Single Garage Studio Design - This one is a Challenge!

Hi there! I am building a studio in a single garage of block wall construction at the rear of the block of units where I am renting. I am building two free standing 2.4m square free standing stud framed rooms with about 100mm air space around them - please see attached floorplan and images of tiny space, but i have changed the dimensions to two 2.4m x 2.4m x 2.4m rooms rather than the 2.4m x 2.2m control room and 2.4m x 2.5m recording room as shown. N.B There is a minor error on the drawing the internal dimensions are 2400mm, the indicated area on the dimension at the left is wrong. This obviously makes construction easier, with MDF sheets being 2400mm x 1200mm as standard. The construction materials used will be 16mm MDF sheets for walls and ceilings, and 20mm yellow tongue waterproof flooring sitting on treated pine 45mm x 70mm directly on the cement slab floor. The insulation used will be Boral Rockwool Batts in the walls, with the walls between the control room and recording room being MDF clad on both sides, whilst the remaining walls will only be single sided. All will free stand and be tech screwed rather than nailed so i can remove it in 12-24 months when I move (and recycle when i get a warehouse space)! The ceiling will also be double sided, with Rockwool Batts as per the walls. This is because the garage only has a flat tin roof. I will only be tracking drums etc during the day whilst neigbours are at work! To explain the attached drawing the red areas are the air gaps, the light blue is glass (1m x 1m), the light grey is the existing besser block walls, the dark grey is the 70mm x 45mm pine stud frame (was going to be 100mm x 45mm). The orange and gold areas are floor to ceiling sheets to break up the regular shape. I haven't worked out resonators as yet. The black areas are 800mm x 2000mm doors made from 16mm MDF filled with rockwool on the same 45mm x 70mm staud frame. This makes for very dense doors. I will also have 10mm this rubber stripping that is 200mm wide all the way around the edges. As you can see it is a very tight squeeze for a three piece band, with all gear and people drawn to scale. The red dotted line is the 450mm square area the roller door takes up, which will be mirrored on the opposing side of the control room. The front wall of the studio will also be clad on both sides, but monitoring levels are fairly low, being Soundcraft Absolute Zero Reds and an Alesis RA-100. In the control room the desk is a Tascam DM-24 and the two effects racks are 14 units high under the table. The shelf with the monitors (including 17" LCD computer monitor) should be drawn across the desk, my apologies for the mistake. The racks contain an Akai DR-16, Digi002, and a variety of Lexicon, dbx, Furman, Peach Audio, Digitech and Aphex outboard gear. Not drawn on the floor between the racks will be a small soundproof cupboard for the SCSI drives for the DR-16 and computer mini tower. Acoustic treatment will be acoustic foam in 300mm square panels in various quanities on the walls, and carpeting is carpet squares, so i can remove them and brighten the recording room up when applicable. I am also thinking about carpeting the MDF 1m high around the walls in the recording area. The gold things on black feet are movable MDF baffles filled with Rockwool and grooved to 10mm with a router to break up the refelctive surface. Finally ventilation will be using standard treated paper/wire ducting to two inlets in each of the ceilings in the rooms. I have been thinking about using two standard exhaust fans (quiet ones!) mounted in a baffled box behind the fascia of the garage above the roller door - one pushing and one pulling to feed this ducting. The garage tin roof actually slopes to the back and gaves another 400mm at the front of the garage. (see images) The total cost for this is about $1500AUD in materials, being around 200m of 45mm x 70mm pine, 24 sheets 2400mm x 1200mm x 16mm MDF, 4 sheets 2400mm x 1200mm yellow tongue flooring, 60 square metres of Boral Rockwool Batts. The garage has a single 10 amp power point with a light on the same circuit. I will get an elecrician mate to run flex to two power points in each of the rooms and get it signed of so it's legal. I will have a large UPS for the control room that is used more for rectification and filtration than a backup power facility. Any advice from anyone with any knowledge would be most appreciated. What a fabulous resource this web site is! :shock: :D AndyT

I'm confused with your measurements - by adding up the right side I get 2.770m so I worked with that. You seem to be dividing it up equally because of sheet sizes - and one room for the band and one for control room. If you use sliding doors like I've drawn you can open it all up into one roomfor rehearsals :) I'd definitely use the "inside/out" design for this small space. Check out Left Bank on my main page - it's build inside out. (i.e the drywall is on the outside leaving the depth of the stud for internal acoustic treatment. cheers john

Hi John Thank you so much for your interest. Your design does seem a better way to go for utilizing the very small amount of space available and your measurement of 2.77m is spot on! The only queries I have are - will I still be able to build this for the same $1500 price tag? I would have thought that glass sliding doors are very expensive! Also having the MDF on the outside makes sense, with the Rockwool Batts in the 70mm depth of the stud wall. What would I dress the internal walls with to make it look presentable? Would masonite be an option - is very cheap! I am also assuming that the brown areas on your drawing are the resonators? Ta Muchly AndyT

The first thing to do is to paint the besser blocks - you can gain dbs of isolation doing that as it seals them. Then make your air gap small - like 2" and use dacron or pink batts in the cavity - then use the more expensive rockwool inside the room. For the sliders - hunt around for some second hand ones. The room won't feel so small if you have that visual aspect. cheers john

Hi John Thanks again for your time. I am getting things done in SketchUp. My first 3 hour attempt is attached. I had to convert everything to Imperial - can't work out how to change to metric in any preferences. Very cool program though! I think the dimensions are pretty close but I have to insert the rollerdoor. Thunderstorm now must get offline before laptop gets melted! AndyT

link is http://www.sydneyaudio.com/studiov2.skp

Go to the "model Info display" icon - next to the print icon - and select units at the bottom - you can change over to metric there. cheers john