12th Street Sound -- Austin, Texas -- Construction Thread

[12thStreetSound]

I did most of the demolition myself. I must have made 20+ trips to the landfill.


Pulling the panel off the cinderblock revealed this window that had been framed in and covered:







One of many stacks of removed panel:








Had to keep pews covered and move them around a bit during the demolition:





























Can see the ceiling in this shot:

[TjTminds]

this is gonna be a good one, I can't wait to see how it all turns out! This looks phenomenal man!

[Quint]

Are you planning on finding a way to incorporate the pews or at least one or two of them anyway?

[Shock Value]

Originally Posted by Quint

Are you planning on finding a way to incorporate the pews or at least one or two of them anyway?

LOL, why don't you hang a big cross on the wall while you're at it...

Dump the pews...

[Quint]

Originally Posted by Shock Value

LOL, why don't you hang a big cross on the wall while you're at it...

Dump the pews...

I don't mean that he should leave them where they're at. I meant that, after everything is finished, he might be able to incorporate a few of them down one wall or something to add some vibe (and tracking room seating). Maybe put one in the back of the control room or something.

Putting a studio in a church comes with automatic vibe so take advantage of it.

[12thStreetSound]

Quint, I would have liked to have kept the pulpit, but the sellers took it with them.

Not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but the pews are pretty huge -- 10 feet wide apiece. The one up on the stage was a little smaller, but still big. The pews just took up way too much floor space to justify keeping them (plus they're really heavy).

The church is getting a face lift on the outside... will look even churchier once finished. The inside is going to have to settle for looking like a recording studio.

[fabricaudio]

Originally Posted by 12thStreetSound

Quint, I would have liked to have kept the pulpit, but the sellers took it with them.

Not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but the pews are pretty huge -- 10 feet wide apiece. The one up on the stage was a little smaller, but still big. The pews just took up way too much floor space to justify keeping them (plus they're really heavy).

The church is getting a face lift on the outside... will look even churchier once finished. The inside is going to have to settle for looking like a recording studio.

I can see from the photos that the pews have screws in order to connect their parts together.

My suggestion is that if you are on a tight budget, disassemble them and keep them somewhere that they don't obstruct the construction. If they have solid pieces of wood (back and seat) and they are heavy as you said then you can use them in a secondary room as wall layers.

I recently build a second room in our studio and I couldn't imagine that all the 'junk' that was there would come up very useful in many places.

Nikolas

[Laidlaw]

looks like an exciting build, all the best with it mate!

[12thStreetSound]

In the ceiling of one of the bathrooms was a bent-up piece of metal wire -- like a coathanger -- that stuck down an inch or so through the drywall. I thought it was where a light fixture had once been suspended. Nope. As the ceiling was demo'd, we realized that it was connected to this baby, living high in the top of the tower, and seemingly long-ago forgotten (as it was, there's no way you could have reached the wire to ring it).

















Not sure what's going to happen to it. It's cast iron and probably 100 pounds. It can't live in the top of the towers or in the attic, because it looks like those places are going to need to be sealed as part of the soundproofing. Maybe somewhere in the lounge... would need to come with earplugs because it's LOUD.

[Le Lab]

Originally Posted by 12thStreetSound

In the ceiling of one of the bathrooms was a bent-up piece of metal wire -- like a coathanger -- that stuck down an inch or so through the drywall. I thought it was where a light fixture had once been suspended. Nope. As the ceiling was demo'd, we realized that it was connected to this baby, living high in the top of the tower, and seemingly long-ago forgotten (as it was, there's no way you could have reached the wire to ring it).









I would put it next to the espresso machine in the lounge...










Not sure what's going to happen to it. It's cast iron and probably 100 pounds. It can't live in the top of the towers or in the attic, because it looks like those places are going to need to be sealed as part of the soundproofing. Maybe somewhere in the lounge... would need to come with earplugs because it's LOUD.

[Le Lab]

Originally Posted by 12thStreetSound

In the ceiling of one of the bathrooms was a bent-up piece of metal wire -- like a coathanger -- that stuck down an inch or so through the drywall. I thought it was where a light fixture had once been suspended. Nope. As the ceiling was demo'd, we realized that it was connected to this baby, living high in the top of the tower, and seemingly long-ago forgotten (as it was, there's no way you could have reached the wire to ring it).


















Not sure what's going to happen to it. It's cast iron and probably 100 pounds. It can't live in the top of the towers or in the attic, because it looks like those places are going to need to be sealed as part of the soundproofing. Maybe somewhere in the lounge... would need to come with earplugs because it's LOUD.

I would put it next to the espresso machine in the lounge...

[amost]

Awesome...good luck!

[and you know]

It looks like the company who made the bell are still around Hammer Mills, Grinding Mills, Conveyors | The C.S. Bell Co.

[chsm]

Originally Posted by 12thStreetSound

In the ceiling of one of the bathrooms was a bent-up piece of metal wire -- like a coathanger -- that stuck down an inch or so through the drywall. I thought it was where a light fixture had once been suspended. Nope. As the ceiling was demo'd, we realized that it was connected to this baby, living high in the top of the tower, and seemingly long-ago forgotten (as it was, there's no way you could have reached the wire to ring it).

















