Building rehearsal jam room from scratch?

Hi, all - First time poster. What a great resource this forum is! My head is overflowing with information from y'all. I am looking to build a rehearsal room, not a recording studio per se. I'm hoping to get some recommendations about soundproofing and the overall construction in general. I'm currently househunting and want to be better informed about what's possible as I evaluate homes and land. My ideal would be to find a house and property with some space (neighbors not too close) and build a room from the ground up in the back yard. So, pour foundation, and then build walls, floor, and ceiling such that we could have heavy loud drums, guitar, bass, and vocals and the neighbors won't be disturbed even at midnight. This will not be for commercial use, and is really intended to be a jam room, not a recording studio (although we'll record live in it too); so I don't need a separate live room and control room or vocal booth. Just a room, and ideally a bathroom although that's optional. I'm thinking between 300 and 600 square feet. I'm hoping to get advice on what would be necessary - double walls, airtight seal, floating floor, ceiling height, quiet ventilation, etc. and how to budget per square foot, including everything (electrical, plumbing, a/c). Is a "simple" box room like this possible for $20k (US)? I know very little about construction, so if this is laughable, I'll be curious if building inside an attached garage could be successful and cheaper? There aren't really any full basements around here (Redmond, WA, USA). If this is possible in general, then I'll want to get much more specific help with design and acoustic treatment and all that. I'm also trading emails with a friend of a friend who is a real studio designer, but I wanted to start here and try to be informed. Thanks for any advice and recommendations! - Jance

p.s. I'm buying the Radio Shack digital sound level meter today and will measure our jam tonight. Hopefully that will be accurate enough to give an idea of how much sound reduction we're talking about. - Jance

We get up to about 115db, according to the level meter set to C weighting. So, any of you experienced pros, could you give me the equivalent of a napkin sketch in words for how you'd build a rehearsal room in a back yard so the neighbors wouldn't hear that, and roughly what kind of budget? I just want to get a ballpark estimate so I know how to evaluate the various houses/properties I'm looking at. Let's leave the bathroom and plumbing out of the equation for now. Foundation Floor Walls Ceiling Doors HVAC Electrical Thanks so much for any info! - Jance

We get up to about 115db, according to the level meter set to C weighting.

Yup, that sounds about right for a rock band with live drums.

So, any of you experienced pros, could you give me the equivalent of a napkin sketch in words for how you'd build a rehearsal room in a back yard so the neighbors wouldn't hear that, and roughly what kind of budget?

Unfortunately, it isn't that easy! That's like asking "What kind of vehicle do I need, and how expensive is it?": the answer could be that a 50 dollar skateboard is all you need, or it could be that you need to drop quite a few tens of millions on a 747.... It all depends! And you haven't provided enough information for even a basic wild guess. You have said how loud you are, but you haven't said how quite you need to be, or at what distance you need to be that quite, or a number of other things. For example, if your nearest neighbor is ten miles away, then a tent is all you need! But if your nearest neighbor is a sleeping baby in the next room, or a nasty lawyer with light sleep, 6 feet away from your room, then you need a bit more than just a tent.... Brien can probably give you a more accurate idea of budget, but figure that this is going to cost you at least as much per square foot as the going rate for a really nice house in your area, whatever that is. US$ 20k for 600 square feet works out to around US$ 33 per square foot: is that the going rate for building a house in your area? Sorry I can't be more helpful than that, but you need to provide more info to get better answers. - Stuart -

Stuart - Thanks for the reply! I realize I've left out many of those details you list, but as I mentioned I've been looking at different properties and houses, so I don't know yet what my neighbor proximity will be. The cost per square foot relative to house price is a great starting point. I'm looking at somewhere closer to $200/sq. foot, and in fact the studio designer I'm meeting with tomorrow gave me a similar rough estimate. I'll reply with more specifics once I'm actually in the design stage at a real location. Thanks again! - Jance

If you and your family have any interest in cutting your budget down to a manageable size you have a few options to consider. Garages have been converted with success but there are modifications that are quite necessary in order to reduce your sound levels. To isolate sound you need mass and mass typically comes in the form or hard dense surfaces. You may be able to cut the rest room out but that implies these guys are going to be in your house whenever the "call" comes in if you know what I mean ;) On the down side, it is rare to find a garage taller than 8 feet so you lose head room from the start...usually. Heating and air is not optional as many here have tried to overcome and will be able to support this statement. Ideally you would locate a separate building with a level concrete slab and built either out of concrete or poured cinder block walls, with minimum penetrations in these walls, e.g. windows and multiple doors. Although at least two means of egress may be a requirement to satisfy code, more and bigger doors can present some issues, but still might be manageable. Taller walls height is preferred, 12 feet is better than most, but a nine foot wall height is almost perfect for a rehearsal room. Since the mass-air-mass design will require interior walls and the addition of a separate ceiling this will still allow you a ceiling height of approx. 8 feet when all is said and done. HVAC is critical and the placement thereof. Get Rod Grevais' book "Build it like the pros". The chapters on HVAC alone are worth the cost to get you over the humps that you didn't even know existed. There are always trade-offs so don't get to caught up in these issues if you can. If you are fortunate enough to locate a building already standing that has the potential required, your budget could effectively be cut in half or even more. Last but certainly not least, read this, you and your designer: John Sayers "The Recording Manual" It is the "good book" around here! Good luck,

Brien - Great info, thanks! And to be clear, I definitely want to reduce the budget however possible. This is not for a commercial or professional venture, but I want it to be effective. I'm definitely planning to read "Build It Like the Pros" although I see that a new edition is coming out soon, so I'll get it then. Thanks! - Jance

Hey Jance. I'm about to get started on my build and it's almost exactly what you are doing. I want a room for recording myself (electric guitar) with enough room for up to a six piece band to practice in and possibly record, not nessecarily a live band recording. I won't be doing any of the work myself. I don't know anything about construction either. I wish I did. It would save a crapload of money! I'm going with room within a room with 2x4 frames. 2 layers of 5/8" sheetrock, no green glue. No bathroom. No floating floor. It will be new construction but attached to the existing garage. The studio itself will be about 400 square feet but I'll also have a 4'x15' closet and a 9'x20' storage room included in the build. The quotes I got from the contractors were between $50,000 and $60,000. I guess you'd have to do the work yourself or have friends that could do the work cheap to get the cost much lower. I want mine done right and to the proper building codes so I'm just going to have to pay it.

I forgot to mention that I need to remove a wall. That same wall is where all my electric, cable and phone enter the house so that adds some to the cost.