Garage studio advice

Stewpot90

New member
Hi all,

My name is Stewart, from the UK. My fiancée and I have just bought our first house, with a garage (8'6" x 16'3") which I am looking to turn into a recording studio.

Its a standard garage with a metal garage door at the front and a door at the back connecting to the house. I don't want a full-on studio, just a place where I can have some fun recording guitar and vocals, possibly looking to add a drum kit in future.

I have all the equipment I need: (computer/monitor speakers/audio interface/recording software/guitars/pedals /amps/microphones etc).

I also would like to make it into a bit of a chill out room with a sofa etc as well as storing my bicycle in there. The garage door will need to be operational so I can take my bike out / lawnmower out to mow the front lawn

My concerns are:
*what is the best way to sound proof and how much will it cost?
*how can I ensure the garage door is kept secure to prevent anyone breaking in and stealing my equipment, but keeping it usable in order to get things in/out of the garage?
*what is the cheapest/easiest way of regulating the temperature of the garage to protect my equipment and keep the room at a comfortable temperature?
*there is a concrete floor - do I need to look at carpets etc?
*how much money am I looking at all in to achieve what I want to achieve?

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Congrats Stewart! Cool that you are turning your garage into a studio. As far as your points, I am not an expert so hopefully someone here with more experience can chime in but I figured I could get things started with my 2 cents.

*what is the best way to sound proof and how much will it cost?
- I believe this is a wide varying topic that'll depend on pretty much everything! For example, it could cost thousands if you go for pro materials maybe like auralex, but you could save some here if you built your own diffusers or maybe hung carpets as a first line of defense. YouTube has some good content out there for DIY projects. I think as a rule of thumb hanging materials in hotspots where the sound will likely want to bounce the most is important, and hanging bass traps helps quite a bit too. Unfortunately rooms being square are actually bad as studios because parallel walls just want to bounce that sound around. I typically clap my hands and listen for echo when treating a room, ideally, there will be no echo. Some real go getters might by a dB meter and try and tune the room for various frequencies.

*how can I ensure the garage door is kept secure to prevent anyone breaking in and stealing my equipment, but keeping it usable in order to get things in/out of the garage?
*what is the cheapest/easiest way of regulating the temperature of the garage to protect my equipment and keep the room at a comfortable temperature?
- I will defer these points except to say in my experience humidity is the real issue here as far as protecting equiptment vs your comfort level, although both are still important!

*there is a concrete floor - do I need to look at carpets etc?
- I'd say yes! Concrete is a great sound proofer but horrible sound absorber/diffuser. Carpet will help here.

*how much money am I looking at all in to achieve what I want to achieve?
- A muscian being satisfied? That's priceless.
 
Soundproofing needs to be solid walls and ceiling with nice thick materials and filled with high density insulation, and no gaps.

An operating garage door is near impossible to sound proof. You have to decide if you really need a garage or a studio. One option is to removed the garage door, build a wall with a heavy duty solid door in it for access.

Temperature is not a big problem if you build an insulated no gaps studio, however a split type air conditioner is nice when you are in there.

Concrete is good, I would not carpet the whole floor as it could deaden the room too much, use rugs.

Money? It will always be more then you think, it depends how much of this you are doing yourself, and finding materials at a good price.

Here is a link to building recommendations, you don't have to buy the products but the ideas are good, don't worry about the floating floor part but the walls and door info is good. Link.

Alan.
 
Congrats Stewart! Cool that you are turning your garage into a studio.
I respectfully disagree. IMO it's a really bad idea due to issues already brought up: the concrete floor, the lack of security, the garage door, etc. Isn't it possible to use a spare bedroom instead?

If not, definitely get a big swath of carpet or rugs for the floor and put (heavy as possible) blankets over any windows if applicable, along with other standard considerations (bass traps in corners etc). bacco's right that humidity is more of an issue than temp, though temp might be pending how hot it gets in there (not to mention comfort issues). This doesn't have to cost you tons but I don't have any real numbers, sorry. g/l
 
The concrete floor is not much different from other studio hard surfaces, like wood or linoleum...it's just that concrete has that industrial vibe associated with it...but you could etch all kinds of finishes into it to make it look marble-like....etc.

