John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hai Superman (daily planet, doh)

Great to see your framing getting together. Could you spare a few extra minutes taking photos/explaining more about your metalstuds framing, since I'll be using the same technique. I'm especially interessted in the doordframing etc. And the strength of such framing method (I'm concerned that woodframe will be stronger than metalframe...)

nice work so far!
ro

so damn proffesional. That's what w'all wanna live up to, isn't it?

Steel Framing is new for me to this project.
Essentially my wall is 2"x4"x10' track-which is the eqivalent of a "header and a footer" in Lumber....and 2"x4"x12' Studs. The Track is shot down to the floor with gunpowder loaded bullet loaded guns and then the ceiling track is aligned with laser levels and imaged on the ceiling and then attached via steel studs screws. Then the studs go in 16" on center spacing. The Door frames work identically to lumber.

The real trick is to hire a framing crew and watch them for a bit.

1800 square feet - 2 studios 2 control rooms 1 bath 1 ISO 1 Office a Lobby - 3 - 8 hour days FRAMED.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

and how stable is it (against wood for example)
Do you hang doors on the metal frame or are ye using a wood frame for that?

(hang on, I'm gonna frame my rooms with studs too and need all experience I can get )

tia, ro

Well I can tell you for sure in about 2 weeks!

Sheet rock starts next week after we get Electrical, HVAC, and Framing Rough in Inspections ( not flowing smoothly yet) and then its doors!

I reorganized the HVAC layout.

Now the metal trunk supply & return are running up the hallway and we are using flex to get into the studios. Should be quieter and was much easier to run than the earlier plan.

Lets see if the inspector agrees.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

Hi everybody,

INSPECTIONS:


#1 Electrical Temp (exterior meter base and panel tie in with ground)
Rocked that like a hurricane. Good to go.

#2 Passed framing inspection with flying colors. He kicked, shaked and rattled the framing. Inspector had a lot of comments about other things than framing too while he walked the floor of the warehouse floor -good sign. He didn't give me a CLUE about what he thought until he was done molesting my framework and then he muttered, "This looks really good."
I nearly kissed him. Glad I held back. At least till I get the signature, right?

#3 Failed round one of electrical. Passed the reinspection in 48 hours. Inspector didnt like Romex 12-2 overhead, even though it is a sheetrock ceiling... but he let us go with it. However, he really didnt like us tying off more than 3 Romex lines togheter when we dressed it. Had to space bundles of 3 apart by 2". (I guess every inspector has his little things)

FYI, the yellow jacket from Romex 12-2 is excellent to cut up and label with sharpie marker for cable markers.

#4 Failed round one of mechanical...gotta add some metal 90's to my flex supplies and returns offf the metal trunk. Should be fun. Yeah right. Should be done next Tuesday (April 18) and reinspected Wed. We'll see if we pass.

Had to cancel the massive sheetrock/insulaton delivery and the rock crew till we get the green light with mechanical. Super-suck.

Ill post pixs soon.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

Well while I am waiting till next Tuesday to start the HVAC changes, Im taking my wife to the Blue RIdge Mountains. Here she is smiling over Thomas Jefferson's side garden outside Charlottesville Virginia yesterday.

Hey DP,

Sorry I've been kind of "not here" since greeting you in the Design forum several weeks ago. It seems you've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and you've posted a lot of play-by-plays.

Due to time constraints I have had to budget my contributions here, which includes limiting the number of "new" threads I even look at. I do make a point though of keeping up with some of the threads I've followed and/or participated in over the past year or so. This one escaped me because of the jump from Design to Construction and the name change. (Excuses, excuses... )

Anyway, I have some questions and comments, some of which may unfortunately be too late to do anything about...

Your rooms are all on 90-degree angles. Aren't you concerned about the acoustical qualities of the rooms? John has posted so many designs where he very few or even zero parallel walls, yet he has a gift for figuring out how to make the most of the square footage. I'm concerned that the "conventional construction" layout is going to actually end up costing you later in terms of acoustical treatments. Understand that I'm not the acoustics expert here (far from it actually)... But you might want to study some of John's designs and see if there's any chance you can make some adjustments in your framing now, before drywall is installed on them...

I noticed that the insulation installed in the ceiling has kraft paper facing down. You've basically added a third leaf there... ...Maybe it's not such a big deal because the distance between your kraft paper and your new lower ceiling will be several feet...

I also have concerns about your initial levels of isolation, both internally and externally, but moreso externally. We see a floorplan and we see photos and we see some descriptive text of what you're doing, but we don't see any close-up illustrations of your wall or ceiling details. You have neighbors and you have an outside world that you need to protect from the noise that will be generated in your space -- yet there's very little in the form of evidence posted here that you'll be successful to that end.

