John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Greetings!
I'd describe my studio situation as "not ideal". It's in the basement of a house built in 1935 and I'm not sure if codes have changed but the ceiling is pretty low. 81" to the joists/89" to the floor above. At this point I've accepted that there isn't much I can do to help the situation acoustically but I would still like to get it to a point that's aesthetically pleasing. I've seen studios making ceilings and walls out of stretchable fabric. I figured this would be great for multiple reasons: 1) Covers the insulation. 2) My lady doesn't want a permanent ceiling installed since its an old house and the likelihood of a pipe bursting in the ceiling is definitely greater and 3) I'd be saving myself another 8" of height. Not much, but with such low ceilings, every inch counts right?! I've seen companies that manufacture and sell this type of fabric specifically designed for this purpose but without even knowing the price, I'm sure there's an alternative material that's close enough to get the job done for about 25% of the cost. Has anyone got this route before?

some options - instead of the fabric stretching frames, you could use curtain materials (acoustic porous and flame ret ard ent) with strips of lumber to hide the staples.

Good call. I was going to try to use as few staples as possible so they weren’t as noticeable but was worried about the material sagging over time. That still may happen but I’d imagine running the strips would add support and allow me to use more staples without them being an eyesore.

if you use curtain rods "top" and "bottom" (like on a door) on a bracket that let's you tension them, and something across the middle for "sag", you could create a flexible system that sits just below the joists. crisscrossed panels, seasonal changes , etc.