new studio in warehouse, any design ideas

Well, thats the building standards warrant application submitted today, have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for a reply, then will probably have to add more info as required to get it granted. I am still reading Rod's book, and getting a better idea of what I neede to do constuction wise. Anybody know how to get services like electricty and audio into room through the false ceiling's that I will be making above each space. I was thinking 70mm PVC pipe down the middle of the studs. steve

sounds like the resizing bits you can do as you get the floor marked out. I only put in sliders as an idea - generally speaking smaller doors will be less of a problem. one thought - where will you put in the hvac system? overhead? probably easiest.

Yes, a friend has just installed one. he got a complete system for £1500, I could take the box up into the attic space and drop down to the ceiling of each room. Glenn, Ive been reading alot about the pros/cons of a floating floor. The warehouse has solid concrete floors, when I slam my foot down at the front entrance, it reverberates like hell. I hope that is coming from the walls and the floor will be causing too much flanking. In the rehearsal space bit there are channel scut into the concrete with metal grills on top and some are filled in. I was thinking of arrangeing the 2 rehearsal rooms around them for isolation purposes. They seem to be in the same places where the rooms are planned, with a little bit alteration. Do you think its worth the effort.

is the reverberation due to the hardness or because its flanking through the concrete? if its just due to the hardness of the walls, the treatments will correct that, if its flanking through the floor, then its potentially a much bigger issue. floating a floor could be less effective and cutting and fixing the floor might not be an option either.

What would be the best way to test if itd the concrete, hitting the floor with a mallot?

have someone tap around while you listen (ear on the ground - if its not too munged up :-) and see where you are getting the transfer. use rubber and metal. gentle with the metal...

Aye, I was gonna do that.cheers Glen At the same time Ill be doing some iso tests, ive got one of those cheapo SPL meters, Ill be having my mate play his extreemly loud ludwig kit, and take some "before" readings, I was gonna take 1 inside, 1 @ 1 mtere outside and 1 @ 25 mteres. Steve

I have the keys for the unit now and was out there today wacking the floor with a rubber mallet. good news there was no transmission at all. That means no floating floors needed at this time, apart from maybe the control room hopefully,but will try it with a metal hammer next time just to make sure. Still no word from building control (BC), will start chasing them next week. I was gonna start sorting out what outside windows I will use or block off. Ill use 1 window in the rehearsal entrance corridor, block off the rest. keep 1 window in live Room (middle section) and 1 or 2 in the big live room, blocking off the rest . For the big high windows, on the inside I was gonna frame 2x2 inside and overlap with 18mm MDF, add insulation inside and seal the edges. (not in that order) The outsides are already boarded up, I was gonna just leave it as is. apart from the ones needed. Some of the higer up smaller windows are aleady bricked up at the ouside, I can do the same, and the ones that aint, I can use for HVAC in and out.

sounds like good news and progress! sounds like you're ready to start your construction thread :-)

Whats the crack glenn, do i jump back and forth between forums with the appropiate type of question. Pleae could we go over the details of the design like actual dimensions of rooms, room heights, traps etc so ive got that in me head first. 1. Are rehearsal room heights @ 3m ok, as its the metal stud height. 2.. If im making what seems to be big boxes in the windows, could they be some sort of trapping designed into them i.e sink the MDF panel as far back as poss, add 6 - 8 inchs of side panel fixed to the windows inside, fill with insul. cloth cover diffus slats. or should I stick to stopping any noise escaping.

Went to BC yesterday and met the officer that will look at the drawings, he said they are taking stuff home to do (overtime) and will check my drawings this Friday and come back to me early next week. To speed things up, he is gonna call me and ill go in and go over any probs. and as soon as ive sorted these "issues" out. That will be it granted. Soon as its granted Ill jump to construction, as at the moment the design/layout might still change if BC say so. to my prevous question, shall Iblock off widows with conrete blocks or MDF panelswith insulation. any ideas Steve

didn't mean to give you the wrong impression, I know you have more work to do before construction thread begins but it doesn't mean you can't start posting photos and get everyone here all worked up... 8) plus construction questions are more likely to get viewed in the construction thread... meanwhile, get the isolation to the level you need then work the treatments: the 3m ceiling height in the rehearsal space should be fine but you probably need to add something to the existing interior ceilings to get the isolation you need between the rooms. once that's done consider hanging some clouds to kill off floor-ceiling echoes. if your ceilings are the least level of isolation, theres not a lot of sense overdoing the windows - so if the MDF approach behind inside-out walls will be the rough equivilent of the ceiling, with some additional drywall, then thats likely to be the right choice. the existing windows that are boarded should be sealed. and assuming they're the equiv of the other sealed windows you should be good. on the inside windows between rooms and any parts of doors you need to resize, I'd use block. for trapping, in the sketches some of it is designed to reduce flutter echoes, add diffusion, as well as provide broadband treatment. what the ranges need to be on them will depend on room modes and what the acoustics measurements tell you once you have the rooms constructed.

As they say over here, Im aff tae the construction site. Steve

hi, All the questions I have at the moment concern the left rehearsal room section. I need help commiting to this design. With the 3 rehearsal rooms, are there any modal problems with how ive splayed the walls. Ive added a window between rehearsal room 1 and 2 so in the future those rooms could become studio B with the rehearsal room in the middle becoming the comtrol room. The tan coloured walls are 70mm metal studs with 2 layers of 12.5mm plasterboard on the inside, with mesh holding up rockwool on the outer side. Is this type of wall design gonna give any isolation to the outside of the building. steve