Mould

[traininvain]

Hello friends, advance apologies for my intense newbieness.

I’m researching converting my garage into a soundproofed studio, as I’m finally about to move into a house with a garage! The dream! London was cramped.

I’m a guitarist and am keen to have somewhere to crank the amp. It doesn’t need to be professional quality, I just don’t want to upset the neighbours.

I can’t do anything structural, I’d like to turn the garage back into a garage when I sell again. Unfortunately more people are car owners then guitar owners. Deeply frustrating on many levels.

I plan to sandwich some acoustic plasterboard either side of vinyl soundproofing mat, maybe allow myself couple of screws into the wall for each panel so it doesn’t fall over. Some rugs on the floor, maybe another layer of acoustic foam backed onto a third plasterboard to airgap if I still have room.

I have a couple of questions I’d be really keen to get your opinions on:

1. What should I do for the ceiling?

This weight of plasterboard probably won’t stay on the ceiling easily. Are there common ceiling options?

2. How do you stop mould?

Completely removing airflow will probably give me mould problems. I’ve hired quite a few practice studios that needed floorstanding dehumidifiers. Are there common tips to stop mould in sealed/soundproofed rooms?

Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

 

[rob aylestone]

How much money do you have and how are your building skills?

Seriously. mould is not a problem in a modern garage - especially when they have one side tied into the house. Weak points, sound wise? Single skin of brick but by far worse - chip board or OBS on the roof. My studio at home is a single garage, but an extended one, so I have loads of space, but long and normal width. I've built loads of studios over the years and the simplest and best way for me is simple build a timber studwork inner frame that nearly touches the brickwork and the joists for supporting the ceiling go inside the real roof timbers to give maximum height. the frames sit on neoprene strip, which also provides a moisture barrier. My preferred walls are plasterboard covered in 18mm MDF - so crashing flightcases into them doesn't wreck them. Ceiling is two layers of 12mm plasterboard with staggered joins. A kick drum or bass guitar can just be heard outside at midnight. My son, in his 30s revealed recently that him and his mates used to go in there many times and play music till the early hours and me and my wife never noticed. If we ever sell, It will come down and be in the skip pretty quickly. I did another at home - we have a 10ft x 10ft brick outbuilding - and I turned that into an edit suite - the same method. However, it ended up as a junk store room and has been untouched for maybe 8 years now? The plasterboard is just starting to go mouldy at the furthest edge where wind and rain hit it hard outside. So - maybe twelve years since built, and unheated for 8 - so freezing in winter, hot in summer. I only noticed when trying to find something and saw the white spots - the other studio, warm all year is as good as new. For sound proofness - it just means an inner room within the room. Brick, especially a single skin and soft stuff on th walls will leak like a sieve, sound wise.

In mine, I kept the up and over door, and panelled across giving me a bit of storage, but also in one section I left one panel with no noggins - so a vertical strip that has plasterboard on inside and out. If I ever had a fire, or get trapped by the door - I could kick through the inner and outer, and escape. MDF is damn tough, so escape was a thought.