Not sure what's going to happen to it. It's cast iron and probably 100 pounds. It can't live in the top of the towers or in the attic, because it looks like those places are going to need to be sealed as part of the soundproofing. Maybe somewhere in the lounge... would need to come with earplugs because it's LOUD.

nice potential,
bell? build a coffee table in the lounge

[12thStreetSound]

OK, demolition's getting serious.

We'll be pouring a slab inside the existing structure. That means the old pier-and-beam floor had to go.








At the far left of this picture, you can see the floor boards stacking up (they were recycled into another project). They're sitting on what's left of the stage. Specifically, what's left is the baptismal that lived under the stage (the pulpit sat on a trap door... if you go back to the original pictures of the church, you can see the lid).








This shot is looking back toward the front of the building. Again, you can see the concrete baptismal. Wish I had more pictures of it. It was super thick concrete walls that were poured into some kind of steel webbing or netting material. Full-force blows with a sledgehammer did very little damage. You'd be short of breath and exhausted from swinging the hammer and would have hardly even dented the thing. Reciprocating saws wouldn't cut it. It was a beast to dismantle.








The lumber for the floor joists also got recycled. Some huge pieces in there ... like 2 x 12's that were 16 feet long.

[muziekschuur]

Nice wood...

[Shock Value]

Damn, you had to redo the floor too... What's your budget for the whole project?

[.:On The Rock:.]

Wow... It just got serious! Too bad you couldn't recycle the hardwood floors for the studio, they looked nice, especially if refinished.

[12thStreetSound]

Yeah, we wanted to re-use the wood, but there were a lot of problems with that idea. A lot of it was rotted or unusable, so we wouldn't have had nearly enough for the space.

You'd have to spend weeks carefully pulling out one nail at a time so that you didn't destroy it, then transport it somewhere else and pay to store it, then bring it back, hope you could match it (so you'd have enough), and re-lay it. Re-using the floor would have created way more problems than it solved.

I had a couple lumber salvage yards come look at the floor, and they all passed ("More trouble than it's worth."). My neighbor, however, felt otherwise. I told him that if he wanted to spend the days it would take to pull each and every nail, I'd give it to him, which is what happened.

[12thStreetSound]

When you're walking around on a dirt floor, then you know you're getting near the end of the demolition...

You can see how much height was in the crawl space. At the front (below double doors)-- quite a bit. At the back of the building-- not much. The church sits near the crest of a hill, and it slopes downward from the back of the lot toward the street.









Here you can see the remains of the concrete baptismal.






















And now one looking at the back of the building.

[Providence]

Are you going to keep the ceiling open?

[12thStreetSound]

OK, no more demolition pics.

Gonna post a floor plan and start building something.

[12thStreetSound]

We'll have to construct a hefty ceiling to be sound proof to my neighbors (who are pretty close).

The open look (no drywall) is pretty cool, though.

[Quint]

Is the new floor going to go in at the same height as the old one? Also, are you going to keep the front foyer/restroom area intact as an entryway to the studio?

This place has great potential so I'm really interested in your plans for the place. What all are you planning on doing to the inside? What kind of vibe are you going for on the inside? Are you trying to make the inside "it's own thing" or, instead, go with the vibe of the place and just make it studio worthy?

[turing]

i'm hugely enjoying this thread. good luck with the build, and keep those photos coming please.

[12thStreetSound]

Originally Posted by Quint

Is the new floor going to go in at the same height as the old one? Also, are you going to keep the front foyer/restroom area intact as an entryway to the studio?

This place has great potential so I'm really interested in your plans for the place. What all are you planning on doing to the inside? What kind of vibe are you going for on the inside? Are you trying to make the inside "it's own thing" or, instead, go with the vibe of the place and just make it studio worthy?

Thanks for the interest and the nice words.

I'm putting together a floor plan sketch and will post it (and dissect it) shortly.

The floor height will drop slightly (maybe 5"), but I think we're going to lose almost that much height with our ceiling system... so the final ceiling height will stay right at 12 feet.

The exterior of the building is getting a big face lift. It's still going to look like a church, only more gothic... and by "gothic," I mean stained glass, vertical emphasis, and ogival arches, not pale skin, jet black hair, and a "Cure" t-shirt.

[Quint]

Originally Posted by 12thStreetSound

Thanks for the interest and the nice words.

I'm putting together a floor plan sketch and will post it (and dissect it) shortly.

The floor height will drop slightly (maybe 5"), but I think we're going to lose almost that much height with our ceiling system... so the final ceiling height will stay right at 12 feet.

The exterior of the building is getting a big face lift. It's still going to look like a church, only more gothic... and by "gothic," I mean stained glass, vertical emphasis, and ogival arches, not pale skin, jet black hair, and a "Cure" t-shirt.

Sweet. Stained will be a definite plus.

Are you contracting everything out or doing some of the work yourself?

[muziekschuur]

Ha, with a pimped hearse in front of it....



A sign on top of the church called CREEPY RECORDS>>>>>>


Hmmm..... Kinda over the top maybe...

[12thStreetSound]

We were thinking more something like this (except maybe a little more showy and ornate):

[AnthonyRochester]

I can't tell if you're serious about that or not