Question about # of leafs

OK, so I am going to attach what is possibly the worlds worst sketch, but hopefully it will make things a little clearer. I have a possibility of building a studio in a commercial facility, but am curious as to whether or not it is feasible to do what I am thinking. It is essentially two 20 x 50 foot rooms, with a 10 foot wide hallway between them. All exterior walls are cement, and they are 12 feet high (as well as the roof). All interior walls are 8 feet high (standard stud/drywall) with a t-bar ceiling at 8 feet. The picture is a cross section of the area. My question is, if I build a room-in-a-room with a staggered stud wall 10 feet high, will the 8 foot walls count as an additional two leaves? If it does, what if I got rid of the existing wall that would be next to the r-i-a-r walls - would the 10 foot air-gap make the second wall not count as additional leaves? Thanks in advance, and hopefully this makes a little sense. :oops:

welcome! please review the read-me stickie which includes a bunch of good questions which, when answered, will allow us to better help you. can you remove the 8ft walls? what do you envision doing in those spaces? multiple small post production rooms and some rehearsal space, plus lounge and CR and live room with isolation booths? are there other people/organizations in the building? how much isolation do you need? what is your budget and skills?

gullfo wrote:

can you remove the 8ft walls? what do you envision doing in those spaces? multiple small post production rooms and some rehearsal space, plus lounge and CR and live room with isolation booths? are there other people/organizations in the building? how much isolation do you need? what is your budget and skills?

It is a possibility that we could remove the 8 foot walls, but would rather not if it can be avoided. The space on the right side is a rehearsal space, and the area between the two spaces is a hallway, and the stairs down to the level below. On the left side there will be a CR and a recording/iso room. Ideally, I'd like to be able to record while there was a band in the rehearsal space, but I don't think that is looking to be possible without building that space into a room in a room as well. There are no other people in the building (besides when a band is rehearsing). The budget is not huge right now, as we are hoping to build in stages. If it has to be all done in order to keep the two spaces separate, then we will have to decide whether to go all out or not. As far as my skills, I am an Electrician by trade, and have built/remodeled quite a bit. I'm not too worried about the actual building of the studio, once I have an actual plan. Thanks again. Gunnar

it just might be easier to have the construction built to purpose rather than try to retrofit something that you're likely going to have to do work on anyways. plus you could adjust the layout better and potentially re-use the band rehearsal space as additional studio space by having some large "isolation rooms" which could be converted to control room or post-production rental space. make the hall a bit smaller and the main studio larger, and/or a lounge etc. if you can provide detailed floor plan and measurements (any existing blueprints of the space?) that would help. including all windows, doors, pipes, fire suppression, ducts, etc etc.

"if I build a room-in-a-room with a staggered stud wall 10 feet high, will the 8 foot walls count as an additional two leaves? " No sir, it will count as an additional coupled leaf. Working with as little information as you have provided, and based on my own experience, let me press on. I would build the existing stud wall all the way to the 12 foot height/roof. I would also remove the sheetrock on the interior of the room side of this existing wall. Then add additional mass to the outer/hall way side of this existing framed wall that we just built up to the 12 foot height ensuring that typical wall insulation was installed in the stud bays.. Then I would use a single framed (not staggered) stud wall with mass installed on the interior side to develop a proper m/S/m assembly.