John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all,what a great site this is Thanks John and others for all your work setting it up.
We are building a new room and need advice on soundproofing. As I am shure that this topic has been well and truly covered in the past please direct me to the info if available. The band is a three piece playing loud original rock of the "traditional" type. We are based in an area where timber and space is plentyfull and propose to build the basic frame of the freestanding shed from 10"x10" posts. this leaves a lot of space between the inner and outer skin for soundproofing which must be of a high standard as the drummer, on whose property the room will stand, wants to use it for practice most days and he is LOUD and has neigbours. The current thinking is to fill the space with sawdust. Any suggestions
Thanks

We are all willing to help, but your question is incredibly vague. Start by reading the sectoions in the "Reference Area - Useful Threads" (second from the top in this forum).

Sawdust is not good.

Andre

My exact sentiments. Not only that, but framing with 10x10 post and beam is an extremely difficult and expensive undertaking. Imagine a simple connection to the slab or pier, not to mention at the corners. Every project I've ever seen of this nature required engineered steel connection brackets that are expensive and difficult to install. And since you could have extremely long spans between posts(depending on beam size), what is going on BETWEEN them on exterior walls? What sort of sheithing or panels would you use? Also not to mention the difficult task of erection. A 10' beam of 10x10 material would take a forklift or crane. These are the sort of things I wonder about, at least for a home studio/rehearsal room.
Sounds incredibly expensive to me. Not only that, but where I live, this whole frame would have to be engineered before submittal to the permitting authorities. That in itself can be very expensive. Seems to me, that this sort of frameing does nothing for soundproofing either as you still have to create a boundary enclosure with some sort of material with mass, and given the fact that you still need an airgap between leafs, this only provides a deeper void for insulation. It can support a heavier point load, but the foundation has to meet this load too, including the posts weight.
Andre is right. You need to provide more information before anyone can seriously help you. I also would suggest reading the stickys here, as no one is going to design this structure for you to isolate sound. We can offer insight and suggestions, but you need to provide a general design plan and material types available. Forget the sawdust. That does nothing, except maybe thermally insulate, but then how would you hold it in, as the best iso construction calls for 2 leaves of mass seperated by an sealed airgap, with no connection between the two leaves. This means there can be nothing within the airgap to keep the sawdust in place. Not to mention fire, I think the authorities who issue permits, would probably ask you to show how this meets code. Then .... These are the sort of things people here will ask too. Remember, tested and code approved assemblies are the first line of defence against BID rejection. At least if you are applying for permits, and IF you are NOT applying for permits, and you are NOT an engineer, or somewhat construction savy, your taking a risk to say the least. Of couse, thats only my .02.

fitZ

Hey Brian,

Check out this thread for some great ideas and a point of reference.

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1589

Happy reading!