Sliding barn doors

[Rod Gervais]

Originally Posted by djk

I am in the process or building a new house. I am going to build a single-room project studio in the basement, which will be adjacent to a large rec area. The studio will also be used as my person media room for listening to vinyl and will have a large video monitor as well that will serve multiple purposes. I am going to insulate the room for sound (in part so that I can play at night without waking the kids).

Here is my question. Rather than building a wall between the studio and the rest of the basement, I was think about using to large sliding barn/style doors (probably using reclaimed wood). Is this a bad idea in terms of acoustics as compared to a regular wall (drywall) and small door? Also, would this be a disaster in terms of noise leakage and defeat the purpose of insulating the room?

Many thanks.

Sliding doors can be treated on the inside - so acoustically they are little different from walls........

Isolation however is a challenge - not necessarily one that cannot be overcome - but a challenge none the less.......

For example - at Sonalysts Studios - stages 7 and 5 have concrete filled sliding doors similar to barn style sliders - 20'x20', motorized openers (they weight several tons apiece) and they had to install inflatable seals to properly seal the openings (those 2 stages are some of the quietest movie studio/sound stages in the world - NC 15 ratings)

Now - with a door that was installed with an inclined plane track assembly - you could always do a compression set for the floor gasket and the leading door end - however - the top and tail end of the door would need to have gaskets that the door slid along - which means that their life would not be as long as it would with a compression gasket..... hence the use of inflatable gaskets........ especially for large doors.....

It is a challenge - but not impossible to make work. AS with most things related to acoustic isolation - the devil is in the details.

Rod

[djk]

Got it -- thanks! This makes sense but not make sense in my situations. I will opt for "regular" doors, I think.