Cork Oak on the walls of a Studio/Rehearsal room

[Coverdale]

Hello There everyone!

My guitar player is building a small studio/rehearsal room.

It's rectangular...it's sort of a basement...it has a garage on top of it... One of the walls has "ground" on the outside... because the terrain is not leveled.

Ground
-------------
|*******|
|*******|
|*******|D
--w----w--

D- Door / W - Window


Well...he's thinking of covering more of it with dirt...making it more of a basement....

On the inside, he's thinking of using pladour... for thermic insulation...and cork oak on the walls... is this a good choice? We've seen it in studios, i think...Here in Portugal it's quite cheap...we are the world's number 1 producer of it, i think...


One other thing, what should he do about ventilation? AC is $$$ out of the question....

How about the solution they present on the end of this page ?
http://www.soundservice.co.uk/Garage.htm

Oh...one final question...for now, he will use an aliminum door...It will be replaced in the future...but...what should he use to cover it? Wood? Cork Oak? Some other stuff?

Thanks a lot

João Antunes

Portugal

[knightfly]

I searched for information on pladour, and still have no idea what it is - for insulation to work at all for sound, it MUST be open-celled - some type of fiberglass or mineral wool is normally used. Closed-cell foams, for example, are worthless for sound control.

Cork has been used for floors (and looks quite beautiful when finished) but doesn't have a lot of absorbence for sound - just a bit more than gypsum drywall near as I can tell. You would likely need some other materials (such as the above-mentioned mineral wool or rigid fiberglass) for reflection control on part of the walls/ceiling.

Ventilation - That link shows the right concept for silencing a hole through a sound wall, but it is far too simplistic to work as shown. You would need longer paths and 3-4 more gentle turns (with duct liner board of some type) to give much sound attenuation.

Doors need to be massive in order to block sound - even then, using two doors separated by a small vestibule is much more effective. I didn't understand whether you meant to cover the aluminum door or the one it will be replaced with later, and whether you meant the covering to help inside acoustics or sound proofing -

If you can give any more info, I'll try again - sorry I didn't seem to help much, keep trying and I'm sure we can get there... Steve

[Coverdale]

Well... i'll try to take pictures of the room, and the surroundings...and also of the details...what is built already and what is not...maybe that way it's more understandable....ok?

The pladour is kind of a blue styrofoam, with different densitiy....
It was meant to insulate the wall that has ground on the outside... not for sonic insulation... Do you have any other suggestions for that?

And what about the ventilation, any more ideas, that don't envolve a lot of money?

The coverage of the door i was talking about refered to the aluminum door...what should he use?

I'm sorry if my post is not too clear...there are some technical terms i don't master in the english language...

The pics will probably be here by tomorrow or saturday, maybe that will help

Thanks for your helpful reply

João Antunes

Portugal

[knightfly]

If the Pladour is really styrofoam, it won't work for sound control in any way - styrofoam is a closed cell foam, and as such cannot absorb sound - it is only good for heat insulation. The way you can tell for sure is to try and blow through a piece of it - if you can't get air to pass through it at all, it won't work for sound, period.

Can you describe the aluminum door more completely? are its surfaces flat, or is the door sculpted in some way? What about the insides of the door - do you know if it's got a foam core inside the aluminum, or what?

Another problem with most standard doors is that their frames are usually set in place in the rough frame opening with shims, then molding is fastened over the gap around the door - this is OK for looks, but NOT OK for sound control. The least you would need to do is remove the molding and stuff any cracks with insulation material, then caulk thoroughly on both sides of the door and replace the molding. Weatherstripping around the door also helps seal the cracks.

For ventilation, I would need to know more about what kind of materials are available in your area - there are ways of doing a reasonably priced ventilation system, for example here is a link to one method - if you were not using an AC unit, you would just eliminate the outer wall and AC unit and just go with the ductwork and fan - you would need to find a quiet fan, but it should work fine... Steve

[Coverdale]

Hello There... as promised..here are the photos...

http://f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/joh ... yahoo.com/

If you want me to put them directly here, let me know...

Thanks...


João

[knightfly]

Here is the link I forgot to add to the previous post -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =4631#4631

If you want to post the pix directly, go ahead - you'll need to crop or downsize them, so they're not wider than about 750 pixels and no larger file size than 150 kb - any wider than 750 and they force people to scroll from side to side to read any text, a major pain -

Are those walls solid concrete? If so, nice bunker -

I still didn't see any pix of the door -

You might be able to use that barred window for ventilation/AC using the idea in the link above, but cutting a hole through those walls might be a challenge -

Here is one company that may be available in your area for insulation, the pic in the top center is the stuff you want, in density of 2-3 pounds per cubic foot, or 32-48 kg per cubic meter (which do you use, english or metric in Portugal?

You may need to contact some commercial or industrial suppliers for this, here in the US that's the type business we have to get it from -

http://www.knauffiberglass.com/index.cf ... tail&ID=12

Oh, no need to apologise for your English, it absolutely beats the crap out of my Portugese... Steve