John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

I apologize if this topic has been covered in another thread, I searched but could not find it.

In construction of my studio in my new home, 60+% of the walls will be up against the exterior concrete walls (6" think). Is there any reason/benefit to double sheetrock/drywall those walls for sound proofing? I am going to use double layers of sheetrock/drywall on the 40% of the walls that will be exposed to the interior of the home.

Thanks for any and all advice.

Kevin

Short answer? No benefit at all. Concrete is about 300% more dense than drywall. If your concrete wall is 6" thick, you'd need drywall 18 inches thick (twenty nine layers!!!) just to match the same mass as what you have there. Mass law says that if you double the mass, you get an increase of 6dB in isolation. So if you'd need 28 layers to only increase isolation by 6 dB, then two layers of drywall ain't gonna do zilch!!!!

OK, so the drywall isn't going to help. But what WILL help is something to seal the surface of the concrete. That's very important: concrete is porous, and that needs to be sealed. Some kind of good quality paint would be good.


You are talking about your new inner-leaf walls, right? Saying that 60% of those walls will be directly facing the concrete walls across the air gap? Is that it?

Maybe you could post your SketchUp model, so we can get a better idea of what you are facing.


- Stuart -

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

Son, we need way more information than this to move forward. First and foremost, if I was asking question, and I am not, I would wonder why it is that, or rather, where did you get the information from that you are currently working with.

What you are saying is correct, in part, but the incomplete parts, the DETAILS, are the things that can make this a "YES that will work" or "No you will not get any benefit" type of question.

Far be it from me to attempt to teach you in a simple post of how incorrect your current thinking is, in general, but I would like to say that you >seem< to be on the right path...but you have to think about this more than just some mystical voo-doo.

What you are wanting to do is construct.

Now construction is simple on the face of it. But it requires the constructor to know the materials, the methods it takes to install them, what is acceptable in the arena of code conformance.

There are far more things that will jump out at you and wreck your build that you have not even considered yet.

One is that your concern with the walls suggests that you have no concern for the floor or the overhead ceiling. IF you are going to add mass to the walls, you defeat your purpose if you do not prepare the overhead area to the same extent.

And this is where things get sticky.

Next is HVAC...didn't think about that yet did ya

Wiring? Oh yeah, you have to make provision for your overhead electrical and your lower audio wiring in the framing.

In closing, anyone who would say to your question..."YES, do that" would be called out almost immediately...well within a week or two in my case...I'm kinda out of touch at the moment.

But, I am glad I caught you.you need to submit more detail, you need to continue to get the answers for the questions you have and you HAVE to look at this as you are building a house.

If you think of it in terms of a sonic acoustical environment, especially if you have no ability what so ever in any of the trades required, you are going to fail to meet your goal, waste money, time and learn way too many "history" lessons

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