John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Looking for a source for Neoprene "puck" material for floating the floor of my CR/ISO Booth/Live Area in Western MA.

Also wondering about what/how to isolated the main walls to my "room within a room".

Construction will be 2 x 4 walls on 2 x 6" plates. Floor is poured concrete in a commercial building. Space is 20' x 30' x 14'4" H. Ceiling will probably be engineered lumber joists/RC/5/8" drywall/1/2" Drywall. Walls will be RC/5/8" drywall/1/2" drywall, etc.


Thanks a bunch.

Jon Frost

I don't have an answer for you, Jon, but I do have a question.

Why will you be floating your room(s)? How much homework have you done on the topic of floating floors?

If you haven't already, you may want to do some searches here before you answer.

And here's another -- why will you be using 5/8" and 1/2" drywall? While there are some who believe mixing thicknesses of drywall is good for isolation -- and they're correct to some extent, there are advantages to using all 5/8". First, what you lose by using one thickness throughout is mostly (if not completely) made up for by the additional mass in the 5/8" vs. the 1/2", and second, you only have one thickness to deal with on the construction site.

How about starting a new thread for your project in the Construction forum, along with all your plans, and then linking to it from here when it's up...? I'm hoping we all can help you along with your plans, and others will learn from it as well.

--Keith

Hi Jon,

Good luck on your build. Don't know if you have Rod Gervais' book but it is VERY informative.

MA source for all things rubber:


Greene Rubber Co.
20 Cross St.
Woburn, MA 01801-5606
(781) 937-9909
Fax: 937-9739

Thanks,


I left a message at Greene Rubber Co today so hope they get back to me next week sometime.

Jon

Have you read through the "Is a Floating Floor Right For You? Answer: Probably NOT" thread?

Sharward:
Of course I read the article from front to back... and in the end, John Sayers and I decided that the best thing to do given the lack of a level floor to begin with is to build the walls on neoprene; then float the floor separately for each room on 1/2" neoprene / 2x4" on side / 3/4" A/C Ply / Finished floor (either cork, harwood or carpet... Void spaces are going to be filled with dry sand to minimize the 'drum head effect'. The entire studio will be level floored throughout (ADA) and the sliding doors are being sunk into the frames so the tracks end up level with the finished floors... same with swinging doors in the drum room. The already have ADA low thresholds...

The most fun I'm going to have is running a laser level in the empty room to determine the highest point, which right now seems to be at the Southwest corner of where the drum booth is located. This corner is about 2" higher than 'level floor' throughout the rest of the space. I just know I'm going to find some surprises elsewhere around the room, so this will keep the framers busy when it comes time to build the isolated floors in each of 6 rooms!

Hope your build is about complete by now...

Jon Frost
Easthampton, MA

frostgfx wrote:. . . to build the walls on neoprene . . .

How do you do that?

Seriously... If the wall frames float, they're not firmly attached to the ground.

If they're not firmly attached to the ground, they're not to code.

If they're firmly attached to the ground, they're not floating.

frostgfx wrote:Hope your build is about complete by now...

OK...

So the walls are anchored with slap anchors, nuts and washers... the floors are the only part up on neoprene... I'll check with John S. about this as well.

Thanks for your clariification.

Jon

What's a "slap anchor"? Google is equally confused...

Sharward:

Slap Anchors are marketed by Hilti... basically their brand of anchors where you drill a 1/2" hole of varying depth and inster the anchor... then you slap it with a hammer at the threaded end which is protected against damage. The result is the anchor is hel d firmly in place at the bottom of the hole as your tighen up the top nut.washer combination.... result is plate is anchored firmly to 200 year old concrete floor...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Jon Frost

Oh yeah, I used a similar one in a spot that did not have a J-bolt set in the concrete I had poured. I know them as "anchor bolts."