Single Room Studio in part of Detached garage -San Diego, CA

[2k4s]

Thank you everyone for contributing to this forum. Fantastic resource. I have been reading through it for the past couple of weeks and I think i have come to the point where I’m about to decide what to construct and start making a materials list. Hopefully will make a build thread

I am moving into a new home next week which is new construction in San Diego,CA. Not sure if it is relevant (for humidity/salt) but it is 1/2 mile from the beach. I will get keys to the property next Tuesday but I have already been let in by the realtor to measure and take photos etc. I Haven’t been able to take and SPL measurements yet. I am wanting to build right away but I’m not going to do anything until I get some feedback from people like yourselves with more experience.Please help me so that I don’t waste time and money.

USE and NEIGHBORS
The house has a 24’x24’ fully detached garage which i have decided to split up and use partly for a one-room composing and post-production studio with occasional recording of guitar and vocals but mostly electronic music and sound design. the rest of the garage will be storage and tools etc. and i’ll probably keep my computer on that side of the wall so i’ll need to make a cable pass-through. I will record and mix in the room but maybe i’ll record something outside in the storage space when needed, not too likely though. I may get loud with the guitar amp once in a while but i am more concerned with keeping the outside noise from coming in. Loudest guitar amp is a Super Reverb with 4x10 speakers. I mix on Mackie HR24 monitors with 8” speakers and no sub (for now). I don’t intend to go close to 90dB very often and the outside noise is fairly minimal. Residential road 25’ from garage door. few large trucks. mostly cars birds and foot traffic except for a train that passes by a few times a day about 300’ away which i’m sure very little can be done about. I have 3 neighbors whose homes are within 60’ of the garage and i certainly wouldn’t want to disturb them but i’m not doing drums or a band etc. In other words, i don’t need 60dB of reduction. would be nice but i know i’m not going to get it on my budget. I would be happy with as much reduction as I can get within my budget though without it being a complete waste of time.

BUDGET
I have a budget of $2500 to $3000 and after researching it seems to be pretty low for a project like this so i’m looking to save money anywhere I can.

DIMENSIONS and CONSTRUCTION of EXISTING BUILDING
the inside dimensions of the garage are 23’x23’ inside with a pitched roof 8’ on each side to 12’ in the middle, built on a concrete slab on grade. it has a 16’x7’ non-insulated sectional garage door. The construction is 2x4 16” oc walls with 3/8" OSB t1-11 siding and 2x6 roof 24” oc with OSB and asphalt shingle roof. No insulation or drywall. It has a required fire sprinkler system which seems like it might present some difficulty but my father is a plumber and says he can make adjustments to it if allowed.

MY PLAN
I have decided to build a room inside a room and dedicate a little less than half of the garage to the control room and the rest for a workshop and storage which may double as an occasional recording space and certainly as an air exchange space. I will handle ventilation with a quiet exhaust fan connected with flex and or a baffle, to a register near the top of the south wall and a baffled passive inlet near the bottom of the south or east wall. still working out the details of that.


EDIT: after reading a reply from Stuart regarding the room-within-a-room construction I realize that I need to build another separate stud wall on the east and south sides of the proposed control room to attach to the outer shell and form the outer leaf of the control room. two separate 2x4 stud walls there, the outer attaching to the shell on the north and west sides and to the ceiling of the shell.

room dimensions 11x17x8

The rest of the garage will get R13 and single 5/8 drywall and the garage door, window and side entrance tot he garage will get appropriate treatment that I haven’t worked out yet.

this thread has been informative
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =2&t=11485
I can’t spend over a year and it won’t be as elaborate but it’s interesting to watch the process unfold in a similar space.

QUESTIONS
There were a few questions that arose while planning and i’m sure there is much more that I haven’t foreseen yet:

Do i need to beef up the outer leaf on the walls that are paired with he studio with drywall/backer rod/caulk before I put the insulation?

There are two roof vents. One is over the area where the proposed studio will go. how can I deal with that? I’ve read a couple of build threads and it seems like sealing it up is a bad idea.

R13 faced or unfaced? does it matter. Is Roxul a better choice in some places than R13? Is R13 even what I should be using at all? just that Roxul seems to be almost twice as expensive.

Can I just shoot the plates into the concrete or do I have to drill and bolt?

I’ve seen a lot of ways to insulate and mass-up and seal the garage door. But it’s hard to tell which are the best practices? I would like it to still be functional if possible. sealing seems like the most important part?

[Soundman2020]

and i’ll probably keep my computer on that side of the wall so i’ll need to make a cable pass-through.

...

Conduit-isolation-2.png

That-s how to do it. Large diameter electrical conduit, gentle bends, gap in the middle, wrapped with rubber.

EDIT: after reading a reply from Stuart regarding the room-within-a-room construction I realize that I need to build another separate stud wall on the east and south sides of the proposed control room to attach to the outer shell and form the outer leaf of the control room. two separate 2x4 stud walls there, the outer attaching to the shell on the north and west sides and to the ceiling of the shell.

Do i need to beef up the outer leaf on the walls that are paired with he studio with drywall/backer rod/caulk before I put the insulation?

Probably, but it depends on how much isolation you need. You will definitely need to seal it, and probably also need to beef it up.

There are two roof vents. One is over the area where the proposed studio will go. how can I deal with that? I’ve read a couple of build threads and it seems like sealing it up is a bad idea.

Right! You cannot seal up roof vents. Bad idea. If you have a vented roof space ("attic space") then you pretty much have no choice: you'll probably need to do a 3-leaf ceiling. The roof will be your outer-leaf, then you'll put drywall on the joists to seal of the roof space from your studio space, then you'll build your studio under that, room-in-a-room, with it's own ceiling.

R13 faced or unfaced? does it matter.

Not really. There might be a very slight advantage to faced, but not much.

Is Roxul a better choice in some places than R13? Is R13 even what I should be using at all? just that Roxul seems to be almost twice as expensive.

The R rating is irrelevant. There's no relationship at all between thermal rating of insulation and the acoustic properties. What you REALLY need to know is somthing called "Gas Flow Resistivity" (GFR), which is basically a measure of the acoustic impedance. It's measured on the wonderfully obscure units of MKS rayls... However, most manufacturers never bother measuring that, since it doesn't mean much for thermal ratings, and that's their primary market. Fortunately, there's a rough relationship between GFR and the density of the insulation, for each specific type. So if you are using mineral woo insulation, you need stuff that has a density of around 50 kg/m3, but if you are using fiberglass insulation then it needs to be around 30 kg/m3.

Can I just shoot the plates into the concrete or do I have to drill and bolt?

Personally I prefer to drill and bolt, but that's mostly due to where I live: Earthquake Central! But check your local building code to be certain.

I’ve seen a lot of ways to insulate and mass-up and seal the garage door. But it’s hard to tell which are the best practices? I would like it to still be functional if possible.

Those are two opposite and conflicting requirements! If you want it to be sealed up for good isolation, then it can't be operable. If you want it operable, then it can't be sealed up and you won't get good isolation. Sorry!

Here's what I normally do for that situation:

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-01.png

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-02.png

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-03.png

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-04.png

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-05.png

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-06.png

Of course, you do need to lock down the door before you pull out the hardware! This is one way of doing that:

PKNCUS-Garage-Door-Isolation-Plan-10.png

- Stuart -