First of all, thanks for all the effort and time that has been put into this amazing knowledge base. After quite some time of reading it, I'm thinking whether what I have in mind is feasible or not.
Overview:
I would like to convert the storage room on the top floor of my building to a room where I can play music and maybe record/mix some demos. The main goal is noise reduction, I plan to do the acoustic treatment later on.
Instruments I play:
Acoustic/Electric guitar
Singing
Maybe I would like to get an e-drum kit
How loud I am:
I measured with a db meter app 1 meter away and it shows between 95/100 db-C when I'm playing acoustic guitar/singing, maybe this is not very accurate. (When I'm not playing the meter shows 40db-C).
How quiet I need to be:
Hopefully 45/50db but I know that this will be very difficult.
Budget:
I would preferably not spend more than 10k euro, just for the noise reduction.
The room:
It is located in the 4th (top) floor of an old Amsterdam house from 1912 (it's currently a storage room), so there are no neighbours above. Only neighbours below and to 2 of the sides.
It is roughly 4,40m x 2,2m x 2,2m height until the start of the ceiling wooden beams.
Floor layout a.png
Floor layout b.png
Usable space.png
The walls:
2 of the walls are brick walls.
The other 2 walls are made of a very thin layer of wood and don't have any kind of insulation at all. The only use is to divide the storage spaces.
The floor:
Joists floor construction with plywood sheets on top of it. My assumption is that between the plywood sheet and the drywall ceiling downstairs there is nothing in the middle. The flooring noise reduction is
my biggest concern being that the available height is very limited for this room.
The plan:
Remove the 2 wooden walls and build them again with metal studs, cover with dry wall just the outer, glass wool in the middle and leave the other side open.
Plan electricity and ventilation.
Build box in a box with metal studs, with glass wool and cover with dry wall only the inner side of the inner walls, install inner door, and inner window.
Fill in the space between the wooden beams in the ceiling with rock wool, and install a ceiling decoupled from the walls.
Build a decoupled floor (I still need to check what can be done here that doesn't use a lot of height). I think it would be okay if I end up with a total room height after box in a box of around 2m.
Something like this:
Home Studio Idea.png
So the question for you guys, does this sound like something feasible? Is it worth trying?
have you tested the isolation you currently have? including impact on the floor? even an e-drum or a tapping foot can cause issues with neighbors. that said, your description of the metal frame and drywall + insulation etc may be enough for most of it - and then perhaps build the inner floor on top of 50mm of semi-rigid insulation - 3x ~20mm plywood with overlapping seams. with enough absorption in the room you could reduce the potential acoustic energy in the room so the structural transfer is significantly reduced.
It's good to see that things should work more or less good for walls and ceiling with the solution I have in mind.
I have tested by playing guitar there and leaving the db meter outside of the room with the door closed, but the insulation is almost non existent. The 2 wooden walls that are there right now are super thin.
As for the impact of the floor, I don't know how to test it. The neighbour from downstairs passed away a few months ago so there is nobody there I can check with, but I know I should plan the room build in a way that prevents issues with future neighbours.
gullfo wrote:and then perhaps build the inner floor on top of 50mm of semi-rigid insulation - 3x ~20mm plywood with overlapping seams.
Just to confirm I understood this correctly, this means building a wooden frame on the floor, filling in the space with glass wool and then 3x20mm plywood on top of it right?
that approach will cause a drum resonant effect - better off directly layering the plywood/MDF on the insulation. the insulation will compress and the staggered seams/overlaps of the sheets will help even it mostly out. to do it better would involve something like the Kinetics Noise RIM product with uses isolator blocks (sized and spaced) along with the insulation to get the right level of spring and stability.