Home studio above garage - Listening, practice, vocals

[gullfo]

you should check the spacing on the isolators as they probably only need to be on 4' centers.

[protechtor]

I saw that Rod had them listed at 4' centers on the example in his book, but he also had a 24" oc almost symetrical wall. His was designed such that the isolators we underneath the supporting wall studs, which is important to carry the point loads. My walls are designed off of 16" oc studs (chose this spacing because my existing outer walls are also 16" oc, and wanted to be consistent for staggering purposes), and clearly not symetrical. The ND isolators come in various configurations designed to carry different ranges of imposed loads to select from.

Again, I am a rookie going through this so may be off in my thinking, but this is how I read Rod's chapters on the subject. Is there a structural or acoustical reason for the 48" that you are thinking of?

I could arrange at every 3rd stud which would give me 48" spans. With the walls being floated, I assumed more connections is better than less (as long as they are rated properly for the loads).

[protechtor]

you should check the spacing on the isolators as they probably only need to be on 4' centers.

I checked on the lightest load with a 32" span. It is a little to light for the ND-B isolators. Their lower rated limit is 50 lbs. It would force me to move to the "A" type isolators, which are a different (smaller) depth. No good.

48" it is! Thanks for the heads up! Saved me some rework on design for walls I havent created yet...

[gullfo]

you should go with 24"oc in your new walls to improve the isolation. the 2x8 let-in top and bottom are what increase the load distribution - the floor spans and the ceiling joists.

[protechtor]

Makes sense on the 24" oc isolation preference for stud spacing.... less contacts = better isolation right? The pieces I don't understand which is confusing my stud spacing is whether the ND isolators should be placed centered under a vertical stud, and related to this, whether I should space the ND isolators evenly across the wall assembly if they don't have to be placed under a vertical stud. What do you think?

[gullfo]

the let-in will help distribute the weight across the vertical members within a given distance of the support but ideally put them under a vertical stud.