Music studio garage conversion

[ninja432]

I am converting my garage in to a music studio and I have a few questions.

First off I'll describe the garage. It has a concrete foundation and Breeze block and brick walls. A timber pitched roof.

The garage is quite well made I believe and stays nice and dry, I will however lay down some damp course sheets just to be on the safe side. I also want it to be well insulated, floor, roof and walls. I was thinking of using polystyrene for the floor and either selotex, fibreglass or rockwool for the walls and ceiling.

So

1) what would be a good size for the floor joists? I was thinking of spacing them at 600mm apart as the polystyrene sheets come this wide.

2)what would be a good size for the wall batons? Or does this depend on what insulation I use?

3) What it the recommended distance for the overlaps of the damp course sheets?

4) do either of the different insulation materials have any advantage over the other, in terms of sound proofing/audio volume reduction?

 

[nod]

Joists are fine at 600

It May be worth spacing your wall batons at 400 

The membrane would be better in one piece You can buy this on a roll 

The type of insulation you buy depends on your budget 

Though rockwool Slabs may be ideal for you As I’m guessing as well as keeping the room warm you also be looking at soundproofing 

 

Hope this helps 

[ninja432]

Hi Nod, thanks for the reply. With regards the joists, I am also wondering what dimensions they should be. For example I was thinking of buying lengths at 95x45mm?

[PeterW]

@ninja432 be careful ..! Putting something 600mm wise between 45mm joists means you will have a problem when you try and board it as the board joints won’t land on the joists. Standard flooring panels are 2400x600 so you need to cut the insulation down to 555mm to get a joint on a board, or make sure your insulation is the same depth as the joists. 

 

If you are going with EPS/Jabfloor you can even dispense with the joists completely and just lay the chipboard on the insulation directly if you put a DPM down.