Building house...minor basement studio help?

SittinIdol

New member
Hey guys! I've been reading here for a few years, absorbing a little at a time but a lot in the last little while.

I'm in the process of getting a new house built, which will be done in May. We are in the blueprint stage right now, and I'm trying to lay out the basement for a personal-use only studio (i.e. no clients or commercial use.)

The main use of the larger space shown in the diagram will be rehearsals for my band, which is LOUD as hell.

I realize that for the control room, rectangular is not my ideal shape, however for construction simplicity and future resale I think it's the way for me to go. I've never really built anything at all so the construction aspect is pretty daunting, luckily I have some good friends with knowledge in the area.

All walls are concrete up to the ceiling. The builder insulates and frames all the outside basement walls.

Ceiling height is 7'9" everywhere except in the middle, where you see the two beams that run across the house. This section is 6'11" high.

I have the option of moving the two windows to pretty much wherever I want. In the plan I included here, I was thinking of moving the window that is in the band room in the diagram, to right in front of the mix position, and leave the other one where it is on the diagram.

I can also locate the washer and dryer to wherever I want in the basement, but I do need a decent space for a laundry room.

The floors are 3" concrete slab over 5" compacted gravel fill. I am not planning on building a floating floor, mainly due to the cost involved.

In the band room, I am hoping to isolate it as much as possible, but keep in mind my miniscule budget and no building experience. My main concern is not driving the neighbors and girlfriend crazy...


I'm wondering, how much isolation can I achieve by floating one wall around the outside walls of the band room, while leaving the floor concrete?
I would build a double wall for the two 'inside' walls.

As far as the ceiling goes, my plan was basically to stuff the joists with insulation, use resilient channel and 2 layers of drywall.

Isolation in the conrol room (from the rest of the house) is not that important, I was basically planning on using standard construction techniques in there. I can build some wall treatments to break up the parallel walls.

The furniture in the control room is not representative of what I have. I am not planning to soffit mount my speakers (Alesis M1 Actives.)


OK, any thoughts?

Thanks a lot guys
 

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Is the entire basement below grade? If so you have a pretty decent plan. The main problem is the low ceiling height, for the band room you'll probably want a drop ceiling under the double layer drywall or the room will sound obnoxious.
 
Yeah, I planned on covering the whole ceiling with fiberglass boards, in the band room and studio. lose a couple of inches, but it will sound a lot better hopefully.

Any thoughts on how effective my isolation will be as described above?


Anybody ever used that concrete stain? I've seen it where it looks awesome, but maybe something I don't know about in the process.

Thanks
Rick
 
If you are in the planning stage now, ask your contractor how much it would cost to either dig a foot deeper, and add the cost of an extra foot of concrete footing to the perimeter, OR add a foot in height to the foundation walls.(basement). Even 6" would help.
fitZ
 
Yes, definitely ask for the cost of extra height in the basement, you might be surprised by a reasonable price. I was silly, I remembered to get the porch extended but forgot the basement ceiling height! Regretted it ever since.
 
have you thought about setting up your mix position in front of a window looking into the band room. When i built mine, it was just supposed to be a personal use studio, but you always end up recording your friends............

the shared wall between the cr and the band room may be too small to fit everyting and a door..........
 
Hey guys, thanks for the thoughts so far. I will definitely ask the builder what my options are as far as increasing the headroom! That would make a big difference, I know.

notbradsohner, I would really rather have the control room flipped around and either have a window or glass doors, but I am kind of worried about having enough space on that wall to cart gear through etc.
Although, I am not soffit mounting my speakers so maybe the stands won't take up that much room. Sliding glass doors are probbly out of the question because of cost, and I'm enough of a rookie at construction that I don't think I'd want to attempt a window at this point.

Anybody have any more information as far as cost effectiveness on my isolation plan? I've been doing some rough math as to the cost of the whole project...looks like Kraft Dinner for a few years or so...
Thanks
Rick
 
Preliminary thoughts:

1. consider reversing the positions of the control and practice room so everybody does not have to go through the control room to the live room.

2. Consider trying to adjust the plan so there are fewer parallel walls.
 
Hey guys:

Well I talked to the builder and the extra basement idea is not possible, due to a combination of water table issues (for digging deeper) and architectural controls for raising the whole house (ie my house can't be higher than my neighbors)Yes it's retarded but it's the suburbs so what can you do...

Innovations, considering that the only things locked in place are the stairs and utilities (hot water and furnace) what would you do with the space? I would prefer it the other way around too, but I'm trying to maximize the band room to be as big as possible.

As far as parallel walls go, to be honest I'm such a schmuck at building things that I want to keep the angles down to a minimum, and then I can make some angled room treatments after, when there's less to screw up :)

Thanks for all the help fellas!!!
Rick
 
I'm just starting construction of an addition to our house. The 40' x 18' new basement will be the personal studio/band room. Besides 3 layers of drywall (with some rc channel between) on the ceiling, I'm having 2" of lightweight concrete (Gypcrete) poured on floor above. The hardwood floor will sit on that. Since you can't go down deeper, perhaps you can go up a bit to include some extra soundproofing that way?
 
Shit man, pouring concrete! That's a great idea, but I don't think it's gonna fly for me. How much is that gonna run you, if you don't mind me asking?

So far my plan for the ceiling is looking like this, from top to bottom:

8mm (0.315 inches) Laminate flooring
Laminate underlay
3/4" Tounge and groove sub-floor
10" airspace, with fiberglass batt insulation
Resilient Channel
2 layers of 1/2" drywall
Then probably some 703 for room treatment...

Any thoughts?
Thanks
Rick
 
staining cement

You asked about staining concreet

I have stained cement before ant it is alot of work, but it looks awesome when its done. I wouild be willing to talk you threw some of it, but most of the info you can find online. A few things to consider.

I spent about $500 to do my living room and hallway. I purchased the higher quality chemicals becuase I wanted it to last and look good.

2nd if this is a rout you might want to take you need to let the builder know becuase they cement has to be properly prepiared and kept free from grease, paint, glue etc. Any areas that these get on the cement will cause the stain not to set it.

Over all it looks great and is durable.
 
SittinIdol said:
Innovations, considering that the only things locked in place are the stairs and utilities (hot water and furnace) what would you do with the space? I would prefer it the other way around too, but I'm trying to maximize the band room to be as big as possible.

As far as parallel walls go, to be honest I'm such a schmuck at building things that I want to keep the angles down to a minimum, and then I can make some angled room treatments after, when there's less to screw up :)
here is what I would do. If you are a schmuck at building things get a little help with the framing. Remember that with acoustics all it takes is a bit of sloppyness in construction technique to undo a lot of good design. As to what I would do with the space here is a sketch.
 

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