John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi. In working out my budget it seems as though one of the biggest expenses for me will be to float floors. Is it possible to only float one of the floors?

Like can I float just the control room, or just the live room?

Since one would be floated it would prevent vibrations from the other, right?

Thanks in advance

Yes - floors are expensive - do you really need to float either of them?? what situation are you in relative to outside noise??

cheers
john

Yes they can be. I think the biggest expense is the neoprene.

If you can find a local commercial dealer you could save a ton.

I chose to float the floor in my new temp spot because I can hear the floor resonating beneath me.

The total cost (and I cheated, no Neoprene cuz I am on top of a wood floor) I just wanted the deadening.

$200.00

Bryan Giles

Of course this is a small room as well. 14x11 (approx)

If you had to choose, I'd float the live room myself.

Bryan,

YES, if done right with the emphasis on IF, 1 floating floor will decouple both from one another.

Eric

My main reasoning for wanting to float the floors is to get tighter bass. I hear that a platform makes everything tighter because the insulation under the floated floor acts as a bass trap, no?

Also, I am going to have to build a subfloor on to the concrete, I dont think floating it would make too much of a difference in cost If i use super cheap 2x4`s. That being said, Maybe I will independently float my control room, and my drum room. How does that sound?

Danaudio,

Is your name Dan?

Your second question is completely different from the first one.

In the first one you speak about a floating floor which should decouple vibration from another room.

In the second question you want to use the floating floor as a damped panel absorber.

The first question assumes a mass-spring resonance which is as low as possible (heavy floor- relative weak spring) meaning will be much more reflective for audible frequencies.

The second question assumes a much higher mass-spring resonance in the frequency range of the bass you want to absorp.
This however causes decoupling between rooms in this frequency range to diminish.
In fact this becomes a horizontal lying panel trap (relative broadbanded or not depending on design)

So both questions call for a different approach and are basically somewhat contradictory.

Regards
Eric

Thanks eric. I am definately an acoustic newbie, and need some guidance. How about I tell you what I need, and you offer a solution of sorts?

Final Answer: I basically don`t want vibrations and sound from my live room to get in to my control room, and vice versa. So if I only floated the control room, the smaller of the two spaces would i effectively reduce vibrations and additional sounds from the live room?

Thanks again for your responses.

-Dan, yes Dan