Studio in old stone shed - Acoustic and Thermal insulation

cbeattie

New member
Hi,

I am considering converting an old stone shed with slate roof and concrete floor into an amateur sound studio, mostly for mixing. Three walls of the shed are bare stone, with one wall being the gable end of a bungalow.

From what I have read, this will involve dry-lining the room, or possibly creating a floating room. I won't require professional studio-standard soundproofing, as we're in the middle of the countryside, but I'd like to eliminate the sound of passing cars, tractors and also the wind, and contain the noise coming from the speakers.

The roof was renovated recently, but there are lots of large gaps between the wall and the ceiling which need to be built up.

I'm researching the best materials for good thermal and acoustic insulation. So far, Knauf Rockwool RWA45 appears to be a good option, at 40kg/m3, but it's costly.

If the walls and ceiling were dry-lined with this at 100mm, would that make the room reasonably soundproof, and also easy to heat with a small heater? The shed is 14'x10'.

Are there any cheaper options?

I acknowledge there are a lot of variables at play here, but I'm just at the beginning of this project, and trying to assess its viability, and the cost.

There will be no plumbing, but it will have to be wired too.

Thanks for your help?
 
Based on your info...I think you are expecting a lot from a 10' x 14' space.
By the time you build up the walls/ceiling...float the floor...add acoustic treatment...you will have like 9' x 13' space, and I'm not even sure of your ceiling height.
No matter what you do, it will be a difficult space to deal with to get both some soundproofing and good acoustics.

What type of stone walls...are you talking concrete block...or some kind of natural stone...and what condition is it in?
A couple of pictures would help showing the walls, ceiling..etc.

Bottom line, with that small space, your only approach will be to make it dead...which means lots of acoustic trapping. Maybe you can just apply that to the stone walls and not bother with framing, etc.
Howe much traffic noise are you dealing with...?...because soundproofing alone requires more substantial mass to be added and/or with additional walls...but you don't really have the room size to do that properly.

You can still make use of the space...but maybe with more info and some thought, scale down your expectations, and you could end up with a decent space, but it will have its limitations.
 
Windows? Doors? These are places where sound will get in/out. What about ventilation? Stone should block a lot of sound by itself (but too many reflections on the inside - it sounds ike it is the roof/ceiling you need to be concerned about.
 
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