Groundworks

The chosen location for the music studio was along two retaining boundary walls. We had concerns that these retaining walls weren’t sufficient to take the weight of the music room. To combat this issue, we built the studio on a reinforced concrete raft foundation, incorporating and adding strength to the existing retaining walls.

Once the concrete base had been cast and before erecting the timber frame, we took the opportunity to replace the existing fencing as access post construction would be difficult.

The customer had been impressed with our workmanship and asked us to landscape the rear garden – reducing lawn area and increasing patio area. We removed the original retaining wall and cut back the lawned area as requested and built a new retaining wall incorporating steps up onto the lawn.

Design

When designing a soundproof music room, there are several steps you can take to optimise the performance without spending a fortune:

• Try to incorporate mass into the structure which helps to decrease sound vibration.
• Use acoustic insulation in floor, wall and ceiling voids.
• Separate acoustic plasterboard on walls and ceiling from timber structure using resilient bars.
• Install a floating floor.
• Minimise the number of doors and windows and fit triple-glazing.
• Ensure the building is airtight by sealing any gaps with acoustic sealant.

Construction

Pre-fabricated wall panels were installed using acoustic sealant between each section to ensure air tightness and sound leakage. Once the roof was watertight, we were able to begin internal insulation and soundproofing.

You can see the green vapour control layer with acoustic mineral wool insulation behind, overlaid with resilient bars and then two layers of acoustic plaster board.

A vapour control layer is essential and fitted to every one of our garden rooms to prevent interstitial condensation. This is the process by which warm moisture-laden air tries to escape the fabric of the building and condenses on the first cold surface. Often hidden from view, this process can go unnoticed and in turn, cause the timber structure to rot from the inside out.

The resilient or sound breaker bars separate the double layer of acoustic plasterboard from the timber frame. These bars which are made from high tensile steel act as ‘springs’ minimising vibration and dampening sound transition.

Once the inside had been decorated acoustic panels were fitted in all corners, further improving acoustic qualities by reducing any reverberation

I returned a few weeks later once the customer had furnished the inside with sofa bed, mixing desk, computer screen and numerous speakers. The look and acoustics were phenomenal! We conducted a sound test which showed that we had achieved a noise reduction of 37 decibels!