I am a 50 year old drummer from Norway, with minimal experience or education in sound engineering or construction of a studio / rehearsal room. In addition to being a drummer, I do some drum teaching, and I restore old drum kits, something I come back to in connection with the building I want some advice on.
I have rented a building of approx. 160 sqm which will contain 3 "soundproof" rooms in addition to a hallway, an office, a workshop, a small toilet and a room for the ventilation system. 2 of the "soundproof" rooms will be used as rehearsal rooms for bands. The last room will be used by myself to play drums, teach drumming, the opportunity to record drums, as a showroom for drum kits I have restored, and the room will eventually also be able to be used as a control room / studio / liveroom.
The challenge I have is, among other things, that I have only been given a 5-year lease and therefore do not want to invest more than necessary in the premises, but at the same time it must be usable for my purpose and it must "look good". My budget is approx. 15,000 euros so some of the building materials must be bought used, possibly available for free (it is amazing how much is thrown away or given away for free). I do the job myself, but it's nice with good advice along the way
About the room:
- - It is a concrete building from about 1940 with 30 cm thick walls.
- The building has two floors, I rent the 2nd floor.
- The first floor is only used as a warehouse and no one lives or works there.
- The room is located by a marina approx. 150 mtr. from the nearest residential house.
- The building has old uninsulated windows that must be kept as they are (the facade is worthy of protection). Inside, of course, I will build room-in-room with new insulated windows (5 layers with different thickness and distance, these have been purchased).
- Floor dividers are in concrete, except for about 8 sqm which has beams in wood
- - The rooms are on the 2nd floor.
- There will be times when two of the rooms are used at the same time (rock / metal bands).
- One of the rooms has approx. 8 sqm beams towards the 1st floor. These beams must be at least 5x10 cm and will then build approx. 5 cm above the remaining concrete floor, while I would like the new floor to be the same height.
- The concrete floor has large unevenness with some elevations / plateau up to 5 cm height.
- - 1 x 50 mm Styrofoam (to correct unevenness in concrete)
- 1 x 12.5 mm gypsum
- 1 x 12 mm Silencio plate
- 1 x 22 mm chipboard
I will probably have other questions along the way when it comes to the structure on top of the floor, insulation, distance, ventilation, placement of windows etc. But in the first place it would have been nice if someone has input on how the floor should be built to Avoid transmitting too much sound through the floor from one room to another.
Many thanks in advance, and sorry if I have not been thorough enough in the explanation of the project, but I hope the pictures also give a good description in themselves.
Gunnar - Norway.