cloth walls??

[shmackdaddy]

I am in the planning proccess of building a studio from scratch, and was looking through some of the finished studio's at john slayers for inspiration when i come across 'Sonar studio's I was interested in it because it is very similar to my plans. I have a few Q's about some methods used?
Am i right in seeing the walls are finished in cloth?
for example-concrete bocks, then cladding, insulation, then cloth straight on top of that?
ive done a bit of a search and cant find anything on it?
the reason i am curious is i am going to go with the concrete blocks then cladding, insulation, and then plasterboard? but if the cloth is a viable option then it would be much cheaper.
AM I A FOOL!!!???? :? :?
http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Pages/Sonar2.htm

[mshilarious]

The pictures from that studio already have the insulation up, and we can't see what's on the other side of the wall. But if you're just talking exterior walls of concrete block, and that's enough isolation for you, you could do that. If we're talking interior wood-framed walls with just insulation and fabric, you'd have very poor isolation.

[eraos]

The cloth is there to allow the sound to easily reach the insulation behind it. Plasterboard would reflect the waves, for the most part, and the insulation would be come somewhat useless.

I think anyway.

Some of the more intelligent dudes here can help me out.

[Ptownkid]

Originally Posted by eraos

The cloth is there to allow the sound to easily reach the insulation behind it. Plasterboard would reflect the waves, for the most part, and the insulation would be come somewhat useless.

I think anyway.

Some of the more intelligent dudes here can help me out.

Well yes and no, it depends what the purpose of the wall is. If it's meant to be nothing more than an absorber, then it's perfect. If it's meant to stop sound from travelling thru it, then it's useless.

Insulation behind plasterboard, assuming that there's a second wall alltogether on the other side of the first one will help deter sound transmission, but then you'd have to do something on the surface of the plasterboard for acoustic treatment.

If you don't need to make your space sound proof, I'd go for the cloth covered insulation route and save a ton on drywall. Then you'd just add some wood or other reflective surfaces here and there to brighten the room just like you'd add absorbers to a completely drywalled room to tame it.

I did my ceiling all in cloth and it came out great.

Hope that helps

Cheers and best of luck.

[shmackdaddy]

thanx fella's, that sounds like a real good idea, I live out on a farm farely quite and nieghbors are a few hundred meters away so i think building the outer with concrete blocks will be sufficient enough. what cloth would you recomend? i heard you can use felts? any preferd?

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by shmackdaddy

thanx fella's, that sounds like a real good idea, I live out on a farm farely quite and nieghbors are a few hundred meters away so i think building the outer with concrete blocks will be sufficient enough. what cloth would you recomend? i heard you can use felts? any preferd?

Dunno what fabrics are cheaply available there, but any coarse-weave fabric would do. Flammable fabrics should be treated with fire retardant spray.

If you're on a farm, maybe you could hang a few fleeces on the wall

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

I don't know how much research you did on Johns site, but one of his designs is called an "inside out wall". This is used, even on double walls where you need to either save space, or don't need sound transmission loss construction as much. His design STILL uses an airgap between one leaf and another. Typically, the interior leaf of drywall, is on the opposite face of the interior wall, and still has BATT INSULATION in the airgap between the two leafs, and RIGID FIBERGLASS behind the cloth, in the stud cavities. Usually, he uses this design as a SLOT ABSORBER, where by wood slats are placed OVER the cloth, with varied width slots between. This design is a Hemholz Resonator. There has been a lot of debate over the effectiveness of this, but some people swear by it. John is a great studio designer, and has over 200 studios under his belt, so that should testify to his insight and experience with these. But sometimes, if broadband absorption is all you are looking for, then just the fabric is used. The slot resonators are for lower frequencies You could treat part of a room like this too, as the slats contribute to reflection to liven an otherwise totally dead space. He does leave a foot of drywall sheithing at the bottom, facing into the room for electrical etc I believe. This would require additional blocking between the studs though.
fitZ

[shmackdaddy]

thanks, is there a thread or anything any were you could direct me to on a more "indepth" explation, cheers Nick

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Here is the page at SAE which describes this type construction. Actually, John wrote this whole manual. If I were you, I'd read everything at this site. There is tons of info.
http://searcht.netscape.com/ns/boomf...lsayers.com%2F
fitZ

[LemonTree]

yep that's an inside out wall. I'm in the middle of conrtructing one myself

[TexRoadkill]

If you build seperate walls for your interior rooms, leave an air gap and caulk every possilbe gap you should be pretty well off. Your biggest challenge will probably be the ceiling.