I finally got my building permit! The contractor (a very good friend of mine) convinced me to go with stick construction instead of metal because of the additional cost. I was also told that heavier gauge metal studs are no better in sound insulation than standard wood studs. Not sure if there is much truth to that. Currently, our exterior walls will consist of 5/8" QuietRock (model 525) drywall on 2 x 4 wood studs, 1/2" plywood w/waterproof membrane (Tyvek or similar) and standard fiberglass insulation in between. Attached to the exterior plywood are 1 x 4 wood furring strips and I plan to attach 1/4" thick 4 x 8 foot HardiPanels to the wood furring strips. The HardiPanels will not be placed butt to each other but will rather have a space of approx 5/8". This is to create a "grid" pattern to the exterior wall. My goal is to build a modern, minimalist home. So essentially, (from the outside in) I have 1/4" HardiPanel concrete board, 1/2" plywood sheet, 2 x 4 stud and 5/8" QuietRock on one wall. Would anyone have any idea what the STC rating of such an assembly would be? I've been told by a local dealer of QuietRock that I should look into the "triple leaf" effect and that spacing the HardiPanel away from the plywood could cause the STC rating of the wall assembly to drop as a result of this phenomena. My reasoning would be that placing the 1/4" HardiPanel 3/4" away from the plywood would increase the STC rating since we are adding a third but very small airgap. Keep in mind, however, that the HardiPanel assembly is not completely sealed and air/sound tight because I am spacing each panel away from each other by roughly 5/8". The other options I was looking at was going with 2 sheets of standard 5/8" drywall and GreenGlue between. I have heard that this assembly would reduce low frequency penetration into the home much better than one sheet of QuietRock 525. Is this true? And another facade option would be to go with stucco so instead of a 1/4" sheet of HardiPanel and 5/8" "air space", I would have densglass, a cementitious coat and the stucco coat on top. I'm not sure if this would provide a better STC than spacing 1/4" HardiPanel away from the plywood but I'm assuming it would. If anyone can chime in on this I'd really appreciate it. For the windows, I am looking closely at Migard's Quietline product. I may just use these windows for the bedroom windows (because of cost) and other windows in the home where people are not so sensitive to noise would likely be a standard double pane windows with thicker laminated (one pane) panes of glass (to achieve at least a 35 STC). Is this a good idea? And is it true that vinyl windows are a better sound insulator than aluminum? Everyone I talked to here says that vinyl is superior to aluminum for soundproofing but I've found some information online to the contrary. My concern with the vinyl is that it is only available in white and an off-white "tan" color, both of which won't match the modern exterior of my building. What would my options be if I went with vinyl but didn't want those frame colors? Regarding flooring, the building is 3 stories high (garage at bottom, kitchen/living second and bedrooms third) I am looking at standard TJI for the floor between the bedroom and kitchen/living area but standard 12" joists for the kitchen/living floor (garage below) and the roof (nobody above). I'm trying to achieve the best "STC per buck". The QuietRock product is NOT cheap - about $60 per 4 x 8 sheet. I'm willing to incorporate other sound proofing techniques/materials as long as the price is reasonable. Heavier insulation may be one of those options. Any advice is much appreciated!

