Listening Room Construction in an Apartment
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:41 pm
Hello everyone,
Thank you in advance for all help, and time taken in replying to all the posts in the forum! I've been spending days reading through them and the amount of information is mind boggling but can get confusing for a newbie like me.
Purpose and overview: I am trying to construct a listening room/music practice room. The aim is to create a room where I can have a quiet environment to listen to music and to play a piano at odd hours without disturbing the neighbours and family members if possible. (55db reduction?)
Location and additional details: I live in an apartment on the 10th floor in Singapore. Typical 20 storey flat, with concrete support pillars/beams (floor and ceiling are concrete) and internal/external rooms are constructed out of brick walls.
I guess the most obvious sound transmission path would be the floors above and below me (Standalone apartment unit, hence no neighbours to the left and right). The apartment has concrete ceilings and floors, with exterior walls in brick. I intend to chop an existing living room to build the listening room, hence I will need to build the 2 remaining walls (one of the walls is the exterior wall), with the dimensions of the room at 4.6m by 5.5m, ceiling height 2.6m.
Budget: I'm budgeting 15-18K USD for the project including all labour and materials. Sorry I wasn't clear earlier, this isn't exactly a DIY, more like i'm trying to save some money by using a contractor to do the construction but with me providing instructions and supervision. What i'm also considering doing is getting them to build the doors as suggested in the sticky links rather than buying a ready made acoustic door as that would already wipe out more than a quarter of the budget from the prices i'm being quoted.
Floorplan:
Boxes in red are existing brickwalls.
Boxes in green are proposed additional walls.
Flooring:
I gather from numerous posts that any form of floating floor would be pointless for various reasons in an apartment with load bearing issues, hence i'm going to just leave it as concrete and overlay with wood just for aesthetic reasons.
Ceiling:
Two 10mm gypsum boards glued together with 10cm airgap attached with springs, stuffed with rockwool.
Walls:
I intend to build the outer brick wall layer first and glue two 12mm gypsum boards together as the second inner layer with a 10cm airgap stuffed with rockwool. Here is where i get a little confused...
Method 1: In the first link, the inner wall sits on a vibration isolation board (Iso-Sill plate isolation) and does not have any connections to the brick wall. (like Beeros' walls)
Method 2: In the second link, the inner wall studs are attached to the wall, and the channels are decoupled from the studs via sound isolation clips.
frame rests on floor and does not touch brick wall
Studs attached to wall
1) Given the above, is method 1 or method 2 better?
2) I've been reading the FAQ on drywalls and just wanted to be sure I understood this post from the FAQ correctly:
"In all cases, ¼" spacers should be used under panels until fastened, then pull the spacers and caulk before repeating for the next layer. "
Info on wall construction
Can I please confirm that this means the frame should be decoupled from the floor via an iso-sill plate, and never touches the floor/ceiling directly? Is the iso-sill plate or the RSIC clip preferable instead? RSIC clip link
Method 2 seems to be a solution to solve the problem of decoupling the frame from the floor and looks easier to construct. The channels itself are decoupled from the brickwall via isolation clips too. Is this workable? (though it appears less preferable as there is contact with the brick wall)
In Beeros' build, he seems to be using this L shaped clip to lift the frame off the floor instead. Or am I looking at it wrongly and the frame is actually touching the floor and ceiling, and the L shaped clip is just to hold it upright in place? Scroll to middle for pic of Beeros' framing method
The drywall itself is then spaced 1/4" from the floor and ceiling, and then caulked. Is my understanding correct please?
3) Do you think the additional walls and ceiling is sufficient enough for the purposes of playing piano/listening to music at odd hours or will the flanking paths via the flooring defeat everything?
4) I checked prices for doors and they are crazily expensive. Is there any point in spending so much money on the door given this isn't exactly a room within a room (no decoupled floor)? Can I get away with buying just one expensive door, and buying a solid wood door and attempting to install seals myself for the second door. Is this a good idea, and if so, I assume the better door should be the one in the inner room instead?
