John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hi Mr Cut,

From my experience, I "floated" the Control room walls on 50mm Expansion Joint Foam and didn't "float" the drum room.
The difference is very noticable. The control room is much quieter.
Oh if I could travel back in time......

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inkspotproductions
www.bantamstudio.info

That's interesting Lilith, did you still use dynabolts or some kind of mechanical tie-downs on the sole plates?

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Adam
Clarence Drive Film & Sound Studio

Thanks Brien. I think once again my diagram was letting my down. The previous diagram was a cross-section through the middle of the wall. I intend to use a truss, as roughly sketched below, to support this structure.



Was this the sort of thing you mean?



That certainly is very interesting! Can I ask three questions - what surface were your walls "floated" above, what company manufactured the foam you used, and did the foam cover you entire bottom of the wall or was it just in sections or strips?

Thanks so much for all your contributions, everybody.

floated anything requires a fully decoupled connection, walls included.

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Brien Holcombe
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Sound: You can't stop it, you can only try to contain it.

Hi,

Yes each wall section had 2 x dyna bolts.
You can use rubber gym mats, I just used expansion joint foam. Off the shelf...not sure of the brand.

If this makes no sense, it could be down to the two different brands of wool?
But the difference is quite significant.

The foam can also help with levelling little differences in cement level.

Oh and yes I built on a slab.

lil

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inkspotproductions
www.bantamstudio.info

I think the gym matt mystery deserves it's own thread here.

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Adam
Clarence Drive Film & Sound Studio

I think there certainly must be a slight mitigation, dry friction, in the use of anything on the bottom of a wall assembly.

My thinking is more that the air leaks are sealed, rather than there is some dramatic acoustical change by the simple inclusion of a rubber mat or some sort of device in hope of decoupling a wall from a floor.

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Brien Holcombe
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Sound: You can't stop it, you can only try to contain it.

Thanks guys, that certainly sounds like an interesting recommendation, given the advantage of smoothing out any uneven surfaces in the concrete slab and preventing air gaps. I take it it's not cheaper than simply using acoustic caulk?

On a different point - with studs 3.13m high, how many horizontal bracings (or noggings as they are known in the UK) would you recommend using?

Thanks a lot!

That usually comes in the form of a code consideration. As it stands, the blocking is placed at 4 foot intervals, or the Metric equivalent.

As it applies to an interior framed assembly, it is, all seismic considerations included, not something I have to worry about in the US, and I reside in hurricane alley. The exterior of the structure has to be taken care of first, the decoupled interior is different...but all countries and some states/counties here, have different considerations depending on this activity.

Chile wants all interior wall plates bolted to the slab...not so in Mobile, Alabama but California and Memphis, TN may have different considerations.

Dade County (Miami, Florida) are building with concrete these days, much like Chile, but for different reasons.

OSB plywood is the best shear sheathing you can apply, replaces go-bolts and reduces the blocking, noggins as you guys refer to them as, to the height of the shearing sheathing, typically 8 feet but can be purchased in nine foot long panels to allow for covering the 8 foot wall assembly and lapping the upper level floor band...essentially tying the entire lower floor level to the upper and providing a blocked break for the tie in.

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Brien Holcombe
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Sound: You can't stop it, you can only try to contain it.

Thanks guys, that's really handy. Think I might get in on Monday, very exciting. If anyone who has kindly written on here is interested in viewing my sketchup model, I have uploaded it here:

http://soupstudio.co.uk/plan.skp

Plan shows the existing wall and the studwall that I have designed. With all of your help.

Cheers!

The basic looks good, and the live room seems to be properly decoupled (although you could probably save on wood by straightening and/or angling some of those walls a bit), but the control room is not decoupled, and there are several flanking paths directly from the CR inner leaf to the rest of the building. You might want to fix those.

- Stuart -

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I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.