HVAC woes
heard back from the HVAC guy today. he's really worried that if we tap into the existing furnace and duct line for the studio, there'll be too much acoustic bleed between the studio and the rest of the house. he's proposing doing a completely separate system for the studio. this was my original plan for the studio and is by far the best in terms of soundproofing.
however.....
this is going to require an engineered solution. they quoted me $760 just to do the plans. once they do that, i'd be looking at somewhere around $10-15k to implement. aside from the fact that i don't have this kind of money right now, i'm just not sure i want to spend this much. i'm trying to quanitify where the point of diminishing returns is for me now to help figure out how best to proceed. the other big problem with doing an engineered solution like this is it'll affect the resale value of the house, so not only would i be dropping $15k on it, but i'd probably be taking $5k or something off the house value. several people have said to me, "they're just trying to take you for a ride," but the reality is that HVAC stuff for studios is incredibly complex, and solutions like this tend to use very non-standard equipment which comes with an added price tag.
one thing i've learned through this whole process is that you can drive yourself absolutely insane (and piss poor) trying to make everything absolutely perfectly soundproofed. especially in a space like mine where you have to deal with certain realities presented by the existing structure. for instance, if i could float the ceiling, i'd get much better isolation from upstairs. but i don't have the ceiling height to do that, so i'm doing the next best thing and using resilient channel.
i'm currently waiting for him to give me a quote for doing the original thing we discussed, which is to put in a new furnace, install a dehumidifier, and install/replace whatever ductwork needs to be done and treat it with insulation and proper sizing and all. i realize that this means there will be some noise bleed through the ductwork, but it's still way less bleed than if the ductwork weren't treated at all. what it will come down to is the "do i really want to pay $5k more for a few additional dB of sound isolation?" question.