New music space - or 'A long list of compromises'

[McCreed]

That's compromise number 1! Couldn't get planning permission for a concrete slab build (drainage issues) so it's going to be a pre-fab on piles.
Got a big list of acoustic treatments to sort once it's up. Was thinking of getting started of them in the meantime but I haven't got room to store things in the interim.

Ah, yes. I suspected it might be on piles, judging by the in-line holes in one of the pics. (thought they could have been removed vegetation though).

The tricky part with building on piles will be sound-proofing the floor, but that also depends on what level of "containment" you require. It can be done though as long as floor, walls, roof go in as separate components. If it's a fully assembled pre-fab unit being set in place with a crane, that's a different story.

Both my studios were on slabs (one in a garage, one in house) so I thankfully didn't need to address that issue.

I'll enjoy watching this thread as much as guitar build!

[blinddrew]

Ah, those holes are actually where I've dug up previous post-mounts from the structure you can see in the first couple of pics.
It'll be built up in sections. The floor is steel, wood, rockwool, steel again, a layer of acoustic plaster-board, then the normal flooring. The whole inside will have a vinyl wrap and then another layer of acoustic plasterboard green-glued on. The windows and doors are laminated acoustic glass. I have no illusions about this though, it'll be better than a 'normal' portakabin but it's not going to give me the levels of isolation that a brick-on-concrete building would.
But I'm not planning on playing real drums in there...

[McCreed]

wow! that sounds great. You've definitely thought it through.
One thing you might consider for your walls is using resilient mounts. They decouple the gyprock (plasterboard) from the frame work to minimise vibrational transference. They do reduce your wall to wall distance by about 3" (1.5" per wall) but that was acceptable in my scenarios.

After re-reading your last reply, is that what the vinyl wrap is supposed to do, or is for absorption?

[PJSprog]

We went through a similar conversation a few years ago, and had even picked out the portable building we were going to modify. In the end, though, we remodeled the entire house, and we both picked a room for our "studios." Mine is a room in the finished walk-out basement, and hers is upstairs across the hall from the new master bedroom. Mine is, of course, for music, and hers is a sewing room. We both refer to them as "I'll be in my studio today."

Good luck with the build. Always exciting watching someone build their new studio.

[blinddrew]

The vinyl wrap is for air sealant, the green glue is the primary vibration absorber between the wall and the plasterboard.

Thanks PJS, we're looking forward to the separation of spaces.

[McCreed]

The vinyl wrap is for air sealant, the green glue is the primary vibration absorber between the wall and the plasterboard.

Ah, got. Not heard of that glue. Sounds interesting though. Have to look it up out of curiosity. Will keep watching this thread too!

Cheers

[blinddrew]

It's not actually a glue, it's a thermo-elastic paste. Deflection of the two layers causes it to stretch and heat up thus dissipating the energy. Two layers of plasterboard with green glue in between is comparable to 4 layers of non-glued plasterboard across the bulk of the audio spectrum. It's good stuff.

[McCreed]

It's not actually a glue, it's a thermo-elastic paste. Deflection of the two layers causes it to stretch and heat up thus dissipating the energy. Two layers of plasterboard with green glue in between is comparable to 4 layers of non-glued plasterboard across the bulk of the audio spectrum. It's good stuff.

Sounds like good stuff. I didn't realise there are going to be 2 layers of plasterboard on the walls either. I reckon you'll be pleasantly surprised at the result and hopefully exceed expectations.

[blinddrew]

Well, I've got fairly low expectations so fortunately I'm easy to please!

[blinddrew]

The upside to the lousy weather this weekend has been that it's much more pleasant for outside manual labour. Which is good because I've had a lot to do.
If anyone ever mentions to you that they're thinking of putting some bamboo in the garden, give them a slap and show them this picture:

Though you can't really see that well because the wide angle lens foreshortens things, but basically I've had to dig over about a quarter of the garden about 2ft down. More in someplaces. Say no to bamboo.

That meant shifting a lot of earth:


Which would have been much easier if it wasn't liberally scattered with bricks:


So yesterday was digging up, today was laying out:


About six hours later:


That's actually more progress than I expected to make this weekend, so there's a small chance that I might get round to actually doing some music at some point in the next fortnight...