French Doors

Frame it in to standard size and then install the french door; if necessary, hire a contractor or work with competent friends.

Thanks Lars. When you say "frame it to standard size", are you recommending to get a dry wall done? Yes, I will have to work with a contractor. The audio shop from where I purchased my amp can do acoustics treatments. But I am not sure if they can do anything about the door.

I suggest 5 inch thick steel door with three custom locks and keys. Anything less - the kids and visitors will find their way there.

You don't sound like you're into construction, so definitely hire a good contractor. He will re-frame your opening to the correct door size, and then fill in the area with drywall. Depending on your wall finishes, he will match the existing look. Honestly, this could end up being a big mess unless you have the expertise to do it right. I'm a retired carpenter, so I know whereof I speak.

Just my opinion here, don't use french doors. Have a solid door to your listening room.

I second the response from Sid42. Ask your neighbors for suggestions for a good local "handyman" company they use, or check Angie's list. Any decent home improvement/repair contractor can frame in a door, mount drywall, and hang the door with his or her eyes closed. Like Sid42 , I know whereof I speak - I'm a complete klutz, but I have a great home improvement guy that everybody in my neighborhood uses. I may not be handy, but I can speed dial with the best of them. ;)

Don't use french doors and use a standard size door. That way you can treat that wall for a better sound.

French doors look great, but there are downsides. They will transmit sound into the rest of the house through the glass resonating - is that OK? If not, you are better off with a solid core door that seals on all sides with insulation (they make a bottom thingy that seals by pressing downward when the door is closed). This will make sure you don't bother others in the house when they want quiet and you don't. If you decide to get french doors because of their superior aesthetic, make sure that you get thick glass. Thin glass can resonate something aweful.

French doors do have glass which is probably not a very good idea.
If there in no electrical on either side of the rough opening (32 1/2") You can install 2 pocket doors.

I assume that you say "we" just moved in, that the french door is a major WAF. So have a door custom made for the opening. Then install curtians on the sound room side to buffer the reflections inheirant to glass doors. 65} is a little wide but I think some wider trim can allow you to install a standard width door as far as the height add a mock transom or some doors have different variations of a transom built in. Just a thought.

Theo is correct that you can have a custom size door made to fit the opening and not have to go through the extra work to reframe and drywall/ paint. You may have to do some research as to who can make this door for you. And be careful that someone doesn't try to take you to the cleaners in the price dept. I have a (somewhat) local guy with a shop who makes just about any window or door I can imagine and his costs are very reasonable. Ask around or check your yellow pages under "millwork", there's someone out there.

I would build an acoustic door to mitigate the sound transmission out of the room. There are many companies that build acoustic doors. I just did a quick search and found this company.

http://www.industrialacoustics.com/usa/doors_windows_partitions/index.asp

http://www.industrialacoustics.com/usa/gallery/doors_gallery.asp

Good luck,
Audioquest4life

Depending upon your trim, that opening is about right for standard 5' double doors (either French or regular). They will only need to add drywall at the top and maybe a little on the sides. A French door could have curtains to help the reflections if required. Hire it out, it will be straight forward.

Honestly guys - THANK YOU. I should have posted this last week. I was not sure how my question would be "received" in the forums as it was not related to amps/players/cables/speakers and so I hesitated.

Lots of good ideas and things I did not think of - like thin glass on French doors. The only reason for coming up with French doors was because the size of the opening is so wide and (as Theo mentioned) has a WAF. You guys have given me great points that I can discuss with any contractor who can do this door for me. I am thinking of a 2 solid doors to minimize vibrations and from "acoustics" perspective.

Again, Thank You one and all. Great ideas!!

I did the same thing. I had one of those rooms open to everywhere. I had two sets of french doors installed. They work just fine. It was important to me to let light through and also retain the sight line through the house. The doors can be opened all the way to accomodate the open flow through design that was originally intended.

I don't find the sound leakage any greater through the room with the french doors vs the standard hollow core interior doors in other rooms. You don't state if soundproofing that room from the remainder of the house is a priority. I think the french doors are an elegant solution. Check my system for photos.

One more thought on French doors. I built a listening room/study in an attic space in a prior home, and because of lighting issues, wanted to have a French Door to get more light into the space. I solved for the sound problem by having an EXTERNAL french door and frame installed -- one that was intended to be the front door to the house or the back door onto a patio. It was very heavy, insulated, had double-paned glass, and the surrounding door frame was also insulated and had a rubber weather seal. It looked great, but also was a very good sound insulator -- I had no problem with vibration and the sound dampening was very good.

