Flooring in a one-room studio

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HapiCmpur

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Naturally, adding fiberglass panels to my little studio is deadening the room significantly. It's getting a little "close" in there now, if you know what I mean.

I'm thinking of "livening up" the environment by replacing the carpet with a hard-surface floor, and (of course) I'd like to get some advice before I invest the time and money.

First, is a hard, reflective floor a good or a bad idea in a one-room studio? I've heard that hardwood floors are a nice touch in live rooms, but I'll be tracking and mixing in the same room. It might help you to know that the room in question is roughly 12' by 14'.

Second, is there likely to be much acoustical difference between hardwood, laminate, and cork flooring? I'm a hobbyist, not a professional, so keep in mind that my standards aren't stringent, especially where cost is concerned.

Third, do I need to give a lot of consideration to the underlayment, or can I just use whatever the flooring manufacturer recommends? My studio is in the basement and so it has a concrete floor.

Thanks in advance for any observations you might have.
 
I think it was Ethan that once said a reflective surface is a reflective surface, no matter what it's made of. I'd rip up the carpet and paint the concrete and call it a day. Keep some area rugs handy just incase you need them. Just remember to where house shoes in the winter!

Chris
 
Its not that its a good or a bad idea, its a preference.

To me, wood flooring adds to the atmosphere, creating a warm ambience and a really "home" feeling which for me, adds to my environment allowing me to be more creative. If I had to record/mix/master on a concrete floor I'd not enjoy it that much, regardless of how "tuned" the room was with acoustical treatments. For me, wood floors is about visual pleasure, as well as what I call "sock pleasure".

If I have people over, participating in the recording process, I wear mocosins, but if I'm alone, I just wear socks. Don't know why, I find it more comfortable.

My 13x20' garage loft studio has a beech tongue and groove floor, and its gorgeous. On certain musical material, I can actually "hear" the floor in the form of acoustical reflections and tone. Me, I like this. And I haven't set up my acoustical treatments yet but I imagine I'll have a few more to make because of the reflective nature of the floor. But its a tradeoff I'm more than happy to do for a nice comfortable environment to work in.

I've owned three pro studios, and of course endless home studios. Except for the last home studio in a rented townhouse that was littered with beige carpet, all my studios pro or not, had hardwood floors in every room. My last pro studio had hardwoods in the 2 live room, the shared console room, the tape/media room, even the two bathrooms. The only place that studio had carpet was in the entry way, and the lobby - the typical industrial wear resistance office carpet, and for good reason. We were located in upstate NY and the amount of snow and salt that was tracked in was astounding, dispite the plethora of commercial grade floor mats.

Wood is good. Certain guitars sound better than others, partly because of the electronics and such, but a big part of the tone charactoristics of an instrument is the wood choices. Basswood sounds a certain way, oak sounds a bit different, maple different again, and ask any serious, professional guitarist what they think of these generic plywood bodied guitars and it will be obvious what wood is about acoustically.

But again, its preference. Me, I couldn't mix wheeling my chair around on concrete. Concrete is ugly, and doesn't provide any "sock pleasure". :D
 
chris-from-ky said:
I'd rip up the carpet and paint the concrete and call it a day.
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I certainly appreciate this money-saving advice, Chris, but I'm with Frederic on this one: I think a concrete floor would make my studio cold, dank, and uninviting. Like recording in a root celler. I'd probably start finding excuses not to go in there.

But what about my other two questions, guys? Would a laminate or cork floor work just as well as hardwood, acoustically speaking? And would either of those benefit significantly from a non-standard underlayment on the concrete subfloor?

It seems to me that laminate or cork flooring is going to have about the same acoustical properties as real (and expensive) hardwood, since all three are protected by a durable surface finish of some kind. So my inclination is to go with one of the less expensive options. But these things, I find, are often counter-intuitive, so I thought I'd better ask.
 
I used peel and stick flooring. Its like, 39 cents a square foot. Doesnt look bad. Its not the industrial cafateria looking kind, but it kind of looks like real tile.
 
I'd recommend staying away from cork for several reasons - first concrete can get damp if its on or below ground level, and cork being a naturally porous substance will absorb that moisture and allow mold and spores to breed. Also, cork itself even if treated doesn't really provide a good wear surface, I don't think anyway.

