Best music room flooring option?

[ErictheRed]

I'm not sure which sub-forum this best belongs in, but I have a fairly good sized extra room in my new house (we bought it about 7 months ago) that I'm using as an office and music room. It has some really old, crappy carpet in it. In fact the whole house has old carpet, and we're going to have it all re-floored soon.

My wife wants some kind of hard flooring for most of the living area, etc. of the house. Hard wood floors are expensive, but there are some other options these days--bamboo, laminate, vinyl planks, etc. My question is for the music room: is there a floor type that works best for a music room? Right now it's just my guitars and amps, but in the future when the kids get older, it's conceivable that we might have a drum set in there or have band rehearsals in there occasionally.

A hard wooden floor seems like it would just reflect the sound waves around too much. The room is rectangular, about 24' x 12' with 8' ceiling. Two walls go to the outside (one with a sliding door), while the other wall goes to the garage and the other a stairwell and then crawlspace. Above the music room is our kitchen/dining area, if any of that matters.

So what do you guys think: new carpeting, hardwood (or similar) with rugs, etc?

 

[rxbandit]

Hardwood with decently thick rugs is probably your best compromise

 

[ErictheRed]

Hardwood with decently thick rugs is probably your best compromise

Well I don't have to compromise with the wife on this room, it's pretty separate from the rest of the house and is pretty much all mine, so she doesn't mind if this room stays carpeted. I'm just curious what the best option might be. It seems like carpeting to me, but I don't really know.

A quick Google search is showing things like hardwood, cork laminate, concrete, tile...that's counter-intuitive to me, but perhaps that's best after all. I figured I'd ask you guys instead of just going with a few articles I found, but maybe hardwood is it after all.

 

[rxbandit]

Well I don't have to compromise with the wife on this room, it's pretty separate from the rest of the house and is pretty much all mine, so she doesn't mind if this room stays carpeted. I'm just curious what the best option might be. It seems like carpeting to me, but I don't really know.

Nice! I still like the option of hardwood with rugs, allows you to adjust how dead vs resonant the room is.

 

[Mike I]

My music room is hardwood floors, and 4x8 Turkish rugs..

I do feel the floor vibrate when playing cranked up a notch, but no weird overtones or unwanted sound.

But if you're gonna have drums, and some jamming, some wall and ceiling sound absorbing panels are the ticket.

BTW, just realized that i before e, except after C doesn't work with the word weird!

 

[Tone deaf]

A hefty water vapor/cushion underneath a click-in-place laminated (floating) hardwood floor will give you sum separation from the subfloor (vapor/cushion) which will help reduce vibrations transmited through the floor joist to the adjoining walls and headers. Then put throw rugs (with pads underneath) on top.

 

[edro]

I'm with rx, hardwood with rugs... Lowes, orange box, etc., probably has some BIG and THICK cool rugs....

For sitting around playing at home, I do not want studio dry....

 

[ErictheRed]

BTW, just realized that i before e, except after C doesn't work with the word weird!

It's a pretty worthless rule, I've found. Eight, weight, seize, caffeine, protein...

 

[Leumas]

Dude, I'm a big fan of the laminate hardwood. When we bought our house a few years ago we redid all the floors. The living and dining rooms had a great original hardwood floor hiding underneath so we had that refinished. The kitchen, bathroom, and laundry rooms had various vinyls and so on so we decided to go with the laminate hardwood.

Now, the true hardwood is prettier, but that's about it. The laminate looks pretty good on it's own, it's much more durable, it's water-tight, and it is way easier to keep clean.

 

[Leumas]

And yes, I like the idea of being able to move area rugs around to give you different tonal options in the room.

 

[Chango Malo]

whatever you put in there, the drummer is going to spill crap all over it.

 

[Tiboy]

I have an appointment tomorrow to pick out carpeting for my new music room. We have hardwood throughout. I just assumed that carpeting would be better at sound dampening. I’m probably going with some Berber that can withstand a lot of traffic. The wall dampening will come from hanging the guitars. Unlikely drums will ever see the room. There are a 412, two 212’s and a PA in addition to a baby grand piano. I have an understanding wife and fearful neighbors.

 

[KP11520]

All the high end audio places I've been to since the early 80s around Metro NYC had wall to wall carpet over dense padding. Carpet was usually heavy duty for wear as well as not reflecting.

One place in Great Neck was called Ears Nova. The owner Joshua was the most arrogant ass I ever met and he bragged about his ability to make the rooms perfect. He'd also only have one set of speakers in a listening room at a time. The others would make those playing dead. .

You can't make this shit up.

And he used wall to wall. LOL

 

[Roxy13]

My whole house is hardwood floors and I also use rugs as necessary.

I would imagine carpeting absorbs sound much better, but maybe it deadens sound too. It's been so long since I've lived anywhere with carpeting I can't really tell you anymore if I liked it better or worse for playing.

 

[Freddy G]

Hardwood or laminate floors with rugs....give you the ability to adjust reflective surface...just like rxbandit suggested. You need some hard surface otherwise it will sound lifeless. Ever hear a violin in a really dead room? It's horrific.

 

[Meatwad]

Shag carpet with a bunch of seeds in it.

 

[ErictheRed]

Cool, thanks for the input guys.

 

[THDNUT]

Epoxy with sand imbedded in it. That way you won't slip.

 

[LPSGME]

Hardwood with decently thick rugs is probably your best compromise

Definitely a nice Persian or Oriental RUG - if only just for the 'mood'.

 

[shickma0]

Dude, I'm a big fan of the laminate hardwood. When we bought our house a few years ago we redid all the floors. The living and dining rooms had a great original hardwood floor hiding underneath so we had that refinished. The kitchen, bathroom, and laundry rooms had various vinyls and so on so we decided to go with the laminate hardwood.

Now, the true hardwood is prettier, but that's about it. The laminate looks pretty good on it's own, it's much more durable, it's water-tight, and it is way easier to keep clean.

I had true hardwood on 1 of the floors at my house and carpet on the other 2 floors. I had a music area in both the hardwood and carpet and would always use the carpeted one just because there was so much echo over the hardwood (also there were 30 foot ceilings in the room I played music in which didn’t help). I have recently moved and now have a room with carpet on the floors, and padding on the walls and is much smaller and it sounds far better for playing even at very loud volumes compared to even the carpeted rooms at my old house so speaking from experience I would recommend carpeting and wall treatment. Also get the good padding under the carpet if you can, it’s well worth the extra cost if you dont wear shoes in your house. It’ll help things like drum sets not slide around and save your feet if you’re standing for a couple hours at a time.