Tough Soundproofing Question

[Matheon]

ok. so i'm moving into a studio that is part of a larger complex. my studio will be wedged in the middle of a building that runs perpendicular to a ... sigh.. set of railroad tracks.

there is a 1500 sq.foot office between my studio and the tracks. and another even larger one on the other side of my studio but both my rear wall (about 45 feet) and front wall (of same size) have nothing but parking lot on the outside of them.. am i making sense?

of course i'm getting a train schedule and attempting to work around it but this may not always be reliable. the train doesn't run but maybe once in the morning.. but then at night.. every few hours.

any suggestions for me?
i'm not sure if its going to be possible to soundproof it completely out but if anyone has any ideas i'm wide open here.

thanks

[The Ghost of FM]

any suggestions for me?

Dynamite the tracks.

[Matheon]

yup..
its looking like that's it..

or time travel to the year 3030 and get some STC 10,000 drywall i guess.

i'm done thinking about this..
i mean.. its a freight train. i need superman. plain and simple.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by Matheon

yup..
its looking like that's it..

or time travel to the year 3030 and get some STC 10,000 drywall i guess.

It ain't the walls, it's the floor. You're looking at building a totally isolated room on all surfaces.

[conan]

I'm sure it could be done but as usual, I guess it depends. I assume that you're going to have to soundproof between offices anyway? How much time and money did you expect to spend? Are you on the ground floor? What are you going to be doing in there? Do you mind if noise is reduced to a low rumble? (etc. etc.) I managed to soundproof the upstairs of a terraced house facing a busy main road quite easily and cheaply by floating the rooms. Your main problem, like mine, would be isolating whatever you're doing from the outside because throwing mass at it just won't work. Two layers of standard gypboard might even be enough to get the results you want with a floating structure.

Originally Posted by Matheon

ok. so i'm moving into a studio that is part of a larger complex. my studio will be wedged in the middle of a building that runs perpendicular to a ... sigh.. set of railroad tracks.

there is a 1500 sq.foot office between my studio and the tracks. and another even larger one on the other side of my studio but both my rear wall (about 45 feet) and front wall (of same size) have nothing but parking lot on the outside of them.. am i making sense?

of course i'm getting a train schedule and attempting to work around it but this may not always be reliable. the train doesn't run but maybe once in the morning.. but then at night.. every few hours.

any suggestions for me?
i'm not sure if its going to be possible to soundproof it completely out but if anyone has any ideas i'm wide open here.

thanks

[Matheon]

aye.. i have no idea what kind of budget i have just yet. i mostly need to just find out how much it will cost to do the minimum necessary to get the job done.

its a 1 story building. i got about a 13 foot ceiling to work with.. and above the current ceiling(gypsum) there is about 2 feet of air and another wooden ceiling.
the floor is concrete slab. and yeah.. i can't have much sound getting out of my building and into the street or other offices.

i was thinking of doing mass air mass walls using the existing walls as the first mass which are composed of brick/studs/thick home builder insulation/gypsum.

maybe a layer of auralex sheetblok on the floor with some flooring on top of it?

am i on the right track here? am i going overboard? or am i going to really need to float a floor over the current concrete slab one. i know nothing about slab floors.

[frederic]

I've guess you never stood near the tracks while a freight train went by at a decent speed.

Railroad tracks are not usually attached to the ground - they are laid upon a thick bed of gravel, to give the tracks some "spring" as the massive weight of a freight train is dragged over the rails. This means that all the railroad ties along the way go up and down, in the gravel, creating very strong low frequency sound waves transmitted through the earth.

A friend of mine had an apartment (in upstate NY) right near a conrail line, and twice a day his entire apartment experienced a train-induced earthquake. Crap would vibrate off the coffee table, shelves, the kitchen counter... even his toaster would move.

You can build a studio and isolate the noise and LF vibrations, but the question is at what cost. You're going to be building a room within a room, including the floor. In fact, in a case like this, you might as well build an entire structre in your space, and suspend it on springs and dampers.

Personally, I'd find another space, unless the freight line was used once a day, giving you 23 other hours of noise-free time. If it's a busy freight line, you're going to be VERY unhappy very quickly, even after throwing in some serious dollars.

Auralex soundblock isn't going to eliminate the LF vibrations.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Personally, I'd find another space, unless the freight line was used once a day, giving you 23 other hours of noise-free time. If it's a busy freight line, you're going to be VERY unhappy very quickly, even after throwing in some serious dollars.

I concur. I would speculate that even a 12" thick concrete ROOM on spring isolators/dampeners with a 12" airgap surrounding would NOT be enough to isolate the Low frequencies of a train close by. Thats not to say it couldn't be done. But it would definitly take Bill Gates type budgets and serious engineering/construction.
fitZ

[Rod Gervais]

Everything begins with determining exactly what you have to deal with here.

The above comments are good as far as they go - but are speculative on the part of the posters becuase they have never seen your space.

In order for you to make any determination at all you are going to have to hire an acoustic engineer to go take some tests of your space.

He can determine what is comng from where and how much is entering your space from the floor- through walls - the ceiling/roof etc.

Only once you know that info can you even begin to determine how to proceed.

Rod

[Matheon]

Originally Posted by Rod Gervais

In order for you to make any determination at all you are going to have to hire an acoustic engineer to go take some tests of your space.

that's probably the best idea.. i hadn't really thought of it. kicking up some money up front for a professional opinion may save money/time down the line.


thanks for the help guys