looking for some advice on small warehouse studio
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 7:53 pm
Hi. First time poster here. Currently in the middle of building a small studio space inside a warehouse and looking for a little advice.
The space: 53'x33' warehouse with concrete floors. The ceilings are 14ft but there is a structural beam running the length of the place, right in the middle, hanging down 4 feet from the ceiling. The west side of the building faces a busy street that has a lot of truck traffic. See attached image - not exactly to scale, but close.
The second floor of the building is a rehearsal space with 2 rooms. One of the rooms (indicated as upstairs room 1 on the attached diagram) is used fairly frequently and the other (room 2) not as much.
As far as i understand, there is a concrete slab in between the 2 floors but no insulation.
what i have done so far: We have built the control room, which is roughly 12x14 with a 9' ceiling (i had to keep the ceiling low in order to get under the aforementioned beam). This is located at the west end of the space, right by the busy road. This was built with a staggered stud wall that is sitting directly on the concrete with a thin foam layer beneath the floor plate. There are 2 layers of 5/8" gypsum on the outer wall and i have only put one layer on the inner wall. I will add a second layer, likely with green glue.
The doors to the control room are solid core wood doors. Double doors leading in from the main space and a single door that leads to the door on the existing outer wall of the warehouse. That door leads to the exit to the street. Hopefully this makes sense! The doors are in place, but have yet to be sealed along the edges or bottoms, nor have they been beefed up in any way.
We have also built walls to create a garage area (which was necessary), which sits directly under upstairs room 1 and about 6 inches from the control room walls. There is one layer of 5/8 gypsum on the outside, but i have yet to insulate and add a layer of gypsum on the inside walls.
The mission now: Now I need to build the live room. Due to a number of factors, i only have one spot i can put the room. What i have to work with is 18'2" x 15'1 and after using a mode calculator i have decided i will likely go with 17'8" x 14'5" x 11.5" as my outer dimensions. Due to the jam room directly above, i think i should go with double walls with double 5/8 gypsum. So, I will end up with roughly 15x12.5x10 inside dimensions. The west wall will be right beside the garage wall (gypsum). The east wall will be right beside the other wall, which is currently plywood. The north wall will be beside a concrete wall. The south wall will have open space in front of it.
The noise from above: I have conducted a test. A punk band was playing in room 1 and it was 113db. At the same time, a guy was playing bass at about 95db in room 2. Downstairs, in my unfinished control room (with door open), it was roughly 62db and standing where the live room will be (directly under room 2), it was about 70db. I hear mostly bass, but also a little guitars and drums. So my plan is to build a double wall room to try and block out the sound of the jam room above. The sound coming out of my space is of no concern at any time.
Other noise concerns: None, really. The sound from the street is almost unnoticeable even with the unfinished garage walls and door. I don't notice any truck traffic rumbling the concrete slab and when standing in my control room in complete silence, i can barely hear any traffic.
My builder friend is ready to come this weekend to start working on framing and i have a couple specific questions that i can't find answers to.
1) How much of an air gap should i have between my two walls? I read some people have as little as an inch and some go with more. For obvious reasons, the smaller the gap the better for me.
2) How much of an air gap do i need between the outer walls of my room and the existing walls next to them (garage and future iso room)?
3) is it an issue that all the existing walls that i am building beside are of different materials?
4) is there anything else i should be concerned about?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help here. In a perfect world I would just have a professional design this thing, but for budget reasons, this has to be a DIY project.
The space: 53'x33' warehouse with concrete floors. The ceilings are 14ft but there is a structural beam running the length of the place, right in the middle, hanging down 4 feet from the ceiling. The west side of the building faces a busy street that has a lot of truck traffic. See attached image - not exactly to scale, but close.
The second floor of the building is a rehearsal space with 2 rooms. One of the rooms (indicated as upstairs room 1 on the attached diagram) is used fairly frequently and the other (room 2) not as much.
As far as i understand, there is a concrete slab in between the 2 floors but no insulation.
what i have done so far: We have built the control room, which is roughly 12x14 with a 9' ceiling (i had to keep the ceiling low in order to get under the aforementioned beam). This is located at the west end of the space, right by the busy road. This was built with a staggered stud wall that is sitting directly on the concrete with a thin foam layer beneath the floor plate. There are 2 layers of 5/8" gypsum on the outer wall and i have only put one layer on the inner wall. I will add a second layer, likely with green glue.
The doors to the control room are solid core wood doors. Double doors leading in from the main space and a single door that leads to the door on the existing outer wall of the warehouse. That door leads to the exit to the street. Hopefully this makes sense! The doors are in place, but have yet to be sealed along the edges or bottoms, nor have they been beefed up in any way.
We have also built walls to create a garage area (which was necessary), which sits directly under upstairs room 1 and about 6 inches from the control room walls. There is one layer of 5/8 gypsum on the outside, but i have yet to insulate and add a layer of gypsum on the inside walls.
The mission now: Now I need to build the live room. Due to a number of factors, i only have one spot i can put the room. What i have to work with is 18'2" x 15'1 and after using a mode calculator i have decided i will likely go with 17'8" x 14'5" x 11.5" as my outer dimensions. Due to the jam room directly above, i think i should go with double walls with double 5/8 gypsum. So, I will end up with roughly 15x12.5x10 inside dimensions. The west wall will be right beside the garage wall (gypsum). The east wall will be right beside the other wall, which is currently plywood. The north wall will be beside a concrete wall. The south wall will have open space in front of it.
The noise from above: I have conducted a test. A punk band was playing in room 1 and it was 113db. At the same time, a guy was playing bass at about 95db in room 2. Downstairs, in my unfinished control room (with door open), it was roughly 62db and standing where the live room will be (directly under room 2), it was about 70db. I hear mostly bass, but also a little guitars and drums. So my plan is to build a double wall room to try and block out the sound of the jam room above. The sound coming out of my space is of no concern at any time.
Other noise concerns: None, really. The sound from the street is almost unnoticeable even with the unfinished garage walls and door. I don't notice any truck traffic rumbling the concrete slab and when standing in my control room in complete silence, i can barely hear any traffic.
My builder friend is ready to come this weekend to start working on framing and i have a couple specific questions that i can't find answers to.
1) How much of an air gap should i have between my two walls? I read some people have as little as an inch and some go with more. For obvious reasons, the smaller the gap the better for me.
2) How much of an air gap do i need between the outer walls of my room and the existing walls next to them (garage and future iso room)?
3) is it an issue that all the existing walls that i am building beside are of different materials?
4) is there anything else i should be concerned about?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help here. In a perfect world I would just have a professional design this thing, but for budget reasons, this has to be a DIY project.