Let's actually set this right. There are NOT three different methods of sound transmission, that is either way over-simplified or over-complicated, depending on the view that you want to take. Building designers have created a checklist to deal with building design and sound transmission. But that is because building designers have enough stuff to deal with without getting into the physics of mechanical waves when designing a building. There is exactly one method of sound transmission in buildings, on earth, in space, etc. Sound is a mechanical wave, or energy that travels through matter by disturbing it. More specifically even, it is the displacement of matter from its equilibrium position and that displacement as well as the rebounding of material is what moves sound through all matter, including air and walls, it is also the lack of matter to disturb that stops sound from moving through outer space. Sound is easy to understand as work, as sound encounters various forms of matter it expends effort to move through the material, even air, that is why decibels are lessened over distance. There are really only two ways to reduce sound, require more work and convert the work (technically there are three, but locate your basement in outer space seems a bit extreme). More mass means sound has to work harder to move the material, not unlike throwing a boulder compared to throwing a pebble. So one simple way to reduce sound transmission is to add more mass. The other is to convert sound to other forms of energy, usually heat energy. This is what resilient materials such as rubber and cork do. Think hitting someone with a bat versus hitting someone with a foam pole. ---------- Now all of this may seem immaterial to the discussion at hand but it really isn't. Building designers, especially when designing commercial buildings, have broken sound transmission into three very broad categories that they need to address in the design of a building. However, not every situation requires considering those things as they are presented, nor are those three things adequate in other situations. The final, and really more important point for homeowners, is the cost of effective design versus the cost of effective treatment. No one who actually works in theater installation and design really spends their day looking after these "three sound transmission characteristics" of building design. And no one creating sound isolation booths for recording studios would think addressing those three things are remotely adequate. I have both a home theater and a sound isolation booth in my house. There are thousands of installers, and hundreds of home theater and listening room designers who all use the same four steps for sound proofing: (1) sealing, (2) adding mass, (3) decoupling, and (4) dampening (note: that dampening is often separated into dampening and absorbing for ease of understanding). Any approach using these four steps, even in a cost effective manner, will adequately address sound transmission for most needs. Just to be clear it absolutely deals with airborne, flanking and impact transmission, it is well detailed in the material I directed the OP to. So any assertion that no one has dealt with that, is absolutely wrong. If you are building a sound isolation booth for a home recording studio, this is a good start, but by no means complete. However, you are going to have to get into specific attenuation at that point, at which time I would advise visiting the gearslutz.com or SoundonSound.com sites to get more information.

Let's just stop trying to flex here. It is a bit ridiculous. I have asthma and when we decided to build a shop connected to the house, dust control was our most important concern. I have a 5 HP dust collection system, with an air cleaner, both with 2 micron filters. No matter what you do, you are not going to eliminate all dust in a shop using power tools. You are going to be very lucky to get 95%-98%, and two weekends ago, I generated two 55 gallon drums of sawdust ( I had a lot of boards to plane). Even with crazy dust collection, there is at least a couple of gallons of dust floating around my shop, and that is in one weekend, and honestly even with one of the cleanest shops I have ever been in, there was more than that. Sound attenuation curtains are going to collect dust, and they are going to prevent it collecting on the floor. When you hit those curtains, which you will as you move boards around, that dust is going to get back into the air. It it is a good general suggestion, but not one that is good for the specific situation. This is the problem of providing general advice to specific questions. I have a home theater, and the work I did to build it was much different than my shop. It was much more expensive and required a lot of decoupling, mass, and absorption, as I am running four large SVS subs in there. However, my shop is just as quiet without most of that expense, and I am not alone in that result. I recommended sources with detailed information and real results addressing wood shops specifically. I apologize that the tone of my response was rude, I admit that you were the disproportionate recipient of my frustration. That frustration can largely be attributed to the above phenomenon of discounting specific expertise and results, while endorsing general knowledge. I didn't want to advocate for spray insulation as I don't like spray insulation, however, if you were to peruse the information available on shop sound control, you would find scientific studies indicating that open cell foam insulation is actually the most effective option for quieting universal and induction motors, with results that significantly exceed Roxul. However, they must be used in a specific manner, which is detailed in those sources.

