Best wall construction for my situation

Hi there boys and girls hehe. I'm designing a new studio based on the John's small studio design, but I have a concern related to the walls I'll have to build. The problem is that the studio is very close to a major highway and I really need good isolation, I mean "major" isolation. I was thinking of 2 concrete block walls on each side, like the room within a room layout, would that be enough? do the concrete blocks need to be filled with something? and if they do what material would be the best solution? since the studio will be built on top of the garage I would prefer the filling material not to be "that heavy" but if there's no other way to do it I guess I'll have to build sturdier columns hehehe. thank you very much for any help you can give me! JP

It's impossible to answer without having any real numbers to work with, such as how loud the traffic noise is at the location where you plan to build, and what is there already, in terms of a building, plus many other things. - Stuart -

Ok..I'll elaborate, make some pre-design models and figure out a way to measure the noise. But just to start out....what is the most efficient wall design for something like this?, just something that I can use to start out my design. Thanks a lot JP

figure out a way to measure the noise.

Buy a sound level meter. You can get them for as little as US$ 30 or so on e-bay, and maybe US$ 150 or so new, for something reasonable. Just a tiny fraction of what it is going to cost you to build the studio, and money well spent. Without that, you cannot possibly design the build correctly.

what is the most efficient wall design for something like this?,

The most efficient wall design for good sound isolation at a reasonable cost is the fully decoupled two-leaf MSM wall design. You simply cannot beat it for excellent isolation at reasonable cost. Properly designed and built, it can give you 100 dB of isolation. (For those who don't believe that it is possible to get such extreme isolation with an MSM system, ask Eric Desart... :) ) But it isn't just the wall: the entire structure has to be built as a fully decoupled two-leaf "room-in-a-room" system.

just something that I can use to start out my design.

You seem to be going at this issue from the wrong end. You shouldn't really start out by selecting building materials for your wall, but rather by first taking real-world measurements at the site where you intend to build (such as how loud it is at that location), then decide on your design criteria (such as how quite you need it to be inside the finished building). Based on those and the available, you can define the amount of mass and air gap that you need in order to achieve your goal, and only then, once you have all of that information in hand, only then should you start figuring our what construction materials will be the most cost effective for creating the structure that you really need.

since the studio will be built on top of the garage I would prefer the filling material not to be "that heavy" but if there's no other way to do it I guess I'll have to build sturdier columns hehehe.

There is no such things as highly effective light-weight sound barrier. A material is either very good at stopping sound, or it is light weight. But not both. Also, if you are starting out by wanting to build on the second floor, and you say you need lots of isolation, then you are setting yourself up for some complex ans expensive construction. Since building really good isolation requires lots of mass, you are going to need to do some major shoring up of the garage structure (particularly the roof) in order to support the huge weight that you will need to put on top of it. Here are some choices for your build: 1) Cheap. 2) Lightweight. 3) Good isolation Pick only one of the above, since choosing any one of them automatically excludes the other two. - Stuart -

Wow thanks for that info!!! so first I'll see if I can find the sound level meter to have a better idea about where I stand, hope it's not that critical. Take care and many thanks for your time JP

so here it is, I made a new post on the design forum: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14766&p=103740#p103740