Adam's studio construction: PHASE 1

[AdamJay]

In February '06 i bought a new 3 bedroom house. I knew the previous owners, and when they bought the house just a couple years prior, the owner before them had a simple garage put in at the end of the property.

When i bought this house, the other building seemed to me like the perfect, very bare skeleton of what could be a kickin' 3 room, medium/small sized studio. They never had electric service to the building, so i've got a seperate service set up for the studio. Which will help alot with taxes and accounting.

This week we broke ground and began Phase 1, which consists entirely of exterior construction, much of which is in the back yard. I'm having a Car Port and Utility Shed added to the side of the building. As well as a gravel side drive which will accomodate 2-3 cars, giving a total of 7-8 off street parking spots.
Also, i am having a new back patio put in.
Now, none of this is real exciting audio stuff, but its stuff that just has to be done. I can't store my lawn mower, bicycles, etc. in the studio. eh.

The deadline is August 1, so as you can imagine, the contractors i have hired will be busting ass for the next 7 weeks.

Here are some pics i snapped today

Here's the back yard. With the pre-existing concrete slab/patio.


The Power & Light pole by the street can't be moved. but there is clearance to get a a normal sized car or two in (we drive VW's). Basically, the perimeter of 2x4 on edge you see is the Carport and is where cement will be poured. You may notice how it hooks around the other side of the building. This 4ft. strip will be the foundation for the utility shed and will extend the length of the cement. The shed will provide additional protection from weather for the carport, as the shed is on the west side of the carport.

-To the right of the garage building, in the pictures - that nook of grass will be a fenced off vegetable garden. Just beyond that fence you will see another Power & Light Pole, this houses the main transformer and distribution (for this cluster of about 6 houses) where the new electrical service will come from.

-The green plastic fencing is a temporary dog kennel.
They've learned to escape it though, so the panels of picket fence and gate that have been removed will soon be used to make a temporary kennel for them (though they spend alot of the day inside, sleeping.

-The curved, thin walkway of stone slabs across from the plastic temporary fencing will be removed.

-Where the truck is parked is where the gravel side drive will begin, and extend another truck's length, or 1.5 car lengths.

-Yea, the garage looks real small from these angles. its 20x18.. i'll upload the floorplan.

more pics coming.....

[AdamJay]

The main contractor, tearing up the old rear patio. New drainage (to keep my basement dry) will be installed, and a new, much larger rear patio will be poured.



Studio Floor Plan (this is a preview of Phase 2):
this was one of the earlier drawings. The vocal booth door will open inward now, and the back of the control room will have a bench, which you can see space for. This will be used for storage as well as seating. The angles on the back wall of that bench will be modified slightly so that there is a more defined hip connecting it with the side walls.
Also the angle of the ceiling in the control room will follow the walls, and not the structure's dimensional angles. Ceiling heights will vary from 9ft to 12 ft. And one soffit mount wall angle needs to be adjusted.
These changes have been made, as i said, this is one of the older drawings.


Exterior walls will consist of (from outside to in): Wood Siding, Wallboard, 2x4's , caulking seems, OC 703 and 1 inch of dead space.

Interior walls will consit of (from outside to in): Wallboard, 2x4's, OC 703, 2x4-to-Sheetrock spacer, 2 layers of sheetrock/drywall.

Except the interior walls on vocal booth, rear of control room, and walls housing soffit mounts. On these the drywall will be behind the insulation, and burlap + 2" wood trim (burlap mounted to 2x4's, and covered with wood trim) will cover the insulation. For absorptive surfaces. This will also turn the vocal boot into a dead room of sorts.

I was going to put a skylight in the live room but we found a FREE paif of 1.5x6ft. double pain windows that are going to work much better for natural light. These are seen in the bottom line of the drawing. They will be high, 8 to 9 feet up.

Floor will be floated. I'm running cabling under the floor. 12 sends and 4 returns of XLR will go between control room and live room. and 4 sends/4 returns for the vocal/dead room.

-Vocal/dead room will house guitar amps. (see boldrecording.com for list)
-Live room will house drums, rhodes, and other various percussion.
-Control room will house the obvious.. console (Audio Arts 8x 32/8). Two 20 space racks. etc. (see site)
-Utility/HVAC room will house furnace, small fridge/microwave, and some shelving.

Plastic/rubber ducting will be used for the HVAC, with very few turns.
AC will be outside on a slab, next to the garden mentioned in the earlier post.

