Thinking of Building a "Room in a room" for Drums in My Apartment

  • Thread starter Thread starter apartmentdrummer
  • Start date Start date
A

apartmentdrummer

New member
Hey!

I live in an apartment with complete wood construction, and I love my acoustic drums.

I'm thinking of building a 8' x 7' x 6' room in my living room that I would be able to play my drums in without disturbing my neighbors.
I'm planning on double-stud wall construction as well as a floating floor, and I'm considering placing small concrete bricks between my drum room and the apartment floor.

I've been doing a lot of research on different acoustic treatment techniques, but I'm still not sure if my idea is realistic.


I'd appreciate any thoughts/advice on whether this is something worth pursuing!
 
Yes, but at a cost. The minute you said neighbours, the frown appeared. Its not too bad where you are isolated from. Your neighbours, but sharing walls usually means that wall is compromised as you can only get to your side of it.
Things to look for are floors and ceilings. If you build a room within a room, then concrete blocks are conductors, not isolators. The usual things are those rubber puck shaped isolators, and lots of them. However, is the floor concrete, on the ground? If it’s timber, again its an easy path, and your kick drum thump is more mechanical movement than sound. As in its like hitting the floor with a hammer. A room within a room weighs a huge amount. Can the floor, if its actually joists take the weight? These also might link to shared foundations or shared load bearing walls. At 2am when its silent outside, i can just detect the thump of a kick drum outside. If i put my ear to the bricks, i can sort of feel/hear it. The trouble is you have no idea how even a little leakage will sound next door. You can throw layer after layer of extra mass on your side, but the extra weight reduces the ability of the floor suspension to remove structure carried noise. Could be many tons of sheet material and timber. Can your house support this? I know a dance school where it was on the first floor (this in the UK means upstairs) US 2nd floor. All was well as downstairs were shops and they were empty at night. Then at one side the building was converted to residential and the new occupiers complained non stop about thumping and music. It went through the floor joists, into the party brick wall, and out into their living space and bedrooms. Nothing she did fixed it, including a new floor floating on a rubber isolation mat.

Normally i have given advice based on the 9 i have built, but neighbours mean expense and legal stuff, so I would use a proper consultant if i were you on this one. Building examination, surveys, tests etc.
 
rob aylestone said:
Yes, but at a cost. The minute you said neighbours, the frown appeared. Its not too bad where you are isolated from. Your neighbours, but sharing walls usually means that wall is compromised as you can only get to your side of it.
Things to look for are floors and ceilings. If you build a room within a room, then concrete blocks are conductors, not isolators. The usual things are those rubber puck shaped isolators, and lots of them. However, is the floor concrete, on the ground? If it’s timber, again its an easy path, and your kick drum thump is more mechanical movement than sound. As in its like hitting the floor with a hammer. A room within a room weighs a huge amount. Can the floor, if its actually joists take the weight? These also might link to shared foundations or shared load bearing walls. At 2am when its silent outside, i can just detect the thump of a kick drum outside. If i put my ear to the bricks, i can sort of feel/hear it. The trouble is you have no idea how even a little leakage will sound next door. You can throw layer after layer of extra mass on your side, but the extra weight reduces the ability of the floor suspension to remove structure carried noise. Could be many tons of sheet material and timber. Can your house support this? I know a dance school where it was on the first floor (this in the UK means upstairs) US 2nd floor. All was well as downstairs were shops and they were empty at night. Then at one side the building was converted to residential and the new occupiers complained non stop about thumping and music. It went through the floor joists, into the party brick wall, and out into their living space and bedrooms. Nothing she did fixed it, including a new floor floating on a rubber isolation mat.

Normally i have given advice based on the 9 i have built, but neighbours mean expense and legal stuff, so I would use a proper consultant if i were you on this one. Building examination, surveys, tests etc.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately my floor, walls, and ceiling, are all wood construction. I was thinking the concrete blocks would help isolate the vibration of the kick drum, as I'd expect them to conduct low frequencies much less than high frequencies due to their mass. I may be mistaken though.

I know the general floor loading limit for apartments here, but I'd have to contact a structural engineer after I know the weight and dimensions of my design to make sure that it would be safe. Provided that it is safe, I suppose I would have to isolate my floor well enough so that vibrations are not transmitted into neighboring units through floor joists. I think this is my biggest challenge because of the kick drum.

Since lumber and drywall are relatively cheap, would the bulk of the cost come from acoustic decoupling/insulation products? I have seen that a lot of these can be quite expensive.


I'm currently on the 2nd floor of my apartment. I'm planning to find a new apartment in the next year so I will definitely look for a 1st floor unit, preferably with concrete construction.
 
The floor thing really confuses us brits. Upstairs, as i am informed by proper engineers here is so much dependent on the floor. So a steel industrial building that has suspended concrete floors is much easier to convert to studios. A piece of timber, suspended on simple pressed end plates, flexes. If the downstairs ceiling sheeting is fixed to the same timber, as it often is, then you've created a snare drum double head. Your concrete solution isnt really a solution because the mass of a block of concrete will prevent HF transmission by inertia. But a block of concrete sitting on loosely compacted sand, as in a drive way, can easily tamp the sand via a hammer. Your kick drum will mimic the hammer. Drums is going to really tax a professional build. My practically developed amateur skills I’d not like to guarantee would help.
 
If you can nail the problem down to structural transmission rather than air then you could try building a simple drum platform? Made of 19mm chipboard and 50x50mm rails you stuff the box with GF or similar then 'float' it on compliant pads to stop transmission through the floor.

Cost a couple of $100 I would say even if you build it yourself but that could save you $1000s and/or stop your flat finishing up on the ground floor! ( you can also 'populate' the surface with floor boxes carrying XLRs and headphone feeds)
Another possibility is to use the money (be a lot!) to rent a rehearsal space?

Dave.
 
apartmentdrummer said:
I'm planning to find a new apartment in the next year so I will definitely look for a 1st floor unit, preferably with concrete construction.
Click to expand...
This all sounds like a lot of effort considering you'll probably have to start all over again once you move...
 
Sound transmission is one issue, but if you build a big box in a room what are you planning for ventilation? Banging away on a drum kit for an hour or two can generate a bit of sweat, and without some type of airflow, things can get stale pretty fast. You'll also need a source of light, so consider some minor electrical work as well.
 
I'm worried about the weight of the room and the structural integrity of the building. You're opening yourself up to some major litigation if you break a building. Maybe even criminal liability if you injure someone or property damage hit a certain dollar amount.

Maybe I missed it, but do you have permission from the owner to put a drum room in your apartment? Read your lease, I'm sure there is a clause expressly forbidding any such thing. I own/owned many rental properties over the years and if one of my tenants did something like that, he would be out so fast and would not get his deposit back.
 
Mass and air gaps will stop sound transmission, but mechanical transmission takes isolation. The more mass you have, the harder it is to mechanically isolate it from whatever it is sitting on.

By the time you build something that will keep the sound from reaching g the people on the other side of the apartment wall, it will be too heavy to easily isolate it.

I can't imagine doing this someplace I didn't own. Hell, most apartments I lived in didn't want you to put nails in the wall to hang pictures.
 
Chili said:
I own/owned many rental properties over the years and if one of my tenants did something like that, he would be out so fast and would not get his deposit back
Click to expand...
And you could use the room to record acoustic drums ! :P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top