Basement Studio Build - Kennesaw Georgia

[Vampkain]

As a student at UGA I am going to school for Music Business. Growing up in very musically inclined family we are building a studio in our basement, so I we can do some recording and jamming. It will have a separate tracking and control room, double wall construction, iso brackets, resilient channel, and just about anything else we can get our hands on.

This is the layout of the basement, the dark walls are the studio area.

[Vampkain]

This is roughly what the room looks like after we have gotten most of the framing done. We are doing double wall construction when possible. Part of the walls are concrete so we just framed with plans to do an air gap in between the concrete and wall. Originally we planned to have 2 different doors into the tracking room, one from the control room, and another from another part of the basement. However, we removed the latter for more space in the room and to prevent sound issues with a second hole (door) in the room.

[Vampkain]

This past weekend we installed the resilient channeling on the ceiling and hooked up all the lights in their iso boxes we built from scratch. And then hung them from iso brackets in the ceiling.

Playing "Lights Layout" with the Checkers pieces. Gotta miss that Duct Work!The Resilent Channel - Tune In. My brother, my father, and i laid out and installed the RSIC-1 clips (Lots of Clips) and the Hat Channel for the Tracking Room.

The Light Boxes. Each box is 3/4" MDF, and Cement with Green Glue between and every seam and joint Acoustic Caulked.

The Boxes are mounted on RSIC- DC04 Clips on 2x3 so they are isolated from the Flooring above and suspended in between the Hat Channel

They will be flush with the 1st layer of 5/8" Drywall and the final layer with Green Glue will cover up the boxes and only show the lights through

[Vampkain]

We had custom panels made in boxes so we could isolate them from the wall. We plan on building boxes for them in the wall with MDF and insulating them.

One panel will be put about a third of the way up the wall on the left side, and the other will be put about 2/3rds of the way up on the right of the tracking room.

One of the panels also has connections for Midi, USB, DVI, and Eithernet connections for hooking up a workstation (Keyboard, mouse, monitor) for the keyboards, and for controlling the main computer in the control room from inside the tracking room... (makes recording by yourself a bit easier I'd say...)

Two of the panels are already soldered with basically a snake of multi-wire pre-soldered and numbered... We have to solder the other two panels... Its only a few... hundred connections... hahaha...

[Travis Hill]

this looks awesome. i live in the woodstock/roswell area and i've been working on plans to do a very similar build. I plan on posting about it in this forum when I get the chance.

how tall are your celings? the reslient channel on your celing is something I want to do, but I only have 8' to work with and I really don't want to lose much height. I think i'll end up with a layer homasote and then a layer of drywall on top of that. how expensive are those brackets?

[Travis Hill]

also .. i'm having trouble deciphering this from your photos, but did you add a layer of drywall to the floor above the ceiling beams for added mass?

[79_Limited]

Looks nice. I currently to am doing a similar build.

[Vampkain]

Originally Posted by Travis Hill

also .. i'm having trouble deciphering this from your photos, but did you add a layer of drywall to the floor above the ceiling beams for added mass?

We put a layer of Homosote board up in the ceiling, and then used acoustical calk to make sure there was a secure seal, we are tossing the idea of spray foam insulation(both open cell and closed cell) on the walls and ceiling.

We will be doing 2 layers of Sheetrock with 2 tubes of green glue on both the walls and ceiling.

[Vampkain]

The 5 lights for the control room were installed this weekend, and so was the 4' Diffuser for the AC in the tracking room!

[VoiceManMike]

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[Vampkain]

Originally Posted by Travis Hill

this looks awesome. i live in the woodstock/roswell area and i've been working on plans to do a very similar build. I plan on posting about it in this forum when I get the chance.

how tall are your celings? the reslient channel on your celing is something I want to do, but I only have 8' to work with and I really don't want to lose much height. I think i'll end up with a layer homasote and then a layer of drywall on top of that. how expensive are those brackets?

The brackets were about 4.50 a piece.

[Vampkain]

Originally Posted by VoiceManMike

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We are using what is commonly referred to as 7/8” Hat Channel and using RSIC-1 Resilient Clips. The true Resilient Channel is hard to get and there are a lot of imitations and unknowns on this.
Drywall Furring Channel and Resilient Sound Isolation Clips | Soundproofing Company

Some examples of Channel
Phillips Channels

[Vampkain]

Originally Posted by 79_Limited

Looks nice. I currently to am doing a similar build.

Awesome! I would love to see your work!

[musicgen]

I am getting the process started. Hey, where did you get those custom made connection boxes?, they are beautiful!

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by musicgen

I am getting the process started. Hey, where did you get those custom made connection boxes?, they are beautiful!

+1. I would like to know that too.

[awbryson]

Originally Posted by musicgen

I am getting the process started. Hey, where did you get those custom made connection boxes?, they are beautiful!

