Building from scratch, caissons and ridge beams

Hey all- Only beginning to toy with the idea of building from scratch, was looking at the (low) cost of metal buildings, and it dawned on me that since ideally each room has it's own foundation anyway, why have a full slab poured? Wondering if caissons and ridge beam type structures for each room, with essentially a deck for walkways between rooms, would be a cost effective method of room to room isolation? Like this: http://www.retrofittingcalifornia.com/w ... age021.jpg For each room, but with the wood framing insulated and OSB decking on the bottom for MAM. Also would it still make sense to put some sort of vibration damper on top of each caisson? Or maybe all that is barking up the wrong tree...thanks

What would you use for the floor in each room? - Stuart -

Well any standard flooring over the subfloor decking, pergo, hardwood, etc. Maybe add some sheet rock for mass between osb layers in the sub-floor. Is that what you mean? Basically it's just a house (per studio room) sitting on a pilling/caisson foundation instead of a slab/footing one. I got the idea because my buddy has a "man cave" in a oversized tough-shed, something like this: http://www.tcnj.edu/~hofmann/TheShed1.jpg essentially with an insulated floor (eg exterior decking under the joists, insulation in the cavities), and then standard framing on top of that, insulated with sheetrock on the inside, siding on the outside. It's only about 5ft from his (timber/siding) house and with a bass player and a drummer in the shed, the isolation to the house is quite good (windows closed obviously). If I didn't have the budget for concrete walls/ceiling anyway, why spend the extra on a slab floor? I'm probably re-inventing the wheel here. thanks-

Well any standard flooring over the subfloor decking, pergo, hardwood, etc. Maybe add some sheet rock for mass between osb layers in the sub-floor. ... essentially with an insulated floor (eg exterior decking under the joists, insulation in the cavities), and then standard framing on top of that, insulated with sheetrock on the inside, siding on the outside.

That's what I was thinking you might say, based on the photo link. I just answered another thread a few hours ago, where someone else was thinking along the same lines as you are, so I'll just post a link here to that thread (as I don't feel like re-typing it all! :) ) : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17739&start=21

If I didn't have the budget for concrete walls/ceiling anyway, why spend the extra on a slab floor?

Because it's about the best possible floor for a studio, from all points of view: isolation (unbeatable), acoustics (great), doesn't rattle, doesn't squeak, doesn't move, doesn't resonate, relatively inexpensive, tough, wears well, can be used as-is, or as the base layer for a more aesthetic finish (ceramic tiles, laminate flooring, linoleum, etc.), low maintenance, can have conduit embedded in it, etc, etc. It's hard to think of a better floor for a studio. - Stuart -

Thanks Stuart- Ok yeah so indeed I was reinventing the wheel.