Starting a Garden Studio

Danv

New member
Hi there, just started posting (I made an intro post in the newbie thread!),

I've just started constructing a studio in my garden that I'm going to be teaching guitar, and recording in.

After doing quite a bit of research here is my plan:
The room will be 3.5m x 7m

External:
Single skin brick work with support piers. Brickwork is using left over bricks from our extension (solid concrete facing bricks). Roof is supported by brickwork and will be a mono pitch with concrete tile construction.

Internal:
Room within a room.
100mm free-standing stud work.
OSB board sheeting fixed to brick side of stud work, 50mm cavity between inner room and brick work. Breathable waterproof membrane stapled to OSB.
Rockwool insulation in between studs.
Inside will have another layer of OSB sheeting (handy for fixing things to the walls).
Finally single skin of acoustic plasterboard with acoustic mastic between joints.

Internal ceiling will be mono pitch to match the roof with 300mm of rock wool (enough?), and a layer of acoustic plasterboard.

A pair of doors to enter. One pair of double glazed windows for light (one on inside wall, and one on outside wall).

So that's the plan.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions?
Also I was thinking of working on the acoustics in the room after it's built and I can hear the room. Is this wise, or should I be building in bass traps etc. During construction?

Dan
 
If you can see your way to increase the width, that might work to your advantage. A width of 3.5m is a bit narrow, and it is exactly half of 7m. Exact fractions are not beneficial; they amplify nodes within a space. Maybe another metre in width? Say, 4.5m x 7m?
 
Hi there, thanks for replying. Ah that's interesting, those dimensions are actually the external dimensions so really looking at about 3m x 6.5m.Do you mean it's a little narrow for practical purposes or for sonic purposes, somehow reducing the quality of the recorded sounds? I could extend the length a bit but not really the width.
 
Smaller rooms can have nodes at higher frequencies which can affect how you perceive sound within the room (compare the difference in sound between a living room and a bathroom - conceding, though, that a bathroom tends to be inherently more reflective). Generally bigger is better, and I suugested increasing the width to (a) make it bigger, and (b) avoid the 2:1 ratio. However there are plenty recording spaces that work well with smaller dimensions.

With luck, some people more versed in acoustic design will chime in here.
 
I'm having a difficult time imaging the construction. Is it within standard build guidelines for your area? Do you need a permit and inspection? Will your insurance cover any claims if you need them to?

Your plan to add acoustic treatment afterwards is good.
 
I'm having a difficult time imaging the construction. Is it within standard build guidelines for your area? Do you need a permit and inspection? Will your insurance cover any claims if you need them to?

Your plan to add acoustic treatment afterwards is good.

Hi, In the UK we have a set of building rules called Permitted Development, that is, construction that can be performed meeting certain guidelines that does not require planning permission or building regulations approval.

The relevant rules include:
An outbuilding must be detached from the main dwelling, be 1m from the boundary or be made of substantially non-combustible materials (like brick). It also can't contain a bed or any sleeping quarters. They also have some rules including height to eaves and complete floor size (max 34m2).

The design is basically a detached, mono-pitched single skin garage that I will build a room within a room inside. Insurance should cover as it is made of bricks and mortar, and has a tiled roof.
Many garages in the UK are single skin construction, but as it's freestanding I'm using piers to give added support (much in the same way old churches etc were built in the uk).

This is an image of how the piers are built into the wall:
single_pier.gif

What part of the construction seems strange can I ask?

Dan
 
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What about heat/ac/ventilation?

Hi,
I'm planning on building ventilation along the ceiling soffit. An extractor fan on the outside wall and a box along the top of the room's corner, with a vent connected by flexible ducting, in an S-Shape, the boxing will be filled with rockwool and covered by acoustic plasterboard.

Heating and ac I was thinking a portable unit that I can blast on and turn off just as recording takes place.

Found an image of the kind of thing I was thinking:

dead-vent-diagram-profile.jpg

Using this sort of method though, how does new oxygen get added into the room? It seems like it's only a one way sort of method, removing used carbon dioxide?
Would I need two then? One venting co2 and one inputting oxygen?
 
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Hi,
Using this sort of method though, how does new oxygen get added into the room? It seems like it's only a one way sort of method, removing used carbon dioxide?
Would I need two then? One venting co2 and one inputting oxygen?

Exactly.
 
you've got some good ideas here, I'll be keen to see the end result! I like the idea of concrete blocks, you seem to know what you are doing here, can you post photos of the different stages of constuction? that would be amazing.
 
you've got some good ideas here, I'll be keen to see the end result! I like the idea of concrete blocks, you seem to know what you are doing here, can you post photos of the different stages of constuction? that would be amazing.
I definitely will!
I've dug most of my footings so just holes in the ground so far ha!
When the construction's finished I'll be needing all your help to improve the acoustics in the room though, because I'm not so up on that myself.
 
