Sticky situation about floating floor!

Hi all! As many others I have been here to read all the good posts about studio design. Finally it's time for myself to post a topic about this. Tomorrow (tuesday) I'm about to view a possible room that I might get a contract on, IF I think it's suitable for my needs. I have started planning the design of the studio but as for now I am a bit confused. My confusion is about this room, it's on 2'nd floor at an industrybuilding, mostly surrounded by small offices but there is a "workshop" that fix cars on the entry level, just under "my" room :? The building is an old factory with very thick walls/floors/ceilings made of concrete. My first question was originally taken from another point of view where I would ask you what you thought about the design and that stuff, but now I'm more concerned about IF it's possible to rent this room and put in floating floor (which I know I have to do if this will work out right) even though its on the second floor?! My goal with this room was/is to build a decent mixingroom with the possibilities to record drums but mostly do vocals/guitars and that kind of overdub thing. But I do more mixing than tracking so the main thing is a good mixingroom. What do you experienced guys think about this...is it possible to do the floating floor in this case (probably impossible to answer that but...). Is it somehow, ways to do floating floor in a small range, but still functional? I was thinking if I could get a floating floor that doesnt weight too much but can take away, not all, but some reduction from the car workshop under my room?? The surrounded offices are not a problem, it is the one underneath my room that worries me. I've been there once before and I was surprised about the insulation within the building, the walls/floors/ceilings must be pretty thick though. I put up the floorplan that I got from the landlord, in case you want to see how it looks. The field marked with red lines is "my place". It is one big room and 2 smaller "offices". It is the bigger room that I'm about to build my studio in. You can also see the measures: Width 4.2 meter Length 8.7 meter Height 2.7 meter Maybe you have a smart solution how to solve my 2'nd biggest problem. I cant find a good way to have a pretty large controlroom and at the same time have an iso boot or a studioroom without passing through one room or another. If I make a corridor at one side it will be no room left for either a good controlroom or a studioroom. I'd rather not have the door in to the controlroom at the front of the room, but I cant find a way to it. Well well...maybe you can see where I'm going. I'm confused about floating floor on a second plan and I'm having some problem to get a good solution for my design (if I dont want a door at the front of my ctrlroom). Ok, that was it...no...just kidding :wink: You want to know about my budget for this of course. I have a lot of good contacts in the construction business to get good prices, so with that in mind, I can spend about 3000-3500$ depending on what you will come up with. I should also tell you that it is very hard to get rooms in the city where I live so if there is a solution of this problem I'd be very glad. The rent for the room is very very good so I hope this will be possible to solve in one way or another. Thanks a lot for this wonderful and helpful place for lost souls in the recording-studio-design-world :D Best! /Mike

Mike - I built a studio - guruland - over a car repair shop. Due to budget we didn't float the floor as it was a 6" concrete floor - no complaints so far. your main noise problem will be to the offices on the right - looks like the wall to the left is pretty solid? With 2.7 you have a limited ceiling height - what's above you?? for a layout check out the 3D studio and modify it to suit your sizes. http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5457 cheers john

Hi John and thank you for you fast reply! Well, maybe I dont have to worry about the car repair shop then...it didnt sound that very loud (as I thought) when I was there a week ago. The floor is far more thicker than 6" in this building, without really knowing I think it's about 15"-16" or something like that. But today I'll check it out when I get there. It's great to hear that you have been dealing with this issue (car repair shop under a room) though and that it wasn't that big problem. I'm in a better mood now :D Sorry, I forgot to mention what is above the room...3rd floor is a floor plan with offices, and right over "my studioroom" there is a lunchroom so it's probably nothing to worry about that much. But you never know what happens in the future of course but for now it seem to be alright. Yep, I know about the wall to the right, the left wall is as you say "pretty solid" indeed :wink: To the right it is a normal office that works daytime, to the left it is a storageroom where they keep a lot of books etc. So the main thing will be to build an isowall to the right, maybe a thinner wall to the left and finally check if its necessary to float the floor or deal with the ceiling somehow?! I've got SketchUp5 and InDesign so I will make some plans to post here so you can see what I'm talking about. Would be nice with some input on how to solve the layout, but later in the evening (it's lunchtime here in Sweden now *s*) I will post some plans. Now its time to have some lunch and after that pay a visit at the building to see "my" room again. Have a good day (or night) 8) Best! /Mike

