John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I’m going to look at some wooden laminate flooring tomorrow (nothing too expensive, just the click-it stuff) for my ‘all-in-one’ control room/drum recording room.

Is there anything that needs to be done differently when installing wooden floor for musical purposes, than if it was for a living room/bedroom? I’m thinking perhaps about underlay, etc (I am a beginner and know nothing about this).

The bare floor is just concrete ATM.

Cheers,

Tom

Do a quick browse on hardwood floors here. There's some great info about this.

From what I have been told, be sure to put the padding under the floor. It's a special padding designed for laminate hardwoods like Pergo, etc. There's 2 different types the Home Depot carries. Their price was abot $30 for 50 SF. I think it was green in color. It has a little more sound dampening from what I was told.

Is the concrete floor in a basement or above ground? If it's a basement, be sure to check and make sure you have no moisture problems.

1. So, the laminate floor underlay that is sold in my local DIY shop for everyday home use will suffice for a small studio room, right?

Nothing needs to be done differently for recording/control rooms?

2. Also, I don't have any neighbours so sound pollution outside isn't a problem. Do I understand correctly then that there is no need to float the floor, or does this technique affect internal balance of frequencies as well?

Note - It's a ground-floor room (nothing above it) - concrete floor is roughly 12 inches thick and has no moisture problems.
It's an 11x16 foot room - used as both a 'control room' and drum practicing/recording room.
It's not at all been acoustically treated - that's the next step!

Appreciate any help.
Cheers.

Tom.

1 - correct -

2 - You may find that you have too much boominess with drums directly on the floor, in which case you can either buy a prefab "floating drum riser", or build one - it would sit on your floor with EPDM or neoprene pads and be insulated between frame members (kills resonances) - the good news is, you can try without the riser and put it in later if you want better acoustics/recording quality from your kit... Steve