Question about ventilation and electrical

Hi, I've been browsing this forum and several other sites for a few days now and have learned a lot and had some questions answered but still have a few more before I start building. I've tried looking for answers to these questions on the forum but haven't found anything talking about what I'm interested in trying.. probably because it isn't practical. I'm planning to build a small room in my garage that will measure 8'x8' for drumming in and am not sure how I should go about getting air and electrical in the room. Since I will only be in there to use the drums (no recording or anything) is it practical to just run an extension cord in somehow for lighting instead of having to hardwire in electrical? For ventilation is there a way to get air in/out cheaply without compromising the soundproofing? I don't need an actual A/C unit.. I can deal with it being hot or cold, but just something that will circulate the air as cheaply as possible. Also, if I were to build the room now without ventilation would it be possible to add it later when I can afford a better system or is it a terrible idea to build it without any ventilation? Thanks for any advice

Hi Brandon. Welcome! Three things: 1)

I'm planning to build a small room in my garage that will measure 8'x8'

Bad idea! Not the drum booth, but the dimensions! You should NEVER build a room where any two of the dimensions are the same. That will cause your modal response to be very poor. And seeing that most rooms are also 8 feet high, you would be building the absolute worst possible shape for a room, acoustically speaking: A perfect cube! You will have MAJOR modal problems at 70 Hz, 100 Hz, 140 Hz, 210Hz, 280 Hz. etc. depending on how you tune your drum kit, you are going to have a very "interesting" room like that! In other words, change your dimensions a bit. Make the room 9 x 7, or some such. But not 8 x 8, and certainly not if the ceiling is also 8'! 2)

Since I will only be in there to use the drums (no recording or anything) is it practical to just run an extension cord in somehow for lighting instead of having to hardwire in electrical?

That depends.... How much isolation do you need? What does your local building code say about powering a habitable space from an extension cord running through a partly open door? My guess is that it is not permitted, and apart from that you would end up with lousy isolation. In order to isolate well, the room MUST be sealed air-tight. 3)

For ventilation is there a way to get air in/out cheaply without compromising the soundproofing?

Like they say around here: You can have "cheap" you can have "simple" and you can have "soundproofing": pick any one of the above. They are mutually exclusive... :) Having said that, there are ways to ventilate your room, and yes you most certainly do need to do that: In order to isolate, your room basically needs to be wrapped in a very thick blanket and sealed inside a plastic bag (figuratively speaking). So yes, ventilation is a necessity, if you like breathing. And yes, there are ways of doing it without compromising isolation. There are dozens of examples on this forum of how to do it right: search for terms like "HVAC" and "silencer" and "ventilation" and you should find plenty to keep you busy. The basic idea is to build two ducts, one to bring in fresh air, the other to take out stale air. Each duct is isolated and decoupled correctly, and silencers are used to retain the room isolation.

Also, if I were to build the room now without ventilation would it be possible to add it later when I can afford a better system or is it a terrible idea to build it without any ventilation?

That depends on how long you can hold your breath without dying! That's about how long you can wait before adding a ventilation system... :) In other words, it really is a terrible idea to build an airtight room with no ventilation. Some folks think "I'll just open the door every few minutes".... Nope! That doesn't work either, in practice. You do need ventilation, especially in a small room. - Stuart -

Thank you for the very thorough and helpful answers. Over the past week of reading into this all I've lost count of how many times I've gone from encourage to discouraged.. I'm confident that I can build the basic structure but the wiring and ventilation is more than I think I'm capable of and I definitely can't afford to hire a professional to do it. I'm starting to think that building a room just isn't in the cards for me but I feel like I don't have much of a choice as everywhere I look says it's the only option for keeping the noise down. Thanks again for all the help.

It IS the only option for keeping the noise down! No doubt about that. But don't get discouraged: it certainly is doable. The basic concept is simple: seal up the outer shell of your existing garage, to make is as air-tight as possible, build a simple 2x4 stud frame inside the garage, so that it only touches the floor (does not touch any of the existing walls or the existing ceiling), and put some drywall on that frame. That's it! If you can pick up a hammer and saw and use them reasonably you, you can do it. Sure, there are more details that you need to be aware of in the design and the build, but that's the basic concept. It isn't hard. Your ventilation can be as easy as a hole in the wall of your new room that attaches directly to a silencer box (which is also easy to build), with a very quiet fan on one end. Not hard to do. Your electrical work can be as simple as a single socket attached to the wall somehow, with "putty packs" spread around it to maintain the seal. This doesn't have to be hard: It just has to be designed carefully, and built carefully. But pretty much anyone can do it. Post some photos and a rough diagram of what you have in mind, preferably in SketchUp format. That way, folks here on the forum can see what you have, and help you along the path of getting where you need to go. - Stuart -

Thanks for the encouraging. I found this mentioned in another thread but searched and couldn't find any talk of how well it works and since they don't give you any details about it on the actual website until you order, it's a bit mysterious. http://www.dawbox.com/acoustic%20produc ... lation.htm If you're familiar with this, is it practical for what I'm trying to do?

Probably not! If they won't tell you what it is or how it works until you send them money, then I'd be very skeptical! There are plenty of good designs right here on the forum, for FREE! :) Search the forum for "silencer", and take a look at the threads. Here are a couple viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1929&hilit=silencer&start=74 viewtopic.php?t=8425&start=2 viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11542&start=5 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9761&start=0 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11485&p=89855&hilit=silencer#p89855 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11508&p=96578&hilit=silencer#p96578 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13821&p=97928&hilit=+silencer+ducts+might+look+#p97928 - Stuart -

I read through the posts that you linked to and some others on the forum and the setup that seemed to simplest to me was the one from the HVAC - What to use? Is DIY an option? post. Would a setup like on the first page be okay for what I need? If so, I probably have about a dozen more questions to pester you with if you can find the time and patience.

That's the general idea, yes. - Stuart -