A new direction is taken by todays visit at the factory building. I checked out the room but according to different circumstances I have been offered a NEW room in another part of the building. First I got "shocked", but after some thinking about it, it feels very good. Now it's on the entryfloor so I dont have to worry about any car repair shop etc. The only thing that I am worried about is that there is a rehearsal room next to my room so I think I have to do some kind of floating of the floor. The band are only there once a week so it wont be that much problem though. When this part of the building is an extension there is no one on top of my room either. Another studio (with floating floor) is on the other side of the corridor and at the right there are some small offices that has not been rented yet, so I dont know more about what will happen there in the future. I'll post the new floorplan, the redmark is "my" room(s). It's an old radiostudio with doublesided glass that I can use for my new plan, so I dont have to buy the expensive glass at least. I will tear the partitionwall down to get ONE big room, then I can build it just the way I want. Check it out and please leave suggestions on how to deal with these 3 windows at the wall (that is heading towards the carparking outside). I have the possibilities to build a wall in front of them if I'd like to, but a touch of daylight aint to bad if its possible :wink: Is there a smart way to get use of the windows or is it best to build a wall in front of them? The budget is still the same: 3000-3500$ Tomorrow I will start to design the studioplan, then you can see where I'm heading, more to go then... Best Regards! /Mike

So, here it is...after having problems about how to solve the layout I came up with this one. It's a compromise in some way but as far as I can see it should work out just fine (I hope). This is a first step design and if I decide to go with this one I will do another one more detailed where you can see the structure of the walls, floor, ceiling etc. I wanted to create a nice controlroom (not tooo small) and even get some space for the studioroom so I can put up a drumkit without problem. Take a look at it and please tell me what you think about it. If it sucks, dont be afraid to say so :D Things you cant see in this design are: * Floating floor for each "room", to get better isolation when recording drums etc * 35/40cm thick isowalls (double walls) * Ceiling height 2.40 m (15°-20° leaning in the front of the room) * Absorbation and diffusor treatment In this design I have come up with: - 1 Controlroom (13 sq meter) - 1 Studioroom (15.4 sq meter) - 1 Storageroom (that also can act as an isobooth when needed) (2.2 sq meter) Any suggestions would be nice...if things can be done in another way or so, another design etc. I'd be glad to hear what ya think about it. Best! /Mike

without having much experience my advice is the following: - your controlroom is to small ==> forget the ISO and just use that middle-wall. - if you are in needs for ISO, build or buy Gobotraps.. place them around the singer, guitaramp whatever.. 1. its a lot cheaper, 2. you can form the sound you want it thats my 0.02$

Hi George! Thanks for your input... I know that my controlroom is pretty small. I have used one of the "Golden proportions" 1 : 1,4 : 1,9 when I set the measures of the room, unfortunately I had to shorten the room about 15cm to get more space for the storageroom. The height is not enough to still use the "GP", eventually I can raise the roof a bit and thereby get the controlroom a little bit bigger. That means that I have to skip the storageroom, and that is not an option when I need somewhere to put "stuff". Maybe I can remodel the design and find another solution to it...hmm...let me think about that. I dont think its possible to skip the ISO-walls, as I wrote in the info above there are a lot of disturbing elements around in the building that cant be dealt with by using Gobotraps for exampel (Another Studio, Rehearsalroom, Offices). I am still going to have some Gobo's to use when recording vocals or such stuff to get that more "close" feeling to it. But first I have to get rid of that bassnoise that goes by the framework in the building and to do that I need to do some major isolationwork in the first place by floating the floor and build ISO-walls etc. This design is just an idea of how it can be done, but I will consider a larger controlroom...hmm...must figure out how to do it...maybe someone here have any ideas?? Best Regards! /Mike