PeterDraaisma wrote on Tue, 26 January 2010 15:51 |
Hello,
After reading a lot on this forum and reading Build it like the pros i still have some questions about floating floors. I want to build my new mix/recording room in my new house on the first floor. The walls and floors/ceilings are made of 25 cm concrete, on both sides i have neighbours. The room in which i want to build my new studio is 2.66m*4.8m*5.45m. I want to use the room for mixing, recording vocals, acoustic guitars and percussion. Do i have to isolate the walls and floors so i don't disturb my neighbours? I read a lot about floating floors, and most people say it is a waste of money, so does anyone have experience with Agglomer floors?
Best Regards,
Peter
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Hi Peter,
Floating is only a waste of money if the conditions are such you don't need to float in the first place. Not floating when you *should* be is equally a waste of money as it renders the rest of the money spent on soundproofing useless.
I would float since you have direct neighbourgs.
In this case it's not a question of you accepting a certain amount of solidian transmission and re-emission within the studio, it's a question of futur viability for the whole project: you simply cannot disturb them in any way.
I'll assume that by '1st floor' you mean the "european" 1st floor (for US the '2nd floor') - so not the ground floor but one level up.
Floating on the 1st floor can be tricky because you need to assess the exact properties of your existing floor (load bearing: both static and dynamic loads, elasticity, structure type and so on)
Is your floor really made of 250mm of concrete? This is heavy industrial stuff... In a house, I would not suspect more than 120mm + sand/cement chape finish.
Wrt to the Agglomer, it is not suited for studio. Natural frequency is too high and it's behaviour isn't 'steady' enough. You should look into Sylomer, Merformer or BSW. But then again, only an engineer can make the calculation for you.
You have to build a box in the box...