Going underground

Hi everyone, A while I posted here a message saying I would start building my own studio from the ground up in my backyard. Well, while that statement is still very much true, some things have changed. The most important one that for several reasons I will probably go underground, literally...!! So, this means that I intent to dig a giant hole in the garden and build the studio in there. The idea is to preserve as much space in the garden as possible since the impact of a regular building was too big... Anyway, apart from the constructional issues, several studio-related questions pop up! 1. Isolation from/to the outside world is expected to be very good by itself thanks to the enormous amount of ground that will surround the studio. However, I was wondering about the transmission of vibrations from the railroad and highway about 2km away. Will that still be a problem? 2. I want to build two rooms: a control room and a recording area. I know the best configuration would be to build two separate rooms on floating floors within this cellar for best isolation. However, this seems like a very expensive and overdimensioned solution. What do you think about building only one room (control room) on a floating floor and using the rest of the space as recording area, without extra walls. (See attached drawing. Don't mind the dimensions, it's about the idea...) 3. In general, if you build a room (using bricks), is it necessary to have the wall of each room placed at non-square angles to avoid standing waves? Or is this taken care of by the inner constructions for acoustical treatment? I suppose the first situation is ideal, no? I ask because I have the feeling that you loose a bit of space that way (see bottom-left corner in drawing to illustrate this). ANyway, lot's of other questions live in my head, but I want to go step-by-step. So, I'll leave it at this for the moment. Many thanks for any reactions. Grtz, B-)

G'day from Oz, I hope this is some helpful advice. I began in 2004 with the excavation of some 250 cubic meters of sandstone under my house. (part of this was originally the garage to the house.) We ended up going nuts and excavating more than we needed so that we could add down the track. I live near a railway and a major freeway - so far there are no problems with low end rumbles coming through. After excavation I then laid a tonne of ag line (drainage) then a unreinforced slab (200 mm thick) then covered with waterproof sheeting - this was a leveling slab! We then laid one reinforced slab (again 200 mm thick) on top of this for the control room, machine room, office, and bathroom. Another reinforced slab was laid next to this also on the leveling slab for the control room. We kept the slabs around 4 inches away from sandstone walls and formed channels for any water to move. We also applied waterproof sheeting to the sandstone walls as a protective barrier, then the walls were also painted as they were laid with a waterproof adhesive, especially designed for Hebel. We had a gap between slabs of 100 mm (4 inches) For all walls I've used 150 mm Hebel (aerated concrete block) It's great! It's light and easy to cut and actually worked out to be really soundproof from the house above. I only needed to stick one layer of gyprock on any walls I wanted to have live. The others have just been a combination of panels. Hebel also make ceiling panels of 150mm thick - they weigh a fair bit so you may need some machinery for this. With windows. The windows to the out side I tripled up. One 6 mm laminated for the external of the house and 2 (10 and 12 mm laminated) for the sound that could transfer into the air cavity between the house and the studio ceiling. Seems like over kill but I play percussion and tend to think late at night! For flooring all the floors are just floating floors on the concrete slabs. Hebel makes an amazing difference. To save as many dollars as possible - do most of it yourself but hire a builder as an adviser. Also find a builder who has knowledge of studios and hebel. I'm sorry but I don't know what the name is for aerated concrete anywhere else on this planet. The Hebel is dead easy but you'll go through lots of saws. I hope this has helped. P

Hi Philip, Great info, indeed! Do you happen to have some pictures of the construction you want to share? Or is there already a thread with these? I would really love to see the process you went through. Seems very interesting to me. Many thanks. Grtz, B-)