Consider best case and worst case scenarios. If the iso is great all around, then your neighbors are happy, your community is happy, your customers are happy, and you are happy. However, if you fail in this area, your neighbors can complain to your local authorities, you can be hit with severe fines and/or shut down, your customers are left out in the cold, and you've wasted everything. It's happened to people before -- you're not exempt from this phenomenon!

You might be able to leave yourself an "out" by planning to add another layer of drywall or two here and there to improve your iso... But some things must be carefully planned and executed now to keep those options open.

In short, I'm a mixed bag of emotions on your project -- partially excited and caught up in the moment with all your progress, yet equally scared for you that you might be driving 80 miles an hour straight into a brick wall. I wish I could be more specific, but that's my point -- I can't be, because I haven't seen a lot of specific plans on which I can make specific observations.

I realize you are/were under the gun to get out of your old space and into your new one without much luxury of time to plan, plus the almighty budgetary constraints... But you know what they say about "failing to plan is planning to fail" -- projects like these are 90% planning and 10% doing. I see a lot lot lot of "doing" here but not so much "planning."

Maybe I'm just being alarmist and I've missed some juicy details... But that's where I am right now.

--Keith

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"Converting a garage into living space requires a city permit . . . homeowners insurance won't cover a structure that's been changed without a building permit . . ." --Sacramento Bee, May 27, 2006

Thanks for dropping by Keith.

I think its fair to call yourself an alarmist - but I don't think that is a bad thing in a community. Thank you for your attention and your comments. You are appreciated in my thread for sure.

Paper side facing down insulation... yes the roof is 4 feet plus above the sheetrock studio ceiling. I doubt the paper is going to have a measureable effect.

The exterior walls of this warehouse are between 6 - 10 inches thick mortar, brick and plaster-OLD SCHOOL. The only neighbor "suprise" is the bike shop next door- I have found a weakness in the wall that seperates us and I am developing a little strategy for beefing it up. They have NO sound concerns, but I would like to keep them out of the sound equation in my area, as much as possible. The neighbors ~my landlords~ and they do not care about leakage at all-I doubt they will hear any based on my tests so far. Generally, overall isolation in or out is not an issue. Being 1/2 mile from the nearest residence and a 1/4 mile from the nearest traffic is really helping that angle out.

The magistrates SPL specs for day and evening noise is very generous, and its not going to be a practical issue, as far as me getting into trouble-day or night. I can basically record bombs going off all night and never hear a peep from anyone around. The building itself is doing a super job in that regard.

My design has a few parallel walls and right angles. First rule of studio design I ever learned (non-parallel) I am breaking in this layout for a few reasons...I made the dimensional spaces my priority in this studio and I will break up some of those angles and corners with facades once we get the interior rocked. I have seen the non-parallel approach in other projects and am not convinced that the splayed walls offered the primary acoustic payoff, compared to the cost and delay of building them.

I am confident at this point we can get these rooms sounding nice with interior treatments at the dimensions the rooms exist now...but that's my take for now. I will find out soon if my design plans work out.

And so will you, if you are interested in being kept up to date.

Any thing else you see?

Mark

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

Well, we finally passed our Mech Rough-in Inspection. The HVAC police have saved the world again, much to my cost and inconvenience.

So, we schedule rock delivery and install.

154 sheets of 12' sheetrock, 6 sheets of Moisture Resistant rock, 14 buckets of purple top mud, 7 rolls of tape, 50 pounds of nails, 10 bundles of 24" and 17 bundles of 16" insulation and 2 boxes of USG Non Hardening Acoustic Sealant.

God Bless America.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

how cool is that!

Yeah, Its way cooler than humpin those boards in one by one, I tell ya.

Parallel Walls Mark

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

Started on the Ceiling today...Got Studio A, Control A , Lobby and Corridor Ceiling Rocked.

By the way, we got some vintage Baker's Type Scaffolding from a friend. I learned that it would have been cheaper to rent the newer type of Baker's Scaffolding and not have to repair/replace parts on old deplapidated gear in the field.

I shall be wiser when I am older...maybe.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.

SheetRock is done for now. We have to wait on interior of my office for various reasons, but all the studios, lobby, bath, corridor is rocked. 5 x 8 hours days ~ crew of 3 and me. Whew.

I personally caulked all seam with USG Acoustic Sealant...some walls both sides, when I had access...

Those I checked with light on the opposite side of the wall (while I was standing in the dark ) and looked for little peeps of light and then BAM!!! I smashed them with more caulk. hehehehe...them rooms gunna be tight.

I used USG A caulk and duct clay for the switches and outlets.

Finishers start tomorrow. Ill post some pix.

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Only crazy people build their own studios.