What part of the construction seems strange can I ask?

Dan
Hey Dan, it's not that it seems strange, it's just that I couldn't visual the end result based on the description. I'm sure you're good to go. Should be exciting.

When I built my studio/office, I filed for a permit and had the city come out to inspect it at multiple stages. Got their sign-off. If ever there is damage to the house and I have to file an insurance claim, the insurance company will not be able to deny the claim, based on the studio.

In the US, that could be a problem. Even if damage done to the house had nothing to do with my studio, they could deny the claim if I can't prove that it was inspected and proven to be built to standards. Sad world we live in. fekkin lawyers.
 
I definitely will!
I've dug most of my footings so just holes in the ground so far ha!
When the construction's finished I'll be needing all your help to improve the acoustics in the room though, because I'm not so up on that myself.

I'd recommend contacting dennis at acoustic fields, he's the best I've found so far, I'll see what I can do though when you are ready.
 
Hey Dan, it's not that it seems strange, it's just that I couldn't visual the end result based on the description. I'm sure you're good to go. Should be exciting.

When I built my studio/office, I filed for a permit and had the city come out to inspect it at multiple stages. Got their sign-off. If ever there is damage to the house and I have to file an insurance claim, the insurance company will not be able to deny the claim, based on the studio.

In the US, that could be a problem. Even if damage done to the house had nothing to do with my studio, they could deny the claim if I can't prove that it was inspected and proven to be built to standards. Sad world we live in. fekkin lawyers.

Ah that sounds annoying! Nah I don't think there's so much of a problem in the UK. They don't mind as long as it's not attached to your house. I might need to speak to the insurance company about covering the studio itself though!

I'll have a word with the council though before setting off with pouring the concrete, just in case .
 
Wow that took longer than expected to start!

Hi all! Back to my construction of the garden studio!

Concrete slab laid, damp proofed and ready for the room to shoot up.

I'm going to be starting on the internal isolated room's stud work first and get that up without the brick work in the way. Once that's up I'll brick around it. :)


Waka

Footings dug.jpeg
Concrete pouring.jpeg
Hardcore compacting.jpeg
Insulation and damp proofing.jpeg
Slab laid.jpg
 

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As you're in the UK I suggest you contact Max Hodges: Maxtech.Audio

You'll have to pay him, but it'll be worth it in the long run and could well save you much heartache.

What Max doesn't know about designing studious and adapting buildings isn't worth knowing. And, unlike some, he'll tell you precisely what WON'T work as well as what WILL! ;)
 
Ok guys, the winter is over so I'm back to actually constructing the garden studio that has been dormant as a slab for over 6 months. As I was silly and built it too close to my boundary (sigh) I had to get planning permission to exceed 2.5m total external height of building. So that's finally going through now. I'm expecting a favorable decision based on the conversations with my planning officer, so that's good.
Now comes the nitty gritty:

Looking at my designs I noticed a real issue with my ceiling/roof design. I was planning on a simple timber flat roof design, but with the research I've done it seems like this almost entirely negates my efforts in increasing mass in my walls. I'm certain I read somewhere (probably on this very forum) that the room is only as effective as it's weakest link. Could someone confirm this thought please?

So assuming this is correct I have two options really:

Option 1) Increase mass in the roof:
This seems the most obvious, but has a host of issues to overcome.
The best design I could think of for this would be to do some kind of block and beam roof, that is: concrete joists suspending concrete blocks and the skinned with OSB and a waterproof sheeting (probably fibreglass resin).
The benefit to this design is that the substantial gains in mass (good!) should be around the same as the walls.
The problems with this design:
I don't think I built the footings deep enough for this sort of weight.
Also, I'm not sure if block and beam is suited to resting on a single skin brickwork.
Cost is substantially higher.

Option 2) Accept a reduction in sound reduction (especially at low frequencies)
This is possibly the option I am leaning towards the most. These are my reasons:
If the roof is of a timber frame construction then I might as well build the walls using a timber frame construction too. This immediately saves me £1000 on brick laying fees. I can build a timber frame structure myself as I built my extension using these methods already.
That £1000 could then be reinvested into the adding additional layers of mass to the inside of the decoupled interior room.

What do you guys think?
Is changing my design to a timber frame wall going to severely limit my ability to reduce sound transmission to/from the studio, or is the reduction manageable?

Bear in mind these points:
I will still be having an interior decoupled timber frame room within the structure built from 100mm timber, with 100mm acoustic wool between the studs, with two (possibly three) layers of dense plasterboard. There is going to be a double door entry, one door on each skin. I am putting a non opening window that I hope to make myself, using 2 sheets of acoustic laminated glass. I may reduce the size of this window and instead make two small windows.
Natural light is very important to me in this studio as I hope to be working full time from it, in the near future.

Thank you for any advice,
Dan
 
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