New Attached Garage Conversion - Drum Room / Recording

[garyhouk]

Hello Everyone,

So I've been going through these threads and everyone certainly has their own opinions. I wanted to describe what I'm about to do and see if there are any major red flags before my contractor gets started:

This will be used as a drum practice and teaching studio. I will also be setting up a keyboard workstation for recording small projects.

Construction:


- Remove existing drywall
- Fill walls cavities with rock wool safe and sound after caulking all open areas of course
- Garage door will be replaced with a new garage door and mounted to the opening with lag bolts, flush against the frame. All areas around it will be sealed.
- 4 new interior walls constructed, with an additional wall in front of the garage door so there will be 2 new walls built in front of the garage door.
- Fill new framed room within a room with rock wool
- 5/8" drywall layer
- Green Glue
- 2nd 5/8" drywall layer, staggered seams
- Frame for walls bolted to garage floor
- Subfloor frame built within the room
- Mini split HVAC Unit
- Sub panel for electric
- Cutting new door on exterior side of garage for entry way.
- Flooring will be LifeProof tiles with backing board

There will be a total of 4 doors to enter the garage, 2 for exterior entrance and 2 for the family room entrance. I'm definitely looking for any suggestions in regards to the doors. Are solid core doors from Home Depot/Lowes good enough if they are sealed around the perimeter?

My goal here is to be able to play drums late at night and *hopefully not disturb anyone in the house or neighbors.

PLEASE feel free to make any comments on the above. One thing I was wondering is should the air gap between the walls be filled with any sort of insulation, or is just the air gap sufficient?

This is my first post in this group, so thank you for any input you my have.

Best Regards,

Gary

[gullfo]

i didn't see any mention of the ceiling. if you're going to build a ceiling, you'll need to make sure the interior walls can support it. depending on the span, you make need large joists or steel i-beams. if you haven't discussed it with a structural engineer, you'll need to do that before you get started. or have your contractor do it.

if any of the doors are redundant - close them off and make them part of the M-A-M structure. you should use doubled doors (back to back) if you need more isolation from the house and outdoors, or build some "super doors". you'll want proper door closer mechanisms on the super doors since they'll be around 300lb each.

since it will be hyper-insulated, sealed, etc space, you need fresh air exchange. since it's a drum room - 50% of the air per hour x 10 (air changes per hour as if fully conditioning the room). e.g. if you have a 2000ft3 room, you'll need to move 10,000ft3 of fresh air in, and stale air out. this is about 170ft3 per min you'd want your ERV changing out the air. you'll need to make sure the mini-split can handle the heat (bodies, electronic equipment, outdoor temps, etc), the humidity (apparently drummers sweat), and air filtration effectively as well. (technically farts are poop molecules and toxic gasses). if not, go with a proper forced air system to get all the benefits. you'll need to attenuate the sound in/out from the ventilation ducting.

since the floor is likely attached to the residential structure, an isolating drum riser will go a long ways in reduce the transfer.

[garyhouk]

Hi Glenn,

Thank you so much for your reply. You're right, I neglected to mention the ceiling. Right now it is the main rafters with drywall attached. There is an opening for the attic. That opening will be sealed off once the electrician is done installing some recessed lighting. We were going to leave the layer of drywall up there that is there now, then add the green blue on a second layer that will go up. Also, prior to sealing it off, we would be lining the rafters with the rock wool as well.

There are no redundant doors. As of right now, a single door into the family room. We will be framing a new door on the outer wall so that students can come in and out and not have to come through the house. I'll need 1 exterior door and then 3 interior doors. Any suggestions as to where I could get doors that will help with the sound? Will a solid core door with good sealing on the edges be enough?

Ok, so you touched on something I had not planned on, which I should have - the fresh air exchange. The dimensions of the room will be roughly 19'l x 11'w x 9.5'h. The mini split we have selected will be more than enough https://www.shopyourway.com/mitsubishi- ... Kb0po2iP2o. However, I clearly need to plan on getting some sort of ERV unit. Do you have any threads you'd recommend for unit selection or how to keep it insulated so that sound doesn't escape?

Thanks so much,

Gary

[gullfo]

most ERV units are decent quality - so shop for volume of air needed. isolation of the unit should be via vibration mounts to decouple it from your framing. usually a small utility closet is a good idea and then use a "silencer" to eliminate noise transfer from the closet to the main room(s).

on the ceiling - by using the existing drywall and just adding mass - you're not decoupling the ceiling which will now become the maximum (meaning lowest) level of transmission loss for your studio. in essence - no reason to decouple the walls if you're not decoupling the ceiling.