We have a couple of sources, but used The RapcoHorizon Company
www.rapcohorizon.com to build the boxes. We designed them, layout, cablind, etc. and the sound isolation boxes (Cement Board & MDF, Green Glue and Acoustic Caulk) they will fit into. You can't buy direct from them but Al Blake of Magic Audio can order them for you or we can help offline, Vampkain or myself

The other sources are BTX Technologies, Inc. 914-592-1800 and Tom Moody @ the Moody Company 607-336-6233. A premier for major studios is Wireworks Corporation in Hillside NJ 800-642-9473, but they are really really expensive, and worth it if you can handle the price.

We went with them building the panels and soldering the main panels and preping the other ends for speed of install with only two of us working on it

[Glenn Kuras]

Where you ok through the GA floods?

[Vampkain]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Where you ok through the GA floods?

Yeah we are fine. We did find a leak through the wall the last few weeks that we are getting repaired. We're just glad it came up before we finished the walls.

Thanks for asking!

[Vampkain]

We have also started the first layer of sheet rock.

[Fhl]

Really great work! Looking forward to see the final result

I'm impressed by the professional amount of detail you're getting done!

[666666]

What have you done about moisture / mold / mildew issues that basements inherently have? It appears you have placed framing up in front of bare concrete outer basement walls, then added insulation. Any vapor barrier?

You mentioned that you discovered a water leak before your new walling was done and repaired it. How did you repair it? Where there was one leak, there will be more. If you have positive pressure on the outside of the wall, more leaks will pop up eventually.

Getting back to moisture... I'd say be sure to cover all your framed walls with plastic sheeting before the sheetrock goes up. Even then, you may eventually have some nasty mold etc growing behind the walls. Any way to vent the gap between the new framed walls and concrete walls?

Maybe you have these issues already covered, just pointing them out. Curious as to your approach here, I've struggled with moisture / mold / mildew issues in basements for years... and still struggling. Basements can be very challenging to deal with.

My latest basement room was built with an 18" gap between the new framed walls and concrete outer wall. This way I can actually walk into the gap and deal with any potential leaks that pop up, also allows for some air and light in the gap, will soon place a few fans in the area too so I can move air in there periodically to prevent mildew etc. And my new framed walls are completely sealed with thick plastic sheeting to completely stop moisture from entering the studio room. Even then, air-conditioners and dehumidifiers will be set to run and keep the relative humidity below about 45% at all times.

How about light and ventilation? I had built another basement room, totally sealed in plastic, with a dehumidifier running all the times, figured this would put a stop to any potential mildew issues. Nope. I still experienced mildew issues. But the room had been closed up for a while and not in use. RH was always below 40% (which I thought would keep mildew at bay). I suspect the problem was stagnant air (from having no ventilation) along with having no natural light (no windows in this particular room). Room was always dark.

My "new" basement room has windows and a ventilation system... and also lined with plastic sheeting and with an air conditioner and dehumidifier. I'm hoping I'll truly be free from moisture / mold / mildew problems now.

It's a shame that many of us audio nuts are "forced" into the basement, but on the bright side, you can't beat being on a slab.

[awbryson]

The leak was not from the basement walls, it is from the stone on the front of the house and is still being worked on. We have not insulated the sillplate yet to monitor until it is fixed.

We Drylock'ed the walls with two coats, then applied a coat of waterproofing over that. The Studs are a few inches away from the concrete and most of the walls are under the garage that is well under roof, there is only one wall (the one with the leak of course) that is exposed to the outside. The Spray foam is open cell to allow it to dry out and does not support mold. We are using Mineral Wool on all the walls over this and will put 10 mil plastic over that with Drywall that does not have any paper products. It is Georgia-Pacific DensArmor Plus fiberglass-faced 5/8" drywall. It is heavier and more mass so it also helps with sound issues. We will use two layers with Green Glue between.

We also have a complete HVAC System in place that has a sepatate zone for the Tracking and Control room that has a cycle system to run every 15 minutes. We have used duct that allows low velosity with hig volume and have a 4' supply vent that is insulated inside with veins to allow the air to come out slowly over the vocal area that also supplies 1/2 of the air in the tracking room and not have any noise. Both rooms have their own separate supplies and returns.

We also are installing a special ventilation system called EZ Breath that pulls air from the upper stories and pushes it out the basement wall causing a lot of additional turnover using the inherent leaks in the house that will run when the humidity level is above 40 but is not in the Studio directly.

The only thing we would consider different is that steel studs would elimnate any food for mold, but the cost and additional expense of the other things related put this out of the project at the time. Looking back now this is a step we should have considered more. Steel is better for straight and true walls if done correctly, but you cant really hang anything on them so attaching the sound treatments, etc and the addtional gromets for the electrical, grounding, etc. would have cost a lot more at the time.

We are also considering installing a dehumidifer for the entire system, but the humidity has decreased and will more when we seal the concrete floor before we install the subfloor and hardwoods.