John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

From what I’ve read recently, there seems to be a lot of peoples that are still lead to think that (wooden)floating floors are the best and only way to go to achive the best results. Even after reading some of the posts here I tought too that was the best way to go, and did build it, only to learn afterward that I probably could have achieved better results by not floating at all. So I think it should be clearly stated in the sticky section all the why’s of it, and why we (as a group) don’t think it’s always the best way to go. Personaly I’d really like to have M.Sayer input on this issue since some of his design involved floated floors.And since he started this whole wonderfull forum of discution after all, seems logic to me that we would all go in the same direction. I am not challenging in any way M Sayer competence, I think we would all benefit to know why in some circumstance a (wooden) floating floor was a viable option.

And Steve (Knightfly) words of wisdoms on the subject would be great to hear too.

We all know M. Rod Gervais great expertise on the subject, and if someone reading this thread was planning to build a wooden floating floor, get his book first and read it from page 40 (the whole book would be extremely usefull too). Then take it from there.

Only for the good of all...

Thanks

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Eric
Orange Numerik
Montreal

Technology is just faster ways to do things we didn't have to do before !

I agree with you.
I want to know also about the option of a wood floating floor without insulation but filled with sand ?

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Earth Music !
http://www.cipaudio.com/eng_home.htm

OK - there are basically two issues here.

1. One is floating a floor to achieve isolation and to stop flanking through the concrete slab to the adjacent rooms or to stop the sound in the vertical direction, say a studio on the 3rd floor of an office building or on the ground floor with a subway running underneath..

2. The other option is cosmetic - i.e you would prefer the look and feel of a timber floor v a cold concrete slab and carpet is out as it's a really bad absorber as it only absorb the upper highs.

With regard to version 1. - most cases I read of floating floors are unnecessary IMO. Flanking from one room to another via the floor is really not a problem you'd normally worry about when you compare the cost and labour v the isolation achieved. To be honest I've never worked in a studio without a floating floor where I've gone "Hell listen to all the flanking coming through the floor!!!"

On the other hand should you build on the third floor of a commercial office block and want to record heavy metal all day it would be appropriate to float the floor, not to stop the sound of telephones ringing from downstairs but to stop your constant kick drum annoying the hell out of the people downstairs and upsetting your landlord.

Similarly with the subway underneath - if the train rumble vibrates throughout your building you will need to float the floor to isolate yourself and the whole framing for each room sits on this floor thus isolating the whole construction from the rest of the building..

The version 2 is a cosmetic factor, i.e you like the look and feel of a timber floor. Left Bank and Oasis studios are both examples of that. The timber floor is laid on battens on rubber and is only built where the floor is needed, i.e the outer walls don't sit on it and there is no timber floor under the front speaker section or in the rear trap section etc.

There is a "my dick is bigger than your dick" mentality being expressed in these forums recently - The - "I've added 3 layers of drywall, floated the floor etc for my garage studio where my neighbours are 100 yards away and I'm in the country!!"

If you look at Left Bank's ( http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainpage/MP-Leftbank.htm ) construction you will see it has only 2 layers of 5/8 (16mm) drywall - one on the outer frame, one on the inner frame. The floors are cosmetic yet that studio has NO sound transmission problems. Similarly with Oasis - no sound transmission problems.

Check out the thread on Sideshow's studio - http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6968

He lists his sound isolation method and also reports on the results - no problems.

I hope this helps


cheers
john

John,
Thanks for the update. Mine was purely cosmetic and ease for wiring. My rack gear will sit behind me and I wanted to run cords under the floor. Only in the control room. But had changed my mind after some posts of late that said not to float. Been trying to figure a way around that until now. Back to the original plan. Thanks again for chiming in
Tom