New Studio Construction

Hi my name is Andy I live in ny and am planning on constructing a recording studio in a 22 by 40 foot space and dividing it into two rooms,the studio and the control room. We will be recording rock bands in this studio so we are relatively loud and we are located in the suburbs so it is a quiet area. We have a garage back there with electricity. We are knocking down one of the walls to extend the garage to cover the forty feet and raising it up to 11 ft.we plan on making the outside shell of conrete blocks We arent planning on finishing the interior just yet,we just need the outer part of it.thats all we can afford for now. Our budget now is 7-8000 dollars and we are only paying for material,not labor cuz we have a family member in construction. I have a couple of questions before we begin anything, since we are making two rooms,the division between the two,should it be made of concrete with a hole in it for the control room window, or should we just make on large room out of the blocks and add the division later out of gypsum board and fiberglass and two inch spacing. We are using jeff coopers buidling a recording studio as a guide. Also we plan on putting a soundlock where the front door leads into a soundlocked room with two more doors one to control room on right and one to studio on left. What shoulod the soundlock room be made of? also what doors should we use,we know there are doors made specifically for soundproofing studios,where can we find those and are they the size of normal doors? that way we know how much space to leave in the concrete for the door. Finally what should the roof shell be made of if the walls are made of conrete blocks? If there is anything else I need to know about before buidling the shell,i would really appreciate you letting me know. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hope to hear from you soon.Bye.

eyewtkas21 wrote:

I have a couple of questions before we begin anything, since we are making two rooms,the division between the two,should it be made of concrete with a hole in it for the control room window, or should we just make on large room out of the blocks and add the division later out of gypsum board and fiberglass and two inch spacing. We are using jeff coopers buidling a recording studio as a guide. Also we plan on putting a soundlock where the front door leads into a soundlocked room with two more doors one to control room on right and one to studio on left. What shoulod the soundlock room be made of? also what doors should we use,we know there are doors made specifically for soundproofing studios,where can we find those and are they the size of normal doors? that way we know how much space to leave in the concrete for the door. Finally what should the roof shell be made of if the walls are made of conrete blocks? If there is anything else I need to know about before buidling the shell,i would really appreciate you letting me know. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hope to hear from you soon.Bye.

I would build all of the interior partitions out of wood frame construction. I would build the roof out of wood trusses and install drywall on the underside of the bottom chord. For the doors - I would decide which manufacturer I wanted to work with - and I would then obtain (from them) one of their frame for a pair of 3068 doors. If you do this - then you can use a door buck and mud in the frame while constructing the walls. As far as the walls go - besides grouting the cores of the blocks you have to for structural purposes - fill the remainder of the cores solid with sand before installing your running bond on the top of the walls. This helps to give excellent isolation. As far as additional suggestions go - determine up front any pentrations of this masonry wall before you build - and install sleeves for all of those penetrations - you don't want to do this after and let all the sand out. You will most probably want some outside lights - maybe an outlet or 2 (or 3 or 4) perhaps even a red light to let people know when you're recording. ALl of this is very similar to what I constructed to house Power Station New England - the "A" Room. Rod

Thank you for responding, Ill make sure to do everything you suggested but I was wondering if instead of filling the blocks with sand, If I could just use solid blocks with no holes. Would that work? also our current garage is made of concrete we are knocking down the wall in the middle and leaving the back and side wall but the front of the garage has brick on it, should we fill up the garage door space with concrete and leave the brick or should we tear the brick wall down and make it out of concrete also? thanx again for responding,this is helping me out a lot. take care.bye.

Also on more question, if I do isolated concrete slabs, does that mean I do not need to float the floors??

eyewtkas21 wrote:

Also on more question, if I do isolated concrete slabs, does that mean I do not need to float the floors??

If the slabs are also isolated from the foundation - then I would not consider floating slabs - as to the question of the brick - if changing it to concrete is an option - I would go for it. Rod

Hey I posted the following questions a long time ago,and was just wondering if someone could please respond,It would really help me out. I really want to use isolated slabs for the construction because it seems to be the best option,however is it possible to do that without having to tear down the back and right wall of the existing garage? would i have to remove the concrete inside the garage? and repour it seperate from the walls and concrete in front of garage? and would I need two isolated slabs,one for studio one for control room,or would I need others for the vocal room,isolation room,machine room and soundlock room? and how much space should be left between the slabs?