Floating Floors for Drum Room

[gatorhaus]

My home studio is also a converted garage with two tracking rooms a drum room and a vocal/instr. room. The walls were built inside the existing garage room and "floated" on rubber material. Basically its two free standing boxes on a rubber material.

I'm building my drum room floor by laying 2X4s flat on rubber material (on the existing concrete slab). I will fill my pockets with sand and cover the frame with particle board sub flooring. I am leaving a 1/4" gap between my flloring and the wall. The idea I am thinking is the floor will not physically touch the wall or concrete and the sand will help absorb the high SPLs of the drum set and not transmit them to the slab.

Here's a picture if it works

http://www.geocities.com/gatorhaus/floor.htm

Please let me know what your thoughts are and any suggestions you might have.

Thanks,
Larry

[John Sayers]

Yes Larry - that should work. Sand is commonly used in drum fllors as it increases the mass of the floor reducing resonances.

here's the pic BTW



cheers
john

[gatorhaus]

Thanks John

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hello gatorhaus hmmm thats an interesting screen name...gators huh?
Anyway, you asked for suggestions. I've built a floating floor similar to that. Are you in a moisture prone area? If so, I would lay a visquene layer(black or clear poly moisture barrier) down first. And actually , the way I built mine, was in sections. That way I could screw 1/2" ply to the bottom, glue or staple the rubber to it, lay the sections in place, lay the poly, pour the sand, lay another poly, lay the PB and fasten with screws.
Use kiln dried sand. In moisture prone areas, the sand will absorb more moisture than you realize from the concrete, then the PB absorbs it from the sand. OOPS, the PB starts turning into mush!!! Mine was also seperate from the walls.
fitz