OR are these acoustic doors a waste of money for my purposes, and I should just stick with solid doors and maybe add additional layers of MDF, add more hinges and buy a good seal?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Caleb
Thank you in advance for all help, and time taken in replying to all the posts in the forum! I've been spending days reading through them and the amount of information is mind boggling but can get confusing for a newbie like me.
Purpose and overview: I am trying to construct a listening room/music practice room. The aim is to create a room where I can have a quiet environment to listen to music and to play a piano at odd hours without disturbing the neighbours and family members if possible. (55db reduction?)
Location and additional details: I live in an apartment on the 10th floor in Singapore. Typical 20 storey flat, with concrete support pillars/beams (floor and ceiling are concrete) and internal/external rooms are constructed out of brick walls.
I guess the most obvious sound transmission path would be the floors above and below me (Standalone apartment unit, hence no neighbours to the left and right). The apartment has concrete ceilings and floors, with exterior walls in brick. I intend to chop an existing living room to build the listening room, hence I will need to build the 2 remaining walls (one of the walls is the exterior wall), with the dimensions of the room at 4.6m by 5.5m, ceiling height 2.6m.
Budget: I'm budgeting 15-18K USD for the project including all labour and materials. Sorry I wasn't clear earlier, this isn't exactly a DIY, more like i'm trying to save some money by using a contractor to do the construction but with me providing instructions and supervision. What i'm also considering doing is getting them to build the doors as suggested in the sticky links rather than buying a ready made acoustic door as that would already wipe out more than a quarter of the budget from the prices i'm being quoted.
Floorplan:
Boxes in red are existing brickwalls.
Boxes in green are proposed additional walls.
Flooring:
I gather from numerous posts that any form of floating floor would be pointless for various reasons in an apartment with load bearing issues, hence i'm going to just leave it as concrete and overlay with wood just for aesthetic reasons.
Ceiling:
Two 10mm gypsum boards glued together with 10cm airgap attached with springs, stuffed with rockwool.
Walls:
I intend to build the outer brick wall layer first and glue two 12mm gypsum boards together as the second inner layer with a 10cm airgap stuffed with rockwool. Here is where i get a little confused...
Method 1: In the first link, the inner wall sits on a vibration isolation board (Iso-Sill plate isolation) and does not have any connections to the brick wall. (like Beeros' walls)
Method 2: In the second link, the inner wall studs are attached to the wall, and the channels are decoupled from the studs via sound isolation clips.
frame rests on floor and does not touch brick wall
Studs attached to wall
1) Given the above, is method 1 or method 2 better?
2) I've been reading the FAQ on drywalls and just wanted to be sure I understood this post from the FAQ correctly:
"In all cases, ¼" spacers should be used under panels until fastened, then pull the spacers and caulk before repeating for the next layer. "
Info on wall construction
Can I please confirm that this means the frame should be decoupled from the floor via an iso-sill plate, and never touches the floor/ceiling directly? Is the iso-sill plate or the RSIC clip preferable instead? RSIC clip link
Method 2 seems to be a solution to solve the problem of decoupling the frame from the floor and looks easier to construct. The channels itself are decoupled from the brickwall via isolation clips too. Is this workable? (though it appears less preferable as there is contact with the brick wall)
In Beeros' build, he seems to be using this L shaped clip to lift the frame off the floor instead. Or am I looking at it wrongly and the frame is actually touching the floor and ceiling, and the L shaped clip is just to hold it upright in place? Scroll to middle for pic of Beeros' framing method
The drywall itself is then spaced 1/4" from the floor and ceiling, and then caulked. Is my understanding correct please?
3) Do you think the additional walls and ceiling is sufficient enough for the purposes of playing piano/listening to music at odd hours or will the flanking paths via the flooring defeat everything?
4) I checked prices for doors and they are crazily expensive. Is there any point in spending so much money on the door given this isn't exactly a room within a room (no decoupled floor)? Can I get away with buying just one expensive door, and buying a solid wood door and attempting to install seals myself for the second door. Is this a good idea, and if so, I assume the better door should be the one in the inner room instead?
OR are these acoustic doors a waste of money for my purposes, and I should just stick with solid doors and maybe add additional layers of MDF, add more hinges and buy a good seal?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Caleb