Just looking for a sanity check on these figures. I'm with the majority here. With this plan, you're already pretty close to your budget, and your allowances are high. If you move forward with this project, I think you will go over your budget ... badly. In just the way other people have outlined. Do yourself a favor and go shopping for a day looking at lighting, tile, backsplashes, appliances, carpeting, etc. Yes! Do some shopping and see you you're able to find what you want for these prices. That's a good measurement of the numbers. I'm really surprised at the 10k for cabinets, particularly since you have 2 kitchens. Yes, I've looked at several levels of cabinetry lately ... and you can't even do one DIY Ikea kitchen for 10K. Is that supposed to include countertops? I think you mentioned quartz somewhere? For 10K you're going to have a hard time getting laminate. The commercial kitchen is for food processing - its not going to be a commercial grade kitchen - commercial grade stuff is way overkill for the type of food my wife makes and the builder is just stubbing it. I don't get what you're doing here. Does she do catering? Or do you process deer? Does she need an oven? A showcase refrigerator? Seating for clients? You need to consider her specific needs. For example, I make wedding cakes ... I have well over 100 cake pans, and let's not even get started on my cake stands. What are her specific needs? I’m having a custom Amish cabinet maker do our kitchen and vanities, and we’re at about $24k. That sounds about right for custom cabinetry in modest-sized kitchen ... not super fancy-schmancy, but excellent quality and designed to fit your space. So, to the OP: This is reasonable. Not the imaginary 10K cabinetry allowance or your over-the-top number of 80K for cabinetry. And you're planning on two kitchens. One of them huge. I don’t see plumbing fixtures, counters, or hardware on your list and there is no specificity regarding any other materials (windows, doors, etc.). You have been given an extremely general and incomplete list. I was going to bring that up -- those are some big ticket items. We are beyond happy with the floor plan as is. "its poorly designed" isn't great criticism because what am I supposed to do with that? Okay, you're asking for ideas on how to improve things: - We don't see any exterior sketches here. With the width of this plan, I fear for the dimensions /heights to which this width may push this roof. - You have two entry doors on the front of the house, which can be confusing for guests ... note that personal guests will have to bypass the commercial kitchen entrance to reach the home entrance. It's just weird. I'm guessing that your wife will see clients in her kitchen? A door on the side of the house would be nicer all around. The driveway and layout don't seem to support both commercial and personal traffic. - I suspect this commercial kitchen needs storage to be hidden from the public. - Note that the closets in the foyer and the office have small doors ... this will lead to deep, dark hidden spaces on both sides. You need larger doors to make these closets functional. - You don't have windows on the side walls. Rooms are always nicer if light comes in from two sides ... your office and one bedroom could be improved in this way. - Definitely change the door to the powder room ... also change the pocket door to a hinge door; pocket doors are great for spots where the door stays open most of the time, whereas bathroom doors are opened /closed frequently. Also, why the world's smallest shower in this spot? You're talking about money ... the guy who visited our house recently wanted almost 7K to refurbish our shower. That's a lot of money for something that likely won't be used. And if clients are using this powder room, a shower is odd. - On the other hand, pocket doors would work well for the mudroom door and the door between the family kitchen and commercial kitchen ... because these doors will likely stay open most of the time. - Your laundry is in the middle of the house. Ideally dryers are located on exterior walls. This is cheaper to build and more fire safe. With a commercial kitchen, is one W/D enough? - Consider walking from the garage to the family kitchen pantry ... you must traverse the length of the mudrom, then backtrack through the kitchen. Could you go with a pass-through between the garage-pantry ... or the mudroom-pantry? Corner pantries are problematic ... note that opening the door closes off circulation through the kitchen. Overall, the kitchen isn't awful, but neither is it the kitchen of a serious cook; it's the kitchen you'd expect to find in a tract house. Perhaps that's okay because you have the commercial kitchen adjacent? - You have a wall at the end of the family kitchen cabinet run /prevent light from coming in. It's going to break up the space visually. With no exterior walls, the kitchen won't be the light-filled lovely place you probably want ... with or without that small wall. - I don't see how furniture will be laid out in the great room - ... and is that a dining room in this space too? One of my major pet peeves is two eating areas in the same space. That's opinion, but it seems weird to me to have two tables in view of one another ... PLUS you have island seating? Probably seating outside too? How many eating areas do you need? - Your breakfast room isn't large enough. - Is that the master bedroom off the kitchen? I assume the bed will be placed against the wall shared with the garage? So you'll have to walk around the bed while carrying laundry to the closet ... and then the closet door will be right next to one sleeping spouse's bedside. This just isn't good circulation. I'd try to move the master bath and closet closer to the kitchen /bump the master bedroom out