carpet vs laminate floors

[bradfromtampa]

i'm turning my garage / shed into a one room studio. it is kind of tight on space, 15' x 17' x 8'. i'm curious if there would be any advantage to a carperted floor vs a laminate "wood" floor.

[runrunrun]

the general rule of thumb is hard floor/soft ceiling. if you are recording acoustic instruments, the reflections of the floor can be an important part of the sound. its easy to throw down carpets on a hard floor, its a bit more awkward to have some sort of hard wooden panel to put under where you are recording.

[kayagum]

Aside from the acoustics, would you rather spill a drink on the carpet or on a laminate floor? Would you rather roll your equipment cart on the carpet or a laminate floor? How would you vacuum?

[bradfromtampa]

yeah, i totally agree with the ease of the wood floors as far as cleaning and rolling around. i'm leaning towards the laminate. i made a huge mistake of buying cheap laminate flooring, after about 3 hrs of getting nowhere i started questioning the decision... i'm getting married this weekend and i am going to take a break from the project and do some more research after the honeymoon...

[JWL]

Another possibility is to keep the concrete, but stain it. You can get some cool looking floors that way....

Concrete and wood floors should sound about the same (assuming there is no resonance from an improperly-installed wood floor)....

[river]

Laminate, and spring the for the deluxe acoustic damping padding to go underneath (Home Depot or Lowe's). This will be the closest thing to a floating floor reasonable money can by, will greatly reduce rumble from traffic etc.......seal the concrete first to minimize any potential moisture problems. I did my control room this way over the exisitng hardwood floor, which is the same level as my tracking room. It decoupled it very nicely. BTW, I got my flooring at Sam's Club for $1.25 per sq ft. I was just in Costco this last week and they had scads of it too.

[boretronix]

river- what's the name of this acoustic damping padding?

[river]

I don't recall a brand name, but it's a lovely shade of hospital green, about 1/8" thick. It's clearly marked as being a commercial grade, acoustic damping product. The transparent blue stuff that comes with the flooring is pretty worthless.