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Originally Posted by Weasel9992  1.) I've seen some pretty small rooms work well, but the smaller they are the more treatment they'll require. The composition of all the surfaces plays a big part here...i.e., sheetrock is better than cinderblock (but not for the question #3). If possible avoid rooms that are a whole cube (8x8x8) or rooms where one dimension is the multiple of another (8x16x16). A good starting place might be 8x11x15...something like that. Of course, an 8' ceiling isn't great either, but I'm assuming that you won't have much choice there. If you do end up with an 8x10x10 space, it's not the end of the world...it just needs to be treated well.
2.) Ground floor would be best I think...less places to transfer noise to. Composition is the tricky part. Sheetrock has better absorbtive properties, but concrete/cinderblock has better isolation properties. If it were concrete you could always install a layer or two of sheerock over it with an air gap between the layers. Do you know whether concrete construction is an option? I suppose it might very well be in a cold part of the world.
3.) Isolation is the tough part. Normal construction methods will allow everything under 100Hz or so to move through it like it was paper. The only way to stop it is to add mass (thicker walls filled with sand and two layers of sheerock with an air gap, for example); acoustic treatment will help a little, but won't provide anything like "isolation". Floating a room is always an option, but it can be very expensive and it's really not designed to eliminate noise transfer from inside the room to the outside. It's really meant to do just the opposite...avoid transfering noise from the outside of a room to the inside. The added mass of a couple of layers of sheetrock would help a lot though, no doubt....if you monitored at reasonable levels in a treated room that might be enough to keep you out of hot water with the neighbors.
Hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.
Frank |
Thank you for the advice!
I´m just probing the waters here, before I even start planning, so I´ll probably have a lot of questions before any actual physical work gets done.. =)
I am mostly worried about the size aspect, 1 square meter in Oslo costs something like $6k, so I´m relieved that you think it could be possible to get ok results with sizes as small as 10x10.
In regards to construction methods and ceiling heights it depends on the age of the building. As far as I´ve seen (I´m nowhere near knowledgeable about construction work) the two main types of apartments here are either in old buildings with wood and bricks, which are large and have high ceilings (often 3 meters +), or in newer buildings which are, as far as I know, concrete, and are generally a bit smaller with much lower ceilings.
As to isolation, I generally tend to monitor at very low levels except when mixing, but I´m (much too..) polite - and would be willing to go the extra mile to make sure that I can work until 5 a.m. on weekdays without driving my neighbors insane. But of course I understand that there are limitations, both to what is physically possible and to what is economically viable (I make money doing this, but I´m not quitting my day job anytime soon : ) ).