to the edge. This would allow the master greater privacy /would allow the master to have light from two sides. - The master bedroom isn't close to any exterior door ... if you anticipate being elderly in this house, I'd consider an exterior door for fire safety. - Look at the master bath and ask yourself this: where are you hanging towels for the shower? You need at least a small linen closet in the master. - The long, long hallway between the kids' bedrooms will be, well, long ... and dark. You can place the kids' room /bathroom down a hallway ... without it being dark and uninviting. You might need to break away from the strict rectangle into which you're currently stuck. Yes, a simple design is a good idea, but if it pushes you into spaces like this hallway, it may be false economy. - Some people might tell you to bring in sunlight with solar tubes, but I personally don't like the idea of holes in the roof. - I'm not opposed to J&J bathrooms, but they're rarely done well, and this one is no exception. For starters, the kids will wreck those pocket doors sooner rather than later, and then you'll have to call in a pro to fix them. Personally, I'd go with one simple three-piece bath (with a linen closet) opening into the hall /then I'd lose the powder room (unless you need it for commercial kitchen clients). - The kids' closets are minimal. I'd move them to the other wall to provide a sound buffer between the bedrooms and the bathroom. No, it won't hurt kids to hear plumbing sounds, but you don't build a custom house to keep all the little irritations that exist in most houses. You can have soundproofing for no additional cost, so why not do it? - The first kid's bedroom has some problems. Start by moving the door further down the hall; this will give it more privacy ... also, if you change the bathroom to a hall bath, you'll want the door closer to the bathroom. If you move the closet so it's adjacent to the bathroom, you'll have more empty wall space /furniture placement will be improved. - What's up with the garage? Is that an attempt at a four-car garage with entrances from two sides? On top of that - we have a kickass property and to capitalize on the view we are pretty limited with placement Thing is, you're telling us you have a prime piece of land ... but the house doesn't seem appropriate to it. 1/2 acre is quite small, but you're planning a rather large single-story house with a bloated garage. To build a successful project, you must choose a house that suits the land. Likely, given your space constraints, a two-story house (or a house with a basement ... or a garage in the basement, depending upon your geography) would be more appropriate. it may be more of a personal vendetta of some sort than an actual serious issue. I'll give you the bathroom door - that's it though :D Why would anyone have a personal vendetta against a stranger? People are trying to help you, but this isn't a "yes board" that praises everything that people sketch out. we aren't building it for the market we are building it for ourselves. This is as it should be when you're doing a custom build ... but it's realistic to consider the resale market too. Any of us could find ourselves in circumstances that would force us to sell, and this house is so highly personalized that it'd be a tough sell. Oh one thing I didn't address was the window placement - we have a 50 mile view of a valley on that side of the house - facing north - we specifically wanted any room that can have that view to have it. Is that view out the back of the house? That's where your best windows are placed. As I mentioned earlier, there is very little storage in this plan. True -- this is a major problem. I've read that a house should be 10% storage. Also aloof, as a fridge for $1500 is considered the ghetto low end I guess... Hyperbole doesn't help. Neither does sarcasm. $1500 is certainly not a ghetto refrigerator ... it's probably an average fridge that most of us would choose. It'd be a basic brand like Frigadaire or KitchenAid ... it'd be large, stainless steel, probably French door. It would not come with bells and whistles (which is okay 'cause fridges don't really NEED bells and whistles). The problem isn't a $1500 fridge ... it's an appliance budget of only $3850. Once you've spent that $1500, you only have $2350 left for a range (and the drawing seems to indicate a large gas stove, which will not be cheap) + a range hood + a dishwasher + a washer/dryer ... oh, and a whole second kitchen. 1-2 rooms deep is not an option on our lot - we need certain spaces to be certain sizes and if we were to make it 1 or 2 deep we'd have a house that was 200+ feet long. Doesn't work on a 150x150 lot very well. Same reason we aren't doing an external garage. Again, a sign that your house plan doesn't match your space. We wont need to walk around anything to get to our master - that nook space is 12 feet wide and even if you cant beeline to the room...not a big deal. Perhaps if we had numbers on the plan we'd agree. Even so, the door is plopped in the middle of that space, and walking around the table to reach the door will become a problem when you're carrying baskets of laundry or when you're elderly. Our badass theater system I'm not against corner fireplaces ... as long as they're nicely done. Do consider, though, that you're talking about placing this "badass theater system" up against a kid's bedroom wall. He or she will hear whatever you're watching /playing. The mudroom is 8 feet wide. Plenty of room for 4 people to move around. We don't march like ants through our doors. The W/D and cabinetry will eat up 3' of this space, leaving you 5' of walking space. That's enough ... but I'd add an additional 1' of width to this room ... and use it to create a fantastic set of floor-to-ceiling