insulation for studio?

[relaxandreflect]

i will be having a 12x12 room upstairs for my studio. my wife will only agree to spending so much. my builder suggested r13 insulation all the way around the room since it will already be on the front 1/2, and r19 insulation which is what he will put in the floor downstairs. it will be $425 for this room. is this a good idea, and will it keep sound in? is it worth it? if not, what would be a cheap alternative?

[apl]

Insulation acts as an absorber, not a barrier.

Check out http://www.ethanwiner.com for some great knowledge.

[relaxandreflect]

so would it be better to not have insulation than to have it?

[apl]

Originally Posted by relaxandreflect

so would it be better to not have insulation than to have it?

It does not act as soudproofing. It does however prevent acoustic resonances in the cavities it fills which is of some value.

If I were building the room I'd use it but I wouldn't call it soundproofed.

[relaxandreflect]

is there anything else you might recommend for the price, or does this seem like a good deal?


by the way, thanks for the help.

[apl]

If you trust your builder, then it's a good price!

An isolated floor would be nice. I think they lay down a floor on an elastomeric layer, something like this.

[GABritton]

If soundproofing is what you're trying to do, you'll find there's no cheap way to do it. It takes mass, heavy stuff, stuff that abosrbs and diffuses the sound. Are you trying to just keep it from being too loud outside the room?

When building our building, I put 2" of 703 rigid fiberglass all throughout the outside walls and 4" between the inside walls. At the time I thought that was going to be good to keep sound down, but not enough as I would have hoped.

You could have him put rockwool in the walls, that would help some as well, but to soundproof you'd need to construct a "room within a room", and I'm going to guess from your wife comment, that'll be too expensive for your budget.

[mshilarious]

Insulation inside walls does reduce sound transmission, but not enough to soundproof a studio. It works well for things like bathrooms, which is probably why your builder recommended it.

What works better is decoupling structures, which is pretty easy and relatively inexpensive in new construction for walls--staggered stud, resilient channel are two approaches (also incorporating insulation).

But the floor is going to be the difficult task. What is underneath the studio?

Anyway you'll need to save some money for treatment inside the studio, especially in a 12x12 space. Budget at least as much for that.

[relaxandreflect]

mshilarious, what are those two methods you mentioned?

i am looking mainly to keep sound in when i practice. the dining room will be below, so not that much use. i just want to reduce the amount of sound the rest of the house hears.

[reshp1]

Basically you are trying to build a room within a room with as little mechanical transfer of vibration between the outer and inter room walls, ceilings and floors. The resilient channel is allows you to hang drywall without direct contact with the stud, which reduces the amount of vibration transmitted. Staggered studs is where you basically have a one set of studs to hang the outer drywall on, and another set of studs to hang the inner wall on. Again the idea is to prevent vibration on the inner wall from transmitting through the stud onto the outer wall and vice versa.

Insulation between the inner and outer walls will keep the cavity from resonating like a drum.

To get maximum isolation you'll need to not only isolate your inner walls, but your inner floors and ceilings too. The "floating" floor is usually built by placing the floor beams on neoprene rubber pads.

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

for more info

[Innovations]

Originally Posted by relaxandreflect

i will be having a 12x12 room upstairs for my studio. my wife will only agree to spending so much. my builder suggested r13 insulation all the way around the room since it will already be on the front 1/2, and r19 insulation which is what he will put in the floor downstairs. it will be $425 for this room. is this a good idea, and will it keep sound in? is it worth it? if not, what would be a cheap alternative?

The insulation is good as part of a system but will do little on its own. Ideally you would do double stud room-within-a-room isolation, but I am guessing that will be more than 'so much'.

Find out instead what he will charge for (in addition to the insulation):

Use two layers of gypsum board instead of one...

Mount the insulation to the studs using RC1 channel or hat channel....

Thoroughly caulk all cracks...

Upgrade to a solid core door with closed-cell weatherstripping.

I can't say if that will break your bank but it will get you a genuine isolation improvement.