paulears, post: 447023, member: 47782 wrote: Just reading one of the topics on a basement studio and something suddenly came into my head. Safety.

One thing that has always worried me with studios over the years has nothing to do with their acoustic performance, it's the safety aspect. Basement studios in particular always worry me a little. One point of entry - into a soundproof room. Does anyone consider how you'd know if your house was on fire? Open the door to go up for a cup of tea and discover smoke and flames. Soundproof rooms keep smoke out too. Here in the UK, our building regulations would make a basement studio a problem with the single access. Is it much simpler in the US?

Back in the 80's, I spent lots of time in nuclear bunkers, safe and sound. One of these near me has been opened to the public as a museum, and they have had to cut a new fire escape through two feet of concrete to comply with current safety rules.

In my current workplace - the studio in my house, it's two rooms built into a long space - probably 40ft in length but the first 8 ft looks like a conventional and very short garage - the up and over door allows access to a bit of storage, then the first wall cuts across. When it was being built, one section of the wall had a wider stud distance in one corner, so if there was an emergency this room, which leads to another that leads to the single exit does have a potential extra exit into that store space, and then to outside - by simply kicking through the two layers of plasterboard on the inside layer, and two more on the outside. This was really a result of a visit to a different studio by a fire officer doing an inspection of fire risk - he was the first person to ask how anyone in the studio would know the fire alarm was going off - because the rooms were soundproof, and nobody had taken any part in a fire alarm test. The result there was a strobe flasher in both studio areas. Since then, I've been more fire aware. Do any other people build this into their studio planning?

In America, most new alarms have strobes....but, you'd have to be able to see it.

But they also have ones that sync. So, if one goes off, they all go off. So you could just put a set of those in the house and studio. I'm not sure if it's just my state, but they also have to be hard wired now, plus a battery back up.

But your are right if it's a basement joint with one point of entry, that might be a rough exit. Personally, I wouldn't build it that way, unless I absolutely had to but I understand that it happens.

I think part of it is that if you have never had, or known someone who has had a fire, you tend not to think about it. This was my car after a seizure. I made it out in time, and wasn't hurt. But, I crawled out, barely conscious, just in time. Everyone thinks it won't happen to them, until it does.