Garage Conversion Help - Brisbane, AU

Hello all. Attached is a really basic model of my current garage which i plan to convert. I will be sharing the conversion with my sister, who will be using half as an design studio. We are lucky to have this very long garage :D. All of the outside walls are existing walls and are brick. The ceiling and floor are concrete. The wall separating the half's is a proposed wall, and can thus be moved. The Laundry has no walls but cannot be moved due to plumbing etc, but that shouldn't affect my side of the room anyhow. The space on my half with no wall is the garage door. I will be using the studio simply as a production studio so there is no need for any recording space. Here's where you all come in: My Budget is ~$500 AUD/USD. With the wall installed, how much money would I have left over (I really have no idea how much any construction costs) and what could I do with that money to get the right acoustics. I am thinking blocking the entire garage door with heavy curtains, then making my own bass traps/acoustic panels for the walls and corners. I am thinking my desk will be closest to the new wall (middle) with my back facing the garage door. As for the floor, I will most likely be covering it in rubber and carpet unless there are better options for me out there. How much of an issue will the ceiling be, should I be doing something about that also? Any other ideas/suggestions? Thanks so much, Matt Barclay.

Hi Matt. Welcome. You didn't say what you are trying to accomplish, but $500 won't go very far towards it. There are two totally separate concepts that people tend to confuse: Isolation and treatment. The y are entirely different. Isolation is stopping sound from getting in or out of your room, so that you don't disturb the neighbors and they don't disturb you. Treatment is what you do to the room once it is isolated, so that it sounds good and is a useful acoustic space. Isolation will make your room sound bad. Treatment makes it sound good again. From what you say, it seems like you do not need any isolation at all, and only need a bit of very, very basic treatment. Is that correct?

I will be using the studio simply as a production studio so there is no need for any recording space.

I'm not sure about the difference between what you mean by "production studio" and "recording studio". How can you produce something without first recording it? Do you mean that this room will only ever be used for practice, never for actual recording?

As for the floor, I will most likely be covering it in rubber and carpet unless there are better options for me out there.

Both are really bad ideas, acoustically. Just leave it as plain concrete, which is good for a floor, acoustically speaking, provided that you treat the ceiling and the rest of the room correctly.

How much of an issue will the ceiling be, should I be doing something about that also?

Once again, that all depends on what you are talking about: isolation or treatment? And it also depends on many other things. If you cold explain more clearly what your goals are, and what the existing construction is like, then we might be able to offer you some advice, but once again on a budget of $500 there really isn't very much you can do. Even ten times that much would be probably come up a bit short for basic isolation, and basic treatment. - Stuart -

hello, thanks for response. Question 1: I will need to focus more on treatment than isolation because I don't have the money. Q 2: It is purely production because I don't need to record in it. Not all music involves recording ;D. I am an electronic artist. Q 3: Ahh ok. That makes the floor easy at least! Basically I have a really low budget,and i am not really looking for any construction ideas apart from that centre wall. For the rest of the room, will i be able to get REASONABLE sound treatment just using acoustic panels and the like?

It is purely production because I don't need to record in it. Not all music involves recording

OK, so it is just a practice area. No recording. Got it.

For the rest of the room, will i be able to get REASONABLE sound treatment just using acoustic panels and the like?

You can undoubtedly IMPROVE the sound from where it is now, but whether or not the result will be acceptable depends on you. Small rooms need bass trapping, so I'd start by splitting your budget and spending at least 1/2 of it on bass trapping, which you can do simply by putting a few panels of 4" thick Owens Corning 703 diagonally across the 4 vertical corners of the room. Put two layers there (8") if you can afford it. It won't do much, but is all you can afford. 703 costs about US$ 25 to $30 per panel. 8 panels (2 on each corner) will set you back around US$ 200 and change. You will also want to kill the flutter echos between parallel surfaces, so put a few more panels of 703 against the walls and on the ceiling, but don't cover it completely! "Checkerboard" the panels, so that where you have blank wall on one side of the room there is a piece of 703 on the opposite wall. Space the 703 a couple of inches away form the wall, to maximize the effect, and cover it in acoustically transparent cloth to hide the "ugly" factor (703 ain't very pretty!). Many people make wooden frames for their 703, to protect it from damage (it isn't very strong), so you might want to do that, if you can stretch your budget that far. Assuming that you use another 8 panels of 703 here (2 on each wall). that eats up another US$ 200 or so form your budget, leaving less than 100 for the ceiling. So put up as many more panels of 703 on the ceiling as you can afford. That's probably about all you will manage to do with your budget, and it certainly will improve the sound of the room. If you have a few dollars left over, or can find some more, then there are other things you could do as well, but that covers the basics. It would be good if you could to a proper acoustic analysis of the room before and after treatment and post the results here, so you can see how much effect the treatment has. You can use REW for that (which is free!). Good luck! And don't forget to post some photos and comments, to let us know how it goes. And of course, feel free to ask more questions. - Stuart -

i would build the center dividing wall on a 15° angle to help offset the limited treatments and then focus on the corners. if you use RC-1 on the dividing wall on the CR side, careful not to bind the drywall to the studs incorrectly, you may get some more isolation for a little bit more money - your sister might appreciate that and it might help with some of the bass absorption. you might consider a couple of larger absorber frames to hold the insulation and cloth covering and a couple of scatter absorbers and a ceiling cloud.

@ soundman no sorry I didn't explain myself correctly. It'd purely production because I am a completely computer based artist. I have no need to record instruments (and if I do I will do it elsewhere) because i make most of my sound with synths and samplers. @ gulfo. Wow! Thanks a lot for the design! A few questions. What are the angles showed here for the drywalls. If the dimensions of the room change (which they will because my original measurements are wrong) does this dramatically change those angles? The room is actually 4170mm long x 3530mm wide x 2610mm high. Also, i understand this question may be hard to answer, but from your experience, how much would the timber for the design cost? Again, thanks so much for you help!

The dividing wall is 15 deg and the front wall by the window is 7.5 deg. The back wall is 15 deg from the center and parallel on the other side. This creates a space with 7.5 degree angles all around. If you use 2x4 and 2x 5/8 drywall the design studio side and RC and 2x 5/8 drywall on your side, plus pink insulation all around in the walls and rigid insulation inside for treatments, your probably looking at 3-4K in materials.

your probably looking at 3-4K in materials.

Exactly, but his budget is only US$ 500, including treatment. - Stuart -

Soundman2020 wrote:

your probably looking at 3-4K in materials.

Exactly, but his budget is only US$ 500, including treatment. - Stuart -

Unfortunately it is :(. At least I know i can do this at a later stage. Thanks again everyone.

So scale back! Make the the dividing wall on the angle and use 1x drywall on the design studio side and 2x drywall on your side. then as you have more money do the rest...

If I made the dividing wall on the angle, what could I do to the acute angle it creates behind the desk? Make some sort of bass trap thing? And what about the desk side? I'm so lost when it comes to this stuff :(

if you have left over funds for another wall, do the wall in front, it not, then build up some absorbers and position the desk and speakers to get the best response.