Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

How thick should my walls be, should I float my floors (and if so, how), why is two leaf mass-air-mass design important, etc.

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roygoodale
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Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 11:00 pm
Location: Auburn, Maine

Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by roygoodale »

Hey All. So I've been lurking for a while, have posted a couple questions to keep planning moving along the way. but I'm ready to start a (somewhat) comprehensive thread for my studio/youth music center build in my barn in Auburn, Maine, US. and get some feedback and advice from you all. Here's what I have so far for Tusk Audio:

-Space is a 35x55' timber framed barn. I plan on using 1/3 of this for the recording studio. There are two rows of vertical 8x8 posts running down the length of the barn, leaving three "bays", which are roughly 11-12' x 55'. The right side will be divided into rooms for individual low-volume lessons (think acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle). Confident in doing this, and have already started. Minimal isolation needed, just going to do 2x4 walls, 2x6 ceilings, with insulation. This is no problem.

-This leaves a channel of about 11'x55' for the studio, however, the studio can spill out and be wider into the middle bay in between the posts, which are roughly 12' apart (in my floorpan, you can see that this happens on the live room, with a "cut out" for a post, and on the long side of the control room.

-The existing barn wall is post and beam, with supports, sheathing, clapboard siding. Very tall. I'm planning to ignore this, the barn will essentially be a rain shield for the studio, which will be a two leaf, MAM construction.

-Isolation: I've measured with an SPL meter as directed in many other posts and determined that I'm shooting for 50db of isolation.

Walls: If I'm using the TL calculator correctly, 2x4 wood studs with a single layer of 5/8 drywall and a 2" air gap gets me about 28db each, for a total of 56db. I'd like to do John's inside-out construction on the inside shell walls, so this would be from the inside to the outside: Timber slats (with acoustic treatment inside), wall studs, drywall, insulated air gap 2", then outer shell. Outer shell would have the drywall on the outside.

Then there's the floor: The bay of the barn that the studio will be built on does not currently have any flooring. It's open to the crawl space, which is roughly 5' tall. I don't think I want to get into pouring a slab down in the crawl space, I don't think this is cost effective, and the logistics aren't great (no way for concrete truck to get close enough, and that's a LOT of bags of quickrete. Ha). I would rather build a supported wood floor, and build the studio on top of it. Is there a way to do this that can maintain the TL of the wall system? I was thinking 2x8 floor joists, connect to the existing large beams on the foundation, with plywood on top, and then a 2x4 wood frame floor on top of that (sitting on neoprene pads) which is connect to the inner leaf, two layers of plywood and roxul between the joists? I think something like this was described in the "Construction" tab on the recording manual section of John Sayers, called "floating timber floor." Will this maintain the isolation that I'm achieving in the walls?

-HVAC: I haven't done my calculations yet, but I'm thinking mini split heat/AC, with a fresh air system. I do have room for a separate room, as described as the recommended method in Rod Gervais' book. I also have basically all the room I could ever want ABOVE the studio, since the barn is 35' tall. This will be a benefit when designing silencers and duct systems. But like I said, I haven't calculated anything yet. Any recommendations on simplifying this process would be appreciated.

Ceilings: 2x8 ceiling joists, with insulation and drywall, as shown in the construction tab. Maybe interwoven to save space? But I think this conflicts with plans for the inner shell to be "inside out" right? Can the walls be inside out and the ceiling standard design? I can't see a reason why not, but maybe I'm missing something. The ceilings are going to be 11' high. They can be as high as anyone recommends, but it's such a skinny space, that I figured 11' would be as high as I'd want to go, without feeling very strange in there.

The vocal booth was sort of added last minute when making this floorplan, I hadn't previously planned on it. It may not happen, due to the crazy high cost of building materials in Maine right now ($80 for a sheet of plywood, what in hell??).

I'm doing all the work myself, I'm well versed in carpentry, electrical, plumbing etc.

There it is, any advice??

Thanks in advance.

Roy Goodale
Auburn, Maine
gullfo
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Re: Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by gullfo »

so, what is the actual floor space you can use? i see 11'x55' then 13' (or so) on some walls, etc... i understand the "spillage" comment but you'd be better served by simply marking out the maximum space you have on the floor and ignore the columns for the moment - otherwise you run the risk of doing things because of some posts instead of what's best for the space...

since you have the overhead space, skip the interleave on the joists - it's much more complex and adds no value (it will likely cost more for labor in time or money).
Glenn
roygoodale
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Location: Auburn, Maine

Re: Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by roygoodale »

Right, the 11x55 is the space of the bay. In between the posts (which are spaced 12' apart), the rooms can be a little bit wider, but I don't want to go more than 13 or 14, because the middle bay will have other uses as well. Removing the posts is not on the table, unfortunately.
gullfo
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Re: Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by gullfo »

i don't think you'd need to move or remove the posts. which side of the strip would be the load-in/load-out and access doors etc? i'm guessing the side towards the main area of the barn. in the example below, i'd bury the posts in the inter-room space or where necessary carve into the room a bit.
Glenn
roygoodale
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Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 11:00 pm
Location: Auburn, Maine

Re: Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by roygoodale »

Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, that would work, however, there's only 12' between posts in any direction (you put three posts on your example, and there's actually 4 posts running the 55' length, with a the first 7 or 8 feet being unusable due to a little build in storage room.

So in your example below, this would limit the length of the CR and Live Room to 11' or so after taking wall thickness into account. So no matter how you cut it, one dimension is 11' or less.

I figured it would be better to have rooms that are longer than they are wide, which is why I sort of jogged the live room around one of the posts with a cut-out, and I based the dimensions of the CR from the Left Bank studio design in John's website. Same scale, just smaller.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on the floor? Does this plan of 2x8 joists, and then a 2x4 framed floor on neoprene pads for the inner shell sound like the next best alternative to a concrete or sand-filled floor?

Will post an HVAC plan when I get the time to sit down and make calculations.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Glenn! And yes, your diagram is the correct layout for the bays. Sorry my Sketchup skills are lacking.
gullfo
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Re: Studio/Youth Music Center in a barn in Maine, USA!

Post by gullfo »

maybe post a dimensionally accurate drawing and some photos...
Glenn
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