Laminates are interesting, but I've not tested them acoustically so I cannot comment on how they add (or not) feel to a room, but some of the more elaborate products are darn nice, and fairly reasonable. I must say I am a fan of Armstrong's "Swiftlock" in particular - this product has a better wearing surface than pergo, its locking system is nicer than pergo (its not a tongue and groove, its more of a tilt, slip, tap, lay flat method). The panels drill and cut easily, and are fairly chip resistant if you cut them on a table saw with the flooring surface facing up (or down if you're using a circular saw). You can drive nails through them to mount mouldings and such, but expect to beat the snot out of the nail - its a very tough material, all synthetic. They make it in many, many colors, shades, grain patterns, as well as various stones. A box gives you a hair over 20 sq feet, and costs about $45-60 depending which home center you visit. Not unreasonable.

The only thing that is annoying, is you have to "tilt, slip, tap, lay flat" an entire row at a time, because of how they fit together. Which means it's by far easier to lay Swiftlocks down across the width of the room, unless you have helpers. A friend of mine asked me to help him lay this stuff down on the first floor of his house, which is kind of "T" shaped, and it was fine until we had to lay rows across the living room, foyer, and the 30' hallway to the bedrooms. Got a little tricky, but just required more hands. The total span I'd guess at that point was about 50-60' or so. He really wanted the wood pattern to lay in this direction for some reason. I would have done it widthwise to make installation easier. The surface of the swiftlock is textured, so when light hits it (especially halogen) it kinda doesn't look like engineered flooring, as there are microscopic nooks and crannies. Sweeps or vaccums easily and it doesn't stain (I spilled coffee on it during installation, you should have seen his face... but it came up with a cotton rag with some fantastic). Glue and nails are not required, but feel free. Lowes doubles the warranty if you glue them together instead of just locking them, according to the instructions.

pergo is another decent brand, however I put some down in an incredibly tiny bathroom last summer, the dimensions being 3'x4.5', and already the pergo (a dark cherry) looks like its been beaten to death. I think this is because that bathroom is humid as it has two exterior walls that the insulation is marginal at best, and the furnace is right underneath it. Dispite my taking the time to glue it down and the boards together per the instructions, its starting to pull up at the edges and look atrocious. Once I helped my friend do 1600 sq foot of the swiftlock I'm sold.

That takes care of engineered flooring. Wood. Wood in my opinion looks, sounds and feels the best because it is.... well... wood :) The floor I put down in the studio is beech, tongue and groove, glued all around with a nice wood glue that's resistant to moisture. Woodfloors tend to be thicker than engineered flooring. But I like wood. I enjoy cutting firewood not because I like over exerting myself for hours on end, but because I like the smell of wood. Someone needs to make a mahogony smelling candle. I'd litter my studio with them.

Wood requires some care however, you have to polyurethane (after staining if you wish) to protect the wood, then you have to deal with the poly smell for about a week or two depending on your climate. 10 years from now, you'll probably be refinishing the floor after rolling chairs, amps, furniture etc across the poly coating. Engineered flooring, at least the good stuff, seems to wear better from what I can tell. My friend's house got new swiftlock last year, and not that I've looked at it with a magnifying glass or anything, it still looks new. I know their son has taken his bigwheel through the house several times dispite my friend's hollaring.

Hope that helps.
 
The floor I put down in the studio is beech, tongue and groove, glued all around with a nice wood glue that's resistant to moisture.
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Hmmm, no envy smily :D I LOVE BEECH. One of my favorite woods. And you're right frederick, it IS beautiful. Wish I had some for my boxes. Guess I'll have to break down and buy some. :p My other favorite is Paduk. hmmm, and then there is Brazilian Rosewood......and and Oregon White Cedar....and Spalted Maple.....and........oh my.....TOO MANY to pick from.......hahahahaha. I love em all!
fitZ
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Hmmm, no envy smily :D I LOVE BEECH. One of my favorite woods. And you're right frederick, it IS beautiful. Wish I had some for my boxes. Guess I'll have to break down and buy some. :p My other favorite is Paduk. hmmm, and then there is Brazilian Rosewood......and and Oregon White Cedar....and Spalted Maple.....and........oh my.....TOO MANY to pick from.......hahahahaha. I love em all!
fitZ
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Originally I was going to go with a dark maple, but once I cut all the tongue and grooves and laid a few pieces near the painted walls, I realized it was going to be too darn dark... so I sold it all for $5 a board (board being random lengths) to my cousin and his wife, then went back to the "going out of business" supplier and looked around again, and picked out the beech, which is by far lighter, and pretty much all they had left in the quantity that I needed (with a little extra, just in case I miss cut, etc). Picked up three windows too, so I can redo the windows in my studio at some point. Wooden frame, double pane, argon filled windows for $100 a pop. Very nice windows.

The beech grew on me... when I first put it down I was thinking "I have to stain this" then I decided naaaah, I have heavy drapes over the windows, the light colored wood is a good thing. Its totally grown on me, and now one of my favorite woods.
 
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