Considering the dimensions of the room, but not knowing the location of the opening, I have to wonder if you really want to put a door there?

I've used double glazed glass windows and they do use thin glass. For a little more money, they will put thicker glass in the window. I would strongly recommend that.

Unsound,
Good point. The room has that single opening on the back of the 13' wall. This is actually the "formal living room" that I will convert into a music room. As you enter the house, it is the first room on your left.
That was one of the reasons for getting a french door. But I am open to various options and ideas.

Rdavwhitaker-my thoughts exactly. He can actually order a custome size that will work fine. Double doors with side glass? It's gonna be pricey. My guess is 1-2k plus install. They don't need to be wood either. Vinyl comes in many colors.

If it already hasn't been mentioned, check the demo and let know you have a concern for rattles too.

Drop the French door idea. I used them in a living room to close it off exactly as you're planning. They did very little to reduce sound transmitted to the rest of the house.
As you are having a contractor do the work, I really like the heavy pocket-door idea.
When I was stationed in Greece I rented a house that had huge sliding doors which opened in to the living room. It was really a bonus to be able to open the doors and not have them intrude in to the room.

Pocket doors transmit more sound into adjoining rooms than french doors because of the pockets!!!!

Pocket doors transmit more sound into adjoining rooms than french doors because of the pockets!!!!
Tpreaves

Care to explain how?

Another vote to use exterior French doors - with their double panes of thick glass and weather sealing they do a good job keeping sound out of the rest of the house. I use them between the home and an addition with a brick wall between and it works great.

Care to explain how?

The cavities that the doors slide into are hollow so all you have between the rooms are what the walls are made of i,e, no insulation. This lets more sound travel thru the walls. Pretty simple concept if you think about it.

I'm not a home builder but I have removed walls for remodeling. Don't remember any insulation between the drywall on inner walls which is what I expect we're talking about here.

Some do some don't Timrhu, all my interior walls have insulation for sound deadening. If there's no insulation then yes, it probably wouldn't make a difference what kind of door is used.

Tpreaves,

"all my interior walls have insulation for sound deadening"

This is a very nice feature you have but typically you will not see insulation in interior walls unless a consumer specifically requests it when the structure is built (in my geographical area anyway). Commercial applications differ, such as condo's, townhouses, hotels, etc.

We just added false walls on a duplex. The noise to/from the attached house was tremendous. It worked amazingly well. Very simple 2 day job and you would never be able to tell that it was done at all. We just lost 6 inches of space. 1 inch air gap, 4 inch framed wall with insulation and 1/2 inch drywall on each side. gave us a chance to upgrade the wiring too. Cost was minimal.

On an inside wall, packing 6" of insulation in a 2" by 4" stud wall makes a good difference too. Double the 1/2" or 5/8" sheetrock helps a lot. The wall has a thud type of sound (knocking on it), instead of that hollow sound. It's not the best, but works wonders vs. standard, and fairly cheap. They have a sheetrock that is made for this (sound dampening), but I can't remember the name or never heard it work. It might be QuietRock. [http://www.quietrock.com/drywall.html]

How did it all work out?

Lars,
I will be getting the french-doors installed in the next week. Frankly I do not know how it will work out, since this room is kind of small (13 X 12). I envy all the people with big/medium rooms. But I will have to look at some good room treatments, since this is my home and not an apartment, where it was not an option. My wife seems to be fine with me spending on room treatments. So once the door is done, I will focus on room treatments.

Seems to me you've got some great options. Small, high quality front ported monitors might be just the ticket. I'd love to hear a pair of Totem Model Ones set up in your room. A small subwoofer would be fun to play with, especially if you plan to listen with the door open as well as closed. The smaller size of your room will also allow you to experiment with much lower powered amplification, perhaps single ended triodes, etc. depending on your speakers. Anyway, nice talking with you.

if you have the doors made special to your house it shouldn't matter if it is a standard door or not. They should be able to make the door for your house. I would go with a different company like conservation construction of texas or anderson

Wow....a bit late. While the french door was put in way back, I don't use that room for audio anymore. Had a new room built in the basement.

Check out this website: https://www.edidoors.com/ they import european doors, so perhaps you'll find what you are looking for

Only 8.5 years later, I'm sure he is still looking for doors.

First post and this is the best you can do?

LOL!

Milpai,

   A new room made for audio in the basement? Hmm, maybe I will go into my basement with a shovel, and start digging. That would be the only way to gain a room for audio at my place.

@4krowme,
Yeah, start digging and let me know when you finish your room :-)
If you really have to know about the "build", go to my system page and I have provided the details in the description.