John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello. Back here again seeking knowledge and experience.
I have started building the control room extension to my home studio. At the stage ready to build the exterior walls now that the framing is done.
Was wondering if anyone here has experience with building with Expanded Poly Styrene concrete panels. Are they comparable in isolation and cost and ease to work with compared to the traditional rockwool and 2 x drywall method? Considering at making our own preformed panels using free packing EPS and general purpose cement. Wondering about the feasibility of this (time, energy, cost, strength, sound isolation) or should I stick with the tried and trusted method I learnt here and did for my original studio?!? Or is there something even better to consider, seeing that we are blessed with a blank canvas? Cheers.

Don't know the stuff? But less mass means less transmission loss. If the poly is between two layers of mass it will connect them rather than damp the air in the void. Poly and other plastic insulations are of no benefit acoustically while they may be brilliant thermally.

some of the decisions will be based on what your isolation requirements are. for the ultimate - start with steel reinforced concrete on a separate earth damps pad. the EPS can work but they come in various ranges, and you could use them for the exterior (as Dan noted - excellent thermal properties) and build an interior high mass wall to achieve combined isolation level.