What to do with 1.5 Car detached garage door?

Hello everyone, this is a great site and I have been quite impressed with the amount of knowledge available. Thank you all! My situation I am looking at is converting a finished 1.5 car garage into a space to record and edit. The space is 13X23 and it is insulated and drywalled. The previous owner was repairing Harley Davidson's inside and I need the space for something quite different... My dilemma is to remove the garage door and put in French doors or seal the door and add drywall? The thing is I was envisioning being able to open the doors during the summer. There is no driveway that leads to the garage and it is in the middle of a nice backyard. We just moved in 4 days ago... I have been calling around the large French doors are quite pricey and hard co come by without doing anything custom. I have not found anything that is considerable as of now I could add studs and shrink the doorway after removing the garage? Just looking for any ideas you might have if you were to have this space. I am looking at staying here 5-10 years. I also am going for a Mini Split Heat/AC unit. I have my eye on this.. http://www.minisplitstore.com/Panasonic ... 12jkkw.htm If you have any thoughts about that let me know... The center of the space will have one dividing wall and a window/door. We are in WI so it gets max 10 below for maybe 4-5 days per year.. Attached are some pics.. What would you do with this space? Thank you!!!!!!!!

"We are in WI so it gets max 10 below for maybe 4-5 days per year." Great, if you can update your profile to include this information, it will be much appreciatted..

Done... Anyone? Ideas?

yes...hang on, we will get to you in the order of request :)

Sweet deal!!

"My dilemma is to remove the garage door and put in French doors or seal the door and add drywall? " Not much of a dilemma really. The real dilemma is how do you get in and out, answer that and you answer this question. Do you need isolation, that is a real dilemma, since this process is more elongated than a simple re-frame and install of a door versus massing up the garage door...which is never that easy to accomplish but can be done. Does that help?

I personally would be using the studio the most... Tracking 20% of the time becoming hopefully more though. I do alot of mixing/mastering and arranging. I guess I am thinking about sealing the garage door because it seems like 1/4 of the cost then ripping the door off and re-framing then adding a door. The cool thing would be to have the doors open in the summer. I am partially concerned about the garage door rattling. I wonder if they make silent garage doors? I will be doing vocals and voiceovers mainly in the garage door half of the space. I would like to record drums at times too... I dunno, today is the first time I really considered covering the door and drywalling instead of putting in French Doors... I cant find any that are big enough...

I would like to record drums at times too...

Well, that sort of answers the basic question here, but not really. The basic question is what Brien already asked: How much isolation do you need? Not in subjective terms of "Mostly vocals and sometimes drums", but rather in terms of actual, objective, real-world decibels. Get a sound level meter, and measure how loud you are. Then also measure how quiet you have to be, or check your local municipal noise regulations to find that answer. The difference between the two ("How loud" vs. "how quiet"), is the answer to how much isolation you need, in terms of decibels. Once you know THAT number, then the answer to "What do I do with the door" will also become apparent, and so will the basic plan for the entire studio. You can't do anything at all until you know that number. It defines the type of isolation that you will need, which in turn defines the building materials and techniques that are available to you to attain that level. So the real answer to your questions so far, depends on getting a sound level meter (they are not expensive) and doing some tests. But based on what I know of drums and municipal regulations, plus "I would like to record drums at times too... ", all of the above suggests that the garage door is history, and unless you have a very decent sized budget for lots of thick glass and complex construction, then the idea of French doors is also sliding downhill, real fast.... - Stuart -