Penthouse Isolation

Hello from Greece, wonderful forum. I own half of the top floor at an apartment complex. The building's load bearing frame is made entirely from reinforced concrete (slabs, beams, coloumns). And all the existing partitions are brick. Section of Exteriors Wall (the wall connected to the balcony): interior - brick 9cm-styrofoam 5cm-brick 9cm-stucco 2cm - exterior. Section "Side" Walls neighbouring with other buildings and rest of building : interior brick 9cm-1cm mortar-brick 9cm exterior, nearly half of the bricks aren't applied horizontally (their hollows link the interior/exterior). Roof section, roughly- 2cm wood sheathing - asfalt membrane- 5cm stryrofoam- ceramic shingles. All concrete beams and concrete load bearing walls are 25cm thick. The coloumns in the apartment are all 35x35 Section of my floor : My apratment - reinforced cement 15 cm, stucco 2cm, bottom apartment I want to be aple to play my piano or play my electric guitar without headphones (Fender Super Reverb 4X10 reissue ) anytime of the day. 1. Will I be able to practice with my band in the open space (as seen in skg file) or will the acoustics be terrible and sound insulation be too demanding? 2. Will I have to create a dedicated rehearsel room- if needed i will close opening to balcony Band noise :Acoustic drum set, bass (Fender Rumble 350), my guitar amp, PA: 2xRCF Art 312, 2xBehringer 1800 subs, 3x Peavey PV12M floor monitors I want to know what i will need to do to sound insulate my Apartment from the rest of the building before I start any other contsructions. This is a "DIY" project as much as I can, with help from friends, either on site or technical who are profesional (cement , gypsum, electrical, plumbing, window fitting, HVAC.) I can add up to 5 more cm of concrete on floor if this helps in some way. Partitions must be gypsum/wood, as I will be doing everything myself- I'm not good enough in masonry to make brick partitions. Cement blocks filled sand partitions are to much of a load. To cut back on expenses on acoustic material I will be only sound insulating "outside" the bathroom and bedroom. 3. What to do to with the floor (right now its bare cement- no overlay), my final overlay later on will be sanded OSB screwed down and then varnished. 4. How should I cover my walls. I was thinking of gypsum-metal frame with rockwool (Ecose ultracoustic P 45mm) on most parts (how many layers-thickness?), and in other parts variable thickness wood planks stacked- not for acoustics but for design (example on a wall in .skg) with rockwool behind. How far should i situate them from the existing brick walls? And how. (do i put anything underneath the guides of the stud frame? 5. How thick (cm) and compact (kg/m3) should the rockwool be. (I have around 30m2 of Ecose ultracoustic P 45mm on hand already) 5. Wooden or timber framing/studs? 6. Do I need to cover the coloumns too? 7. Will Double door Entrance help? I already have on site 2 doors made of solid wood. These are the only things coming to mind, as I know far to little on acoustics. The dimensions on the skg. file are 99% accurate, sorry if design has flaws ,if you open it, my first time using sketch up as I am used to other CAD programs. Their are different layers you can make in/visible. Thank you.

Present situation.

a look

Hi there " Spiridon", and welcome to the forum! :) Sorry about the delay in a response; I've been incredibly busy lately, and it looks like nobody else is responding to the forum right now... But wow! That's a really nice looking place that you have there for your studio! Spacious, and very solidly built.

The building's load bearing frame is made entirely from reinforced concrete (slabs, beams, coloumns). And all the existing partitions are brick.

Excellent!

nearly half of the bricks aren't applied horizontally (their hollows link the interior/exterior).

That might be a problem: Do you know if that was done for ventilation purposes?

I want to be aple to play my piano or play my electric guitar without headphones (Fender Super Reverb 4X10 reissue ) anytime of the day.

That should be achievable. But it would be good if you could get a sound level meter, and measure how loud your music is, and how loud the ambient level is, both inside and outside your studio.

1. Will I be able to practice with my band in the open space (as seen in skg file) or will the acoustics be terrible and sound insulation be too demanding?

What other instruments are in the band? If you have drums, for example, then that makes it a lot more complicated. You will probably need to build an isolation wall around you, inside the existing room, to do that.

Band noise :Acoustic drum set, bass (Fender Rumble 350), my guitar amp, PA: 2xRCF Art 312, 2xBehringer 1800 subs, 3x Peavey PV12M floor monitors

OK, so that answers my question above! :) You have drums. So yes, you probably do need to build something in there to isolate the sound properly.

Partitions must be gypsum/wood, as I will be doing everything myself- I'm not good enough in masonry to make brick partitions.

That's fine! You can get very good isolation from just simple wood framing with gypsum board ("drywall"): And you already have a good outer shell around you, so it should be possible to get good isolation like that.

3. What to do to with the floor (right now its bare cement- no overlay), my final overlay later on will be sanded OSB screwed down and then varnished.

Bare cement is just fine! You don't need to do anything to that. You will probably need to build a "drum riser", to keep the drum kit off the floor, but that is easy to do. - Stuart -

Thanks your response dude! So first step before doing anything- buy a sound level meter then survey myself, than the band. Found two at Radioshack one cost 50 bucks, the other 90 bucks. Is the 90 dollar one worth the extra cash? Swiss Walls: (holes in wall, cheese reference- no offense to the Swedish) No, these walls where not made for ventilation purposes but for load bearing purposes, (which was uneeded since the reinforced concrete frame serves that purpose, -civil engineer explained this to me). Usually at the construction phase the wall is in, it is "canaled" for electric and plumbing lines/facilities then stuccoed. But even if I chose to stucco these swiss walls they would act as a thermal bridge, so they will lead to bad thermoinsulation. From just guessing I beleive these will also work-if just stuccoed- as sound bridges aswell. Because of this, i plan to stucco the interior side of wall (cannot get permission from the neighbour for scafolding to get to the otherside), then add another drywall partition infront of the existing brick partition. <------Here is where i need to know what to watch out for to sound insulate. I will be using rock wool for both sound and thermal insulation. How far away from the existing wall should i start my framing, are there any sound proofing techniques I should apply on my framing. There will be at least 2 layers of 1.25cm thick gypsum sheathing.

Because of this, i plan to stucco the interior side of wall (cannot get permission from the neighbour for scafolding to get to the otherside), then add another drywall partition infront of the existing brick partition.

Right! That's what I would do: Make the stucco as thick as you can (within reason!), then once it is dry, paint it to ensure that the porous surface is sealed.

I will be using rock wool for both sound and thermal insulation. How far away from the existing wall should i start my framing, are there any sound proofing techniques I should apply on my framing. There will be at least 2 layers of 1.25cm thick gypsum sheathing.

The drywall (gypsum sheathing) is too thin. Use 16mm, instead of 12.5mm. Start the framing at least 3cm away from the stucco, and even more if you want better isolation. - Stuart -

Thanks Stuart! When I begin construction I'll post pix