shelves across from the W/D. This house lacks storage, and this would give you massive shelving, which could be used for either personal or commercial use. The spousal stuff is also not an issue. We have the same sleep schedule and I use a CPAP - a toilet flushing isnt a bother. For now you have the same sleep schedule ... things do change as you pass through the seasons of life. Will you always have these same jobs? What if one of you were to become sick? Ideally your bed would be "tucked back" so that all foot traffic would funnel past the foot of the bed / neither spouse would have to tiptoe near the head of the bed to reach either the bathroom or the closet. Again, a toilet flushing isn't a huge deal, but when you have the opportunity to eliminate all the little irritations ... and when it's no more money or trouble to do it /it just takes a little thought and planning ... why wouldn't you want to optimize all the functions to make the house as nice as it can possibly be? We're talking about things that don't cost more ... they just require planning. I don't know what you would need a linen closet in them all for - plenty of space in 5 or 6 feet of cabinet to store anything you'd actually need. A linen closet in the bathroom is WONDERFUL ... it's in the category of necessities /not a luxury. Mine's only 2' wide, and it's plenty. We have three shelves, which hold towels, extra toiletries, and winter blankets. The bottom half is open /we keep a hamper in that space. I suggest you take a couple of weeks away from your plan Excellent idea. I think you're too close to see the shortcomings. It's a whole lot easier to change things now while they're still just on paper. We can debate Jack and Jill baths (we have one) but the desire for sunlight is universal. Agree. So....I truly don’t understand why you would post your concerns if virtually nothing anyone says is seriously considered or has any meaning to you? Valid question. The "aw shucks, we don't need none of that fancy stuff" thing may be true, but, at the end of the day, you're spending a huge chunk of time and money to build a home, why not take a breath and make sure the floor plan best suits your needs? Yeah, the "we don't need none of that fancy stuff" concept works for some people ... but when you claim this while filling inspiration files full of pix dripping with money, a disconnect is obvious. Good design doesn't cost any more than poor design ... and a lot of the discussion here isn't about laminate vs. marble; rather, it's about circulation and placement of spaces. For example, ask what window brand he uses and make sure that's in the contract -- cheap windows will cost you more in the long run as they aren't as energy efficient as good windows. Good advice. Windows really are a splurge item; good windows will make a huge difference in the overall visual quality of the house ... and better quality windows will give you better function /lower utilty bills. Do yourself a huge favor and go browsing and look at appliances. Visit a showroom and determine IF you really want builder basic slide in ranges or if you want something a little nicer. Again, good advice. Gather real information. Determine your own comfort level. You can read advice here, but nothing compares to doing your own homework. U-28 or better windows per design - lifetime warranty Marvin? Pella? Which of their lines? Double hung or casement? What does lifetime warranty mean? It doesn't necessarily mean the rest of your life; yeah, really. Investigate. Seriously, windows are a make-or-break item, and U-28 doesn't tell us a thing. Cement lap siding ... stone accents ... Cedar ceilings on overhangs ...Comp shingles with lifetime warranty Too many elements. You're in danger of an overly-cluttered look. I'm not going to go through the rest of the list, but LOTS of vaguery here. What name brands will the builder use? If you don't know, the answer is Home Depot builder-basic. The island is 5x10 with an 18" overhand on two sides - all the same level. Are you tall? I wouldn't be able to reach the middle of that island to clean. Breakfast nook is 10'x17' - plenty big enough It was 12' wide a few posts ago. Again, remember that this space must support not only the table, but also the pathway to your bedroom. Consider passing through this space while chairs are pulled out from the table. You could maximize space in this area by using banquette seating. I asked the builder about the master door - it may be weird right there - but it will be a barn door to - and closed when we aren't in there. Wait ... a barn door into the master bedroom? Do you have any experience with these doors? I stayed in a hotel room once that had a barn door on the bathroom. That stay was enough to turn me against them ... they're not the best choice for privacy. If you love the look, consider them for closets (or similar), but not spaces where you want privacy. Consider this: Your kids are teens and have friends over in the living room watching that bad-ass entertainment center ... and you're behind a door that doesn't really close /doesn' give you acoustical privacy. Your builder is being intentionally vague in your contract/allowances because he has a certain profit margin to make. I suspect the same. OP I would challenge you to try to place furniture in your great room... particularly your dining table and couches, and see how they are going to fit considering the doorways and pathways around them... I suggest you plug this plan into a 3D house-planning computer program that'll allow you to "walk through". I promise you'll see some problems. I don’t want a crappy roof and marble countertops. That's well said. I'll add /finish with this thought: I don't want a top-notch roof and marble countertops covering poor circulation and oddly-laid out rooms.