Sliding glass doors for iso booth

[googacky]

Hello. I'm working on my new studio space and I have two iso booths with no doors. The previous owners took them out when they left. They had a single one inch thermal break sliding glass door for each booth. I'm not sure if this will be enough for isolation. That's only a total of one-fourth inch of glass. I've been looking into two doors for each booth, but these things cost about $600 each. $2400 for doors is a bit out of my budget. I'm looking for ideas. What are you guys using for your iso booths and how is your isolation? I'd love to be able to find some single pane doors with half-inch glass for, oh five bucks, but I'm not even sure if such a thing exists.

[goldstar]

goog

Sliders are hard to get a good seal; can you frame in 1/2 the opening and just use a single door? Cheapest way to go is to cut in your own (thick) glass in a solid core slab, then add trim to make a frame for it.

You're right, standard 1" insulated works OK for keeping out the cold, but not the sound.

PM me if you want more info; I do lots of doors for a living.

Frank[/quote]

[jmoose]

I've seen it done and they actually work pretty well as long as you don't cheese out and get the $250 door from Ed's House of Bargins. Shop around for good ones and you should be fine. You're gonna open & close 'em a lot so look for something that glides smoothly and has a tight seal to the frame when it's closed.

There's usually air space between the panes of glass so getting a door with a 1/4" (or thicker) pane on each side that's been properly sealed to the door frame, and having the whole assembly properly installed into the wall is key. Sure, a 3" thick solid oak door would be better but if they had sliders installed the first time you'd have one hell of a gap to fill, or some REALLY heavy & expensive doors. No matter what door you install it's always going to leak some sound.

If you want to take the cheap way out and go DIY, you could get some 3/4" plywood and put a few pieces back to back to build your own doors & frames. Or, you could hunt around the salvage yards and see what's out there.

[trodden]

craigslist. I found my double paned, vinyl, sliding glass door on craigslist for $100 new/used. This model usually went for $400 new at Home Despot. Granted, two of them would be awesome sound barrier, i worked in a studio that separated the control room from the live room with two sliding glass doors.. but due to duct work and such, a second one to fit in the space i have would require a custom job that would cost way too much. For my studio though, the one is doing the job quite nicely.

[Disasteradio]

if you're looking to glaze doors yourself.. and without knowing much on the state of things in the US, you should try to track down some laminate. That's what we use in shopfronts and shit, it's a 6.38mm thick sheet with two 3mm panes seperated with a layer of glue / "laminate" - it's the stuff that cracks, but is a bitch to actually smash out, it all holds together (like standard car windscreens)

Oh, watch out if they try to sell you some acoustically specific stuff check if you can get a spec sheet .. the "soundstop" glass we get (iirc) has a seperate formulation / thickness of the laminate, but at twice the price. Off the top of my head I figured it out that double laminate in a good air gap is at least 150% as effective as our soundstop provided you can fit the gap in to whatever you're building.

(oh yeah, I've been working at my pa's glass place for the last 8 years, heh)

[Luke]

I've got a slider on my booth and it works surprisingly well, but it was an $800 door. If it's not closed tightly it makes a big difference. Just the slightest crack of an opening. I really don't think the cheap ones are going to seal well enough to give you enough isolation.
Good Luck,
Luke

[norton]

is there a salvaged building materials warehouse near you? craigslist too... you should be able to pick up a decent slider cheap.

then pick up another... cheap.
Double Hang Them! i did it at my space and it works great. the second door really knocks down sound.

making the jamb wasn't too tough either... so don't shy away from just the doors...all you do is give it a ridge to ride on (bent aluminum or steel stock... attached to the floor) and buld a channel or pocket for the door to slide in out of weather stipping and 1x stock wood and it's a go.

i think that i found both of my doors on the side of the street... as trash and they're killer pella doors. just not in style anymore i guess.