls make an excellent outer leaf, inner leaf could be studwork>ply>drywall>drywall to achieve decent performance. 30 grand? Get a few more quotes and insist they go with your design (you have had a thorough read through this site haven't you? (a thorough read through this website will take a couple of weeks to get your head around the entire project) That's a lotta dough for a 16 y.o. to be splashing out :yahoo:

9" concrete bolck, 4" gap, 3/4" plywood, 4x2 wooden frame gaps filled with rockwool, metal channel, sand filled slab.

Deluks is absolutely right. That's a bad idea. That's a three-leaf wall, with very little mass on the inner two leaves, and a very thin air gap between them. You will have rather poor isolation on that wall, mostly in the low end of the spectrum, and it is going to ring and resonate really well, way up in the audible range! Not a good idea at all. Far better to move the plywood to the other side of the studs (facing the room, not the wall cavity). Forget about the metal channel (it gains you nothing in this case and costs you money). Put the drywall directly over the plywood. The sequence will be: "Block" -- "air gap with studs and insulation" -- "plywood + drywall". You only want ONE air gap in your wall, never two or more. Everything must be sealed airtight, of course. And just use normal drywall (sheetrock, gypsum board, whatever they call it in your part of the world). Fancy stuff only costs you more, for very little (if any) additional benefit. Two layers of 16mm drywall would be plenty. Sound waves don't care how much you paid for your mass: mass is just mass. You could even ditch the plywood, if code allows it, and just use layers of drywall. Plywood is more expensive that drywall in most places, and drywall is denser. Get the cheapest, most dense mass you can.

Solid concrete base. And some sort of a flooring, not too absorbative.

Just leave it as solid concrete. Stain it for aesthetics if you don't like the look of concrete. Or if you must cover it, then lay laminate flooring. Absorptive flooring is generally not a good idea in studios, for many reasons. Keep it reflective. General rule is: reflective floor, absorptive ceiling (or diffusing, if the room is bug enough).

Is there any features of the plans that are stand out wrong?

You didn't mention silencers for your HVAC. You will need several silencers in the ductwork, to prevent sound from getting in, out and moving between the rooms. You didn't mention ventilation, only air conditioning. A min-split system does not provide any ventilation: it just recirculates the same old air. You also need to draw in fresh air from the outside world (through silencers) and to exhaust stale air back to the outside world (through silencers). You didn't mention electrical: that's a major point. You need to have all your wiring well though out, specially your grounding. And also your signal cabling between rooms. You didn't mention doors or windows, which will be the weakest part of your isolation. Get those wrong, and you won't have any isolation at all. Doing the doors and windows right is very important. It would help to see some actual Sketchup plans of the layout, in order to comment further. There might be other issues that need fixing too. Download Sketchup from Google, learn to use it, and design your studio in it. It's cheap (as in "free"), easy, powerful, and is what everyone uses here. Like Deluks said: spend some time reading over this forum, and studying the concepts and principles behind the advice you get here. Although I think Deluks is a little optimistic! It will take you two weeks of reading just to get through a single thread here, and there are dozens of threads well worth reading, with dozens of off-site links in each thread. I've been going for more than a year already, reading through this forum, and still not covered everything... :) And take Andre's advice: building a studio is 90% design, 10% construction. Don't even think about starting construction until the design is totally finalized. - Stuart -

mark.o.sul wrote:

So walls go, 9" concrete bolck, 4" gap, 3/4" plywood, 4x2 wooden frame gaps filled with rockwool, metal channel, sand filled slab.

That reads like an inside out wall "3/4" plywood, 4x2 wooden frame gaps filled with rockwool" to me. But I must confess, I can not get my head around the metal channel, where it is and what it is doing and how that has anything to do with a "sand filled slab". Seems like another communication break down. And that is why we enjoy pictures so much ;)

But I must confess, I can not get my head around the metal channel, where it is and what it is doing and how that has anything to do with a "sand filled slab".

Yup! I "think" what he's talking about is some kind of drywall product that is made from gypsum mixed with sand. That's what it sounds like to me. He said :

So basically its drywall with sand in it.

So that's my guess. Not quite sure what it would be, and of course "slab" isn't the right word for it anyway, but that's what it sounds like. I think. If so, the "metal channel" is some kind of RC or hat channel behind the "sand-drywall", then that makes a three-leaf wall, if I'm understanding it correctly.

It's like mind reading, and I am not good at that either :) Maybe the OP will actually say the word, give a picture...verify :)