Building a 2-Channel Room in garage, need Advice

venomclan

Hi Guys,
Need some advice. I am building a small 2-channel room in my garage (my man cave). It is a 1-car garage that is also shared with a laundry room so space will be tight. The final inner dimensions are going to be somewhere around 10’ x 9’ with a 6.5- 7’ ceiling. Not an ideal space but it is all I have.

Living in FL, humidity is high so this room will have to be constantly under climate control. The room will be built with double sheetrock, staggered studs and completely isolated from the existing garage walls or ceiling. A rubber industrial mat was used under the room frame.

I am struggling with the climate control part of the room. I have a central air system in my house and I ruled out hooking this room up to it mainly because it will be a nightmare running a/c and return vents into the room the way it is situated, and doing so will allow the sound to travel the whole house.

My only option is a portable A/C unit with the exhaust vent running out the front of the room towards the main garage door. This room will have no windows and 2 industrial weather-stripped doors as the only access. My question is – would 12”-18” of space between the room and the garage door be sufficient for the exhaust to effectively remove the hot air from the room. This 12”-18” of space would be the only non-air conditioned space left in the garage for the exhaust to go. The only other option I see is to try to run the exhaust under the main garage door to the outside, or punch a hole in the door or wall.

Can anyone think of other options? Sound proofing and A/C is a pain. Thanks,
Venom

reeltrouble1

Yes, its a pain, if you are staying low budget then I would punch through the wall and install a room air conditioner maybe a hotel style one, I use one of these in the Shed and it works pretty darn good. They now make portable airconditioners that discharge the water into a bucket but you still need an air exchage to the outside, its a plastic hose that looks like a dryer vent that would have to go through the garage door or something such. The portable one I have is pretty noisy though.

You could also do a one zone split unit, going to cost a few bucks though, but you will have a very clean install can heat or cool.

I really do not know about the 12-18" thing though, the hot air has to go somewhere though.

RT1

venomclan

Hi Reel,
Thanks for the info. I was going to frame out a box in the room for a standard window type AC unit, but considering the limited space behind it I was told that will not work. I agree that the portable ones are noisy, so I may run it cool for a while and shut it off for critical listening. Hopefully the room will stay cooler without windows.

I guess it will take some testing when the room is complete. The trouble with that is I cannot make changes when it is done. Do you have any idea what a one zone split unit would cost? I am on a limited budget. Thanks,
Venom

madmax

I've seen the units like RT was describing at Sams Club. If I remember correctly they were going for around $400. Looked like a reasonable solution to me.
madmax

Ricardo

You will not like having the window A/C......they are noisy and living in Florida, being in that closed space without air won't let you listen.

Getting ducts from your exiting A/C won't help either, because it will draw too much air flow from the house to get that place to the right temperature...assuming you can even get the right amount of flow to get there in the first place; if you don't, it will be a sauna.

If you are going to do it, do it right and install some kind of split unit that will give you the right room conditions with a lower noise level. Yes, more expensive but you'll be happy you did it.

On the construction, I had great results using green glue between the two drywall sheets.

Good luck and enjoy your man cave

venomclan

Ricardo wrote: »

You will not like having the window A/C......they are noisy and living in Florida, being in that closed space without air won't let you listen.

Getting ducts from your exiting A/C won't help either, because it will draw too much air flow from the house to get that place to the right temperature...assuming you can even get the right amount of flow to get there in the first place; if you don't, it will be a sauna.

If you are going to do it, do it right and install some kind of split unit that will give you the right room conditions with a lower noise level. Yes, more expensive but you'll be happy you did it.

On the construction, I had great results using green glue between the two drywall sheets.

Good luck and enjoy your man cave

Thanks Ricardo,
I think adding ducts will be ok airflow wise because my house system was replaced a few years ago with a much larger unit, and since the room is about 100sq ft. it should be ok, but doing so is a nightmare. Leaving me with the portable unit option or the mini split.

I found this thing: http://www.acdirect.com/xcart/product.php?productid=1463 which is affordable, but still needs an installation.

The problem is that I am on a tight budget and we are expecting in May, leaving little time also. Thus I am having this room built quickly with no permits. My county is crazy permit-wise and it will take forever and cost big $. Essentially I am not going to get a permit for a sheetrock wall within my garage. The room is so small that it can really be labeled a large storage closet.

Electrical-wise, I was going to install 2 independent lines but may just use an extension cord from my existing outlets in the garage to avoid the hassels and still keeping legal.
Venom

Early B.

This project is not worth the effort, IMO. The room will be very cramped, it also doubles as the laundry room, ventilation and humidity may be a problem no matter what you do, you'll need lots of acoustic damping material, and the system you set up will probably not be optimized at all. In fact, I'm not sure you'll gain anything over what you already have, especially in terms of sound quality.

venomclan

Early B. wrote: »

This project is not worth the effort, IMO. The room will be very cramped, it also doubles as the laundry room, ventilation and humidity may be a problem no matter what you do, you'll need lots of acoustic damping material, and the system you set up will probably not be optimized at all. In fact, I'm not sure you'll gain anything over what you already have, especially in terms of sound quality.

True the room is small, but I find that when listening to 2-channel, anything more than 6ft. away from the speakers, the sound will bounce off of its first reflection point. Being 6ft. or closer and at a low postion is ideal, and will work in this room.

As for the laudry room, it will be on the other side of the room. The room is its own bow. There will then be another 2x4 sheetrock wall seperating the "box" room and the laudry room. They will have no interaction. Humidity will be controled by the ac, whichever one it is, as is the rest of the house.

I wish I had a better area to work with but the room is a must.
1-My bulldog already likes to chew up wires.
2- I cannot listen to my system now at any type of volume because my living room is next to our master bedroom.
3- I have a baby on the way - creating a combination of 1 and 2.
4- I need my sanctuary and sanity.
Venom

Early B.

Cool. Go for it. Take lots of pics.

Ricardo

Near field can sound VERY good; I built mine 10x13x7ish, and with a lot of panels it sounds very good to my ears. BUT, there's not much you can do for low frequencies, so if you have big speakers (full range with lots of bass) and like to crank it up once in a while the bass will overwhelm mids. At least this was my experience, and decided to downsize speakers. Now with the Dynaudios that have a lower spec of 43 Hz, the room makes it go down into the lower 30's. I get strong bass and the imaging of a 2 way monitor.
Be prepared to swap those Gallos for smaller speakers

Here's a link to my building thread; maybe you can get some ideas.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50820

venomclan

Ricardo wrote: »

Near field can sound VERY good; I built mine 10x13x7ish, and with a lot of panels it sounds very good to my ears. BUT, there's not much you can do for low frequencies, so if you have big speakers (full range with lots of bass) and like to crank it up once in a while the bass will overwhelm mids. At least this was my experience, and decided to downsize speakers. Now with the Dynaudios that have a lower spec of 43 Hz, the room makes it go down into the lower 30's. I get strong bass and the imaging of a 2 way monitor.
Be prepared to swap those Gallos for smaller speakers

Here's a link to my building thread; maybe you can get some ideas.

Swap out the Gallos? (Darth Vader Voice) NOOO!

Thanks for the link, and awesome setup. I have basement envy from all you guys. The Gallos use Dynaudio drivers, so the mids may be similar to your bookshelves. I do have some bass tricks for my 3.1's so I am hoping it will work ok. I will destroy the room before I sell the Gallos.
Venom