Designing and Building a drum room

Hello, and thanks in advance for any help. I have been following this forum for a while, but have not posted until now. I have created the existing structure of my rooms in Sketchup. I need to build a completed room inside of my room. I have a train that is pretty close on the other side of my building, and there are commercial tenants on the floor below me. I figure, If I am going to build a new room inside, I should make sure it has all of the proper angles. That is where I am a little stuck. I also need to figure out what to do with the HVAC, but that can wait a bit. any advice is appreciated. Thanks! Ben

Here is a drawing to give you some idea of my layout. I had different acoustic walls in it originally, but they didn't look right. Also, I need to make my drum room / studio as large as I can, I mostly record metal bands that have huge kits. Thanks again! Ben

Hey, Please, if you have any questions, just ask. Budget.... $12,000 Concerns: 1. Train behind the building 2. Downstairs business I am looking for some help with the main studio (drum room) The big beam that goes through it adds some complications and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions. The blue room was one of my concepts, it fits inside the original room. Thanks! Ben

I'm no expert, but I can tell you it's going to take alot more than $12k to keep your downstairs neighbors from calling!

Yikes -- 2nd floor (or, for our European friends, first floor), trains nearby, metal bands with huge drum kits, and commercial tenant below you? Ben, I'm sorry to be a downer... But I agree wholeheartedly with Chris. You are facing a huge isolation challenge. Budgetwise and safetywise, you can't afford to guess and you can't afford to miss. Please review my "Mason Industries' FSN Floating Floor Concrete Slab Test Data" thread. Learn as much as you can about floating a concrete slab with a jack-up system like those described in the thread. I'm sorry to say that most of the Mason Industries links are no good because they must not take their Web site very seriously... :x ...but you can still learn quite a bit from the thread. Mind you, my "aha" out of the whole thing was that I personally chose not to float a floor -- but in your case, given the constraints you described, particularly the fact that you have people below you who need to not be disturbed (right?), you need to seriously look at this option -- and it's not easy and not cheap! :roll: Of course the first thing you'll need to do is research and post back with the details of your floor construction, and then certainly get a structural engineer to tell you how much weight your floor will safely hold. The only thing worse than disturbed downstairs tenants is flattened and deceased downstairs tenants! :!: cyeazel just got his engineering report for his 2nd floor commercial space project -- go to page 9 of his project thread -- and then read the whole enchilada to appreciate the overall context. Is this commercial space of yours already in your possession? Or do you still have an out? :roll:

Hey guys, Thank you for the reply. I appreciate your input. The neighbors downstairs are only there at night, it is a late night animal hospital. (Not very busy either) The construction is made with 2x4's and it is about 2 feet from there ceiling to my floor. (open space) I attached a picture of something similar I found on the internet. Would 2 feet (thick) of spray in foam help a little? I would also still float a floor and build a room inside of the room The train is not right outside my wall, it is on the other side of the building, and there are like 6 walls between us. All of which will be heavily insulated. Let's keep in mind, this is Metal music for the most part.. I'll get train schedules and only record drums during the day if worse comes to worse. After that, its not a problem to record everything else, the drums are my only concern. I'll check out those links you provided. Thanks again! Ben

We have begun construction on the drum room. Things have changed since my last post... Here we go.. pictures to follow. Just so you have an idea of scale, the original room that my new one is going in, is about 18x18ft.

So, we didnt have a lot of options... We ended up using the dense foam that I know is only good for Heat (it was free)... But, the idea was that we get our floor up off the ground with that, and go from there. We tested out a snare drum and went down stairs and you could barely hear it. This is before we have any walls! Here is a cross section picture. So, we have.. 2 layers of 2in foam, 1/2in sheetrock, and 2 layers of 5/8in sheetrock. On top of that is 3/4in tongue-n-groove plywood.

The drop ceiling is being ripped out..

Here you can see just the foam on the ground... You can also see where the CR will be, and the new door. We will rip out the old door and glass and build a proper window.. (76inx46in)

Framing out the ceiling.. We will build a soffit around the air duct.. and around the big I-beam. Should we use RC on these studs before attaching the sheetrock?

Ok, so you see where I am at. The new walls going in will be 8-12" from the original walls. Is it cool if I fill the void with pink insulation? If you look at my angled walls... are they ok? The angle is based on 1 inch for every 10in of length. Should I just base it on an actual degree instead? Does anyone have an example of how they ran the electric through the walls? I know not to put boxes in, but the wire has to go through the wall somehow. I figured I could start in one area, run down the wall, and come out in another.. Then surface mount or run the electrical box on a whip.. I also still need to figure out all of my surfaces once the construction is complete. Wood Flooring... and I'm not sure what I should do aesthetically and acoustically anywhere else. Also, I am aware I am in the design forum, but I am doing both design and construction at the same time here.. let me know if we should move the thread. Thanks! Ben