Music room above garage, need opinions...

pikingrin

what is this?
After living out of a bedroom at the in-laws for almost a year with most of my gear in storage, the wife and I are finally about to get the building of our new house going. Got the plans and financing is secured, now it's just dependent upon the weather as to how long it's going to take. Very exciting!

I ended up getting a 26' 3" x 17' room with 10' ceilings in the drawing. Not a perfect square and with the extra ceiling height it will work ok for anything I'll ever do, possibly including drums. The ONLY issue that I have with the space is that it is over the garage. In the past I have practiced in a space similar to this and the cops got called almost every other day due to noise complaints. My wife won't call the cops but our concern is having as little of the sound from an amp (or drums) escape into the main part of the house. The wall that connects to the house will be heavily insulated (tons of pink stuff or rockwool, still digging) and double hung with 5/8" drywall. That really only leaves the floor. I have two thoughts about this that I'd like opinions on...

1) It's not in the budget to go rockwool between the floor of the music room and the garage; we pushed it over with the treatment of the wall that connects to the rest of the house. So, my first thought would be to cram as much pink stuff as possible and seal it up with some 5/8" drywall as the ceiling for the garage. Can't have too much, right? Also looking at possibly using denim instead of pink stuff but haven't had enough time to compare prices yet. On the floor side above the garage, I was thinking of either doubling the OSB subfloor or even possibly putting 5/8" drywall down before putting the flooring in. Flooring will be cheap laminate installed floating, not glued or stapled in. Would drywall between flooring and subfloor be the dumbest idea ever?

2) Instead of spending a whole crapload on insulation and drywall, I was also thinking about building my own version of auralex' Gramma or Subdude. An isolation riser to decouple the amp from the floor; pretty sure I can build one cheaper than I can buy one. If I go that route I could get away with a little less insulation (possibly) and go with 1/2" drywall making my life a little easier during installation. Then I also wouldn't have to worry too much about the floor upstairs, too. Saw this sort of thing touted in a thread here and it would definitely be the cheaper option.

The idea is to be able to crank my HRD or AC15 clear up without pissing off my wife and/or the neighbor down the road while maintaining a budget... Any thoughts are appreciated!
 
That's a sizeable span to start adding weight to? What's the size of the timber you'll be standing on? The trouble with floors is you stand on them, you stick the noise producing things on them and filling the void between the joists doesn;'t really help when the sound travels the direct path through the timber - so to seal the floor really means two floors, doesn't it? - with space between them so there's no direct path for the noise to take.
 
That's a sizeable span to start adding weight to? What's the size of the timber you'll be standing on? The trouble with floors is you stand on them, you stick the noise producing things on them and filling the void between the joists doesn;'t really help when the sound travels the direct path through the timber - so to seal the floor really means two floors, doesn't it? - with space between them so there's no direct path for the noise to take.
I'm pretty sure that they are using I-joists like these that are 10" tall. You do make a good point; no way I can squeak a "room within a room" kind of floating floor in the budget though. Guess I will go the decoupling route and see how that works.
 
I would assume you are not bothered by the noise in the garage per se? Just that is will re-radiate to the rest of the house and the street?

So, whatever you do above the garage don't forget it! They are generally pretty lively, bare brick and a (very!) leaky metal door and a car is not going to absorb ***t! If it is not going to house a car maybe a semi-temporary plasterboard+absorbent structure can be erected behind the door? If it needs to house a car and since it is a new build, something rather better than a metal door can be fitted?

Yes, mounting the amp on a resilient pad will stop conduction through the floor. Drums are trickier but a plinth made of ply plus Pboard to add mass AND decoupled from the floor will help. Do not forget to make the room airtight.

Dave.
 
I would assume you are not bothered by the noise in the garage per se? Just that is will re-radiate to the rest of the house and the street?

So, whatever you do above the garage don't forget it! They are generally pretty lively, bare brick and a (very!) leaky metal door and a car is not going to absorb ***t! If it is not going to house a car maybe a semi-temporary plasterboard+absorbent structure can be erected behind the door? If it needs to house a car and since it is a new build, something rather better than a metal door can be fitted?
I'm not really bothered by noise from the garage as it will likely see no traffic when I'm above it trying to record anything. Through the garage to the outside world is my main concern. The common wall with the house is going to be insulated to the hilt and double hung in my room above the garage but not necessarily below - may need to add that to the list just to be safe. The exterior walls of the house, including garage, are going to be framed with 2"x6" and fully insulated (some winters here really suck) and the garage doors will also have foam insulation between the formed sheet metal panels. I know this doesn't translate to "better" when it comes to keeping sound in but it'll help with the heating and cooling bills. :) At the very least, also, the garage will be finished and have the ceiling joists stuffed with the pink stuff and drywalled. Rob made a good point with the question of the timber; risers/decoupling devices seem to be the first (cheapest) line of defense in my case - which should hopefully also make the minimal garage construction cost more efficient...if that makes sense.
 
Dropped ceiling maybe? Like, UNDER the floor..the ceiling of the actual garage?
Drop it and pin as much insulation/dead space as you can spare?

Just a passing thought..
 
Back
Top