Using Wood for Control Room and Live Room?

[BJohnston]

I got my hands on 1200 sqft of old tongue and groove flooring that I ripped out of a run down grain mill (free!!!!!!!!). I stripped the paint and it's absolutely beautifull. My question is about staining and treating the wood. Does applying Polyurethane to the wood take away from any accoustic qualities? Reflecting instead of absorbing? If so what should be used to treat it, if anything at all. I want the maximum use from the properties of the wood. What do you think?

Thanks,
BJohnston[/b]

[soundguy]

I thought I was the only one to tweak on this, Im laughing. I thought for the longest time that applying a plastic (polyeurethane) sealer to the wood woudl fuck up its qualities, and that may very well be the the case, but dont overlook the fact that you have to walk on the wood and drag all varieties of shit over it day in and day out, so in the long run, a highg quaility sealer that is best for the wood and not so hot for acoustics might be better for keeping your place looking good. This is the conclsuion I arrrived at with my place. Compensate for whatever reflective quality you add to the floor with your room treatment, if you are putting the wood on the wall, I would stain in and not seal it if you are really concerned, it wont have the same foot traffic the floor does.

dave

[Scodiddly]

I'd use it on the floor, and do a decent job of sealing it so it'll last. Flooring is going to be dense enough that it'll reflect a lot anyway.

Then look for some old barn-siding wood for the walls - that stuff is a bit softer.

[KennyLusk]

Another thing to consider is are you floating the floor or gluing it right to the concrete. If you're gluing it to the concrete I don't believe it'll make a difference whether you seal it or leave it untreated because the floor has no way of vibrating; therefor it has no way of really absorbing much, right?

If you are going to float the floor (for sub-floor cabling, networking computers, digital interconnects or communications wiring, etc) then you may consider leaving the wood untreated (despite wear and tear) to give the room a little character and take advantage of creating softer reflections in the room.

Just a thought.

[BJohnston]

Thanks for the relplies. I will be using it for the floor, walls and ceiling in the Live room. And for the floor, partial wall, and partial ceiling in the Control Room. Not treating the walls and ceiling sounds like a good idea to me.

Thanks again,
B

[joel hamilton]

In my old studio we used barn wood that was 2" thick tongue and groove stuff with tarpaper on it. We scraped the tarpaper off ourselves, and were planning on floor sanding and sealing after. Once we got the tar paper off we realized how bad ass it looked as is. I wound up using butchers wax just to keep cocacola out of it, and it gave it a nice satin look without killing the character or turning it into a plastic (polyurethane) floor. That was in the live room. For the control room we used those little wood tile thingy's, like the parquet (sp?) floor tile things. real wood, but totally pre-fab. Better for rolling chairs to peel out on day after day.

I would have wiped out on this barn wood stuff if I treied rolling around on it in a chair, so thats why we did it I guess. It worked/sounded/looked awesome to me.

People liked it I guess.

[joelpatterson]

Half of our floor is 1" x 10" pine, untreated, the other half is hardwood (ash) with a Watco oil sealer. No doubt the harder, shinier floor has a "brassier" reflection than the raw pine, which is mellow and nicely dull and "woodier."

And there's no exaggerating the overall ambience, psychologically, of the aura when you've got old authentic mill boards, like you say. It's like the ghosts of your fathers, hovering around to listen.