Layout help for basement Rehearsal/Tracking room

Hello all- I am trying to decide on a layout for a live/rehearsal/drum tracking room in my basement. It has a concrete slab floor, and a concrete foundation wall which is approximately 7'6 tall and 8" thick. My control room is currently on an other floor, so I am not concerned about integrating it into this design. I have read quite a bit in the basement thread ie floating floors/ wall consrtuction etc. as well as a buch of other info. Maybe too much? Questions and/or concerns so far: I would assume that it is best to avoid parallel walls in this to-be tracking room. A lot of layouts in the forum have non-parallel walls, but I'm not sure if it just because of shared walls with the control room which affect the available space. Am I correct? Do you think that the baseboard radiators will provide enough heat in the airspace around the room which will be built inside of the existing walls to keep the tracking room warm? NH winters are freezing!! (so far the radiators have been great...) I'd like to utilize the right hand side of the drawing because there are no columns, but the laminated 2x10 beam seems like it may pose some problems. Any ideas? This isn't exactly the place for this question but... I am trying to isolate this room from the kitchen above. I plan on floating the floor/walls. Do you think I should go for 1 layer of drywall to absorb some bass in the room, leaving the airspace/insulation to do the isolation, or should I go with a multi layer design (which 've seen far more often here) and build traps for the room? Thanks for taking the time to read this post. This forum has already proving invaluable! (I'm making a donation anyway, he he) I have provided some snapshot links as well if they are helpful. http://homepage.mac.com/landseal/basement/basement1.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/landseal/basement/basementbeam.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/landseal/basement/basementbeam2.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/landseal/basement/basementfurn1.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/landseal/basement/basementfurn2.jpg

That laminated beam area is a bit strange. What's the steel ladder shape doing here? There appears to be a beam above your laminated beam running the other way i.e top to bottom on your plan. I think I'd get a structural engineer to look at it - it looks like a quick fix which could probably be done better, more efficiently and not so intrusive. With your 7' 6" ceing height to float a floor and treat the ceiling will give you a very low ceiling height in the end. I assume you are trying to gain isolation from upstairs. cheers john

I assume you are trying to gain isolation from upstairs.

Precisely. The cieling height was a concern from the start. Unfortunately it's all I have to work with. I was going to go with the 2x4 framing on its side to minimize the height of the floor. The ladder reinforcements are strange, eh? It almost seems that the secondary laminated beam (supported by the 2x10 beam) which runs the length of that room could be taken out and replaced with a more substantial/ more effective beam which would get rid of the 2x10. Do you think that I would be better off using the furnace side instead? What about the general tracking room layout? Avoid parallels? Thanks again John.

which side you use is really up to you but I'd definitely get an engineer to llok at the strange beam layout. cheers john

Okay- I've done quite a bit more research. I talked with a structural engineer freind, it's looking like I can tidy up that strange beam layout fairly easily (it's still pending his final thumbs up). As you'll see in the diagram there will have to be a load bearing wall built. I'll also add a LVL beam which spans the width of the room halfway between the topmost foundation wall and the load bearing wall (approximately 15' from top foundation wall). This should allow me to increase the floor to bottom of joist height to 92". If anyone has a chance, check out this layout and let me know what you think. I've averaged the larger room's dimensions to 88"x141"x166". Modes seem to look good- but I'm a novice at best (can you tell?!) Since there is already one leaf in place (the 8" foundation wall), I'm thinking 2x4 timber framed walls w/ insulation and 2 layers of drywall mounted on RC on the inside. If it makes more sense, I can do the inside out thing too. I'm planning to float the floor (and maybe walls). Cieling wise I'm thinking it makes sense to extend the cieling to cover the airspace straight out to the foundation wall. The existing joists are 2x10's which I'd stuff and sheath with 2 layers of drywall on RC. I may have to box out the proposed beam to get 88" cieling height; we'll see... Thanks a ton! This forum ROCKS!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am hoping to begin construction in the next few weeks. Thanks- Josh

Josh - now you 've got the load bearing sortted out I'd look at facing the control room to the right of your drawing and use the booth as you've drawn it. like this cheers john

Thanks John- I am planning the bigger room for tracking not for the control room. My control room is upstairs from this drawing. I do plan on fixing that too (or moving it down stairs so I don't have to use video) but currently acoustics and isolation for tracking are my biggest issues. Until I get those squared away, the control room is moot. So are the existing plans okay for tracking? I appreciate your time, Josh