John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all, long time since I've been around.

I recently saw a Youtube video of a new product called a TStud. It's an engineer lumber product that takes the place of 2x6 studs for framing. It's basically a truss system with foam insulation between the two pieces of lumber and is supposed to hold 2 or 3 times as much weight as a normal 2x6" stud wall when built on 24" centers. The company also claims better sound isolation and claims that they are as efficient as a normal stud wall with resilient channel on both sides.

Wondering if you guys can see any benefit or detriment to using these in either an exterior or interior framed walls for a studio construction. In my mind, I can definitely see some benefits to this especially when used for both the inner and outer leafs of the walls, and they might also provide some better structural support when dealing with vaulted ceilings and longer spans to allow for more open spaces.

Though, from what I've heard, the company is backed up with orders by several months. They are headquartered in Minnesota and their factory is in Iowa.

Thoughts?

https://www.tstud.com/

https://youtu.be/mxDSulcLpAE

interesting. there's a number of examples on building with it here: https://bpi.build/webres/File/building_ ... 0Guide.pdf

it seems to be pretty sensitive to cutting any of the dowels between (essentially the 2x5Q lumber pairs) so placement of plumbing etc is important. later work (presumably) would require figuring out the placement of the dowels if the walls are already covered...

They seem like the could be a good option for those who need to do a staggared stud build, with the top and bottom plates also being TStuds, and with the split between the two outer studs and the dowels between them would help to give more isolation.

They've only been on the market for about 4 or 5 years and are still hard to get outside of the central US. But maybe if someone is in the area and looking for a build they might be a good option.

yeah, the main concerns beside the potential for structural damage to the dowels is: they're hard connected. because of the dowels. and the insulation looks like the firm kind and not the soft kind
in general, i think in most case simply nipping the corners on the studs you can fit a 2x6 frame with a small overlap, and if it's not load bearing, a 2x4 w/ a 22.5° cut on a 2x3 base + 1" gap, will net you better isolation than a single wall - albeit the floor and ceiling connection will be the limiting factor due to structural transfer.

2x6 w/ 30° cut on 2x4 shown here.