You just don't want concrete walls and floor...and ideally you would treat the walls and ceiling and leave the floor...maybe toss a nice woven rug or two, that can be moved as needed.

My studio space on on a cement slab...quite nice, smooth...but it's about half wood covered and half carpet at this time.
I've thought about removing all the carpet...but I would rather have it all wood then, purely for the look, instead of a cement floor.
If anything...a cheap out for the cement floor IS linoleum...that old-school black-n-white checkered look would be cool. :)
 
Thank you all for your advice, some great tips there. I've decided that as the garage door is an issue, I'm going to build a wall and divide the garage into 2 sections, front section 8'6" x 5'3" accessible through the garage door which will act as the storage space for my bicycle and lawnmower etc, then the back section 8'6" x 10'6" which will be my studio, with both sections linked together with a heavy duty lockable door. Then I will look at sound-proofing / putting rugs down / using split type air con based on the advice you have given, thank you very much!
 
Thank you all for your advice, some great tips there. I've decided that as the garage door is an issue, I'm going to build a wall and divide the garage into 2 sections, front section 8'6" x 5'3" accessible through the garage door which will act as the storage space for my bicycle and lawnmower etc, then the back section 8'6" x 10'6" which will be my studio,
That might solve your studio/garage dual-purpose issue, but if you think you might ever want to sell it, that could really put a big dent in potential buyers. Just something to think about (maybe).

with both sections linked together with a heavy duty lockable door.
Just curious: why? Even a "heavy duty" door is far easier to break into than if there was none. Plus it's extra cost hassle etc. Why not just build the wall?
 
I've extended my garage - an extra metre in height and more than double the length. The ip and over door is still in situ, and then the studio wall starts - so there is still storage, but probably 1.2m, no more. I have a room within a room, construction wise - well, actually two separate ones. Access from the other end. My garage is brick and plywood roof, covered in roofing felt. This lets bass through, exactly as all the books and on-line sources said it would. The inner room, with 2 layers of plasterboard and an MDF inner surface is tough and acoustically pretty good. A drum kit can be played at midnight and outside you can just, standing outside, hear the kick - move to the road and it's inaudible. I have just less than 8ft width - 2.4m - handy because of plasterboard sizes. I do NOT have any ventilation a severe miscalculation in weather like we've had recently, but fine in the other months.
 
The reason I need a door is there is no pathway connecting the front and back gardens meaning I will need a way of getting the lawn mower through to the back. Headache or what!
 
One of my studios had a garage door, I built a stud wall about 4 feet inside it and used it as a storage area. When I moved years later I just removed the stud wall.

You could concrete over the lawn to fix the lawn mower problem?

Alan.
 
hello,

just one crucial starter point to know, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP A WORKING GARAGE DOOR AND ACHEIVE SOUND ISOLATION. You will need to get rid of the garage door without question. A safe place to consider for cost is approx. $150-$200 sq ft to properly isolate a room from those in the neighborhood. Figure a wall with 1" air gap from existing walls, 2x6 framing with single layer drywall on back side (built on floor and raised into position), rockwool insulation, 3/4 Advantech T&G plywood first layer, green glue (2 tubes per sheet), 5/8 drywall and finish mud work final layer. Be sure to stagger seams, Use surface mount outlet boxes to minimize intrusion points in isolation layers, and this is about the most basic layering you can build to get a decent isolation level. As for AC/ Heating try to have your soft dyct work enter the room and build a dual 90 degree channel lined with rigid duct board to keep sound from exiting the room in full force. Basically encase the duct work in plywood, and finish with drywall (like a soffit, same build as walls). As for the flooring the concrete will give a nice sound to the room, going full carpet will potentially deaden the room and kill any natural reverb that could help with the overall acoustics. Now acoustics are a whole different animal all together. If you need we are available for hire anytime LOL, Just saying!!!!!!
 
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