[Lindell]

[C/G]

Nice. My friend and I are doing the same next summer. We are building the biggest "garage" we can legally fit onto his property and having our own private studio space. Good luck with it man and keep us updated!

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by Colin Gaucher

Nice. My friend and I are doing the same next summer. We are building the biggest "garage" we can legally fit onto his property and having our own private studio space.

nice !

the goal on the exterior, will be to make it look like a guest-house of sorts.

The large, manually operated overhead door wil be removed. That side of the garage will be re-sided and it won't really look out of the ordinary. My garage is right next to an alley, and everyone else's garage door is hidden, as they usually outlet into the alley.

garage:


alley:


also, years down the road i have the option of adding a 4th room to the other side of the control room (and killing the veggie garden) for just under $5k. But i'm gonna wait and get established before that expansion happens (or doesn't happen, we'll see)

garden area:

[C/G]

We sort of have the same game plan. Our space will be bigger and taller so hopefully we can put a loft with a lounge area and an iso booth upstairs. We are going to frame in a garage door, but cover it because we will eventually move to a bigger space and my friend will have an amazing art studio and garage if we ever move out of there. The big step is forking over for the concrete pad. That will come out of our pockets but the rest is going to happen when he re mortgages the house to build the afore mentioned "garage". Looks like you need some friends to come over for a drywall party in a while.

[Jules]

Cool report!

Thanks for posting it!

It's gonna be fun to watch the build progress!

[nukmusic]

good deal

[stevep]

sweet!!!!

More Pics ....

[Cojo]

Yes more pics, or is the beach more attractive these days?

It seems like a nice place by the way! Looking forward to read all about the contruction work!

/Cojo

[AdamJay]

i'll try to snap more pics tomorrow.
they're just finishing laying the last of the concrete. but as of now the new patio and walkway are finished (along with underground drainage! my bassment hasn't been wet since!). cement slab for AC unit is finished, 3 car gravel side-drive is finished, and half the carport pad is finished. When thats all done i'll have room for 7 cars parked off the street.

hopefully we'll be able to take hammers to the actually building in a week or two, still trying to catch up and get back on schedule (had a ton of rain last week).


Only thing that has changed on the interior design is I decided to go with wallmount XLR/TRS in each room, instead of a snake box coming up through the floor.

[AdamJay]

well i did find a couple pictures in my camera i forgot i took last week when they poured the patio.

firstly... this is what i woke up to... got out of bed. looked out my back window and saw this in my backyard:





and here's the guys starting to spread it out..
finished product pics coming tomorrow...

[pan60]

very very cool Adam!
keep the pics coming!

[jdg]

thumbsup thumbsup thumbsup

[auralerogeny]

I'm looking forward to seeing the construction process. Are you really planning on having it done by August? That's next month!

Anyways, congrats to you dude!

[ramjet]

hi

thanx for the post

looking good

i hope to do the same as well when i get to buy a house

i will what with great intereest

cheers ramjet

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by auralerogeny

I'm looking forward to seeing the construction process. Are you really planning on having it done by August? That's next month!

Anyways, congrats to you dude!

e yea, august.
they're behind about 5 work-days right now thanks to heavy rains when cement deliveries were coming. So hopefully they can hump it once the exterior stuff is finished up. They've already made a day up by getting a cement delivery saturday morning.

My g/f's father is also the account manager for the lumber and building materials company that all my material is coming from (can you say hookup?). And he's been riding their asses to get back on schedule. We have a huge bands/music summit thingie here in August, so on my end i have to have it done by then. On the contractor's end, they have a job to start in August that is worth about 10x my little project. It'll be close, but their ass is just as much on the line as mine is if its not done in time. So i'm optimistic.

[AdamJay]

my new patio....




slab for utility shed and carport (note the little 3x3 slab for the A/C in the corner)







and the side-drive. this will hold 3 small, or 2 large vehicles. add to that the 2 parking spaces (stacked) i'm gaining with the carport, and the 2 spaces in the pre-existing drive (last pic). i'll have off street parking for 6-7 cars.



check out the chunk of my old driveway that the cement mixer mashed in. that was fun to watch. he said "sorry" and we're thinking, well you've got a truck full of cement, it ain't like it can't be fixed. This pic shows one slab dry and one wet.


In one week, that garage door will be gone

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by AdamJay

my new patio....

I see you have the new toilet installed...

Looking great man, keep the pix roling in!

/Cojo

[James Lehmann]

Yes but will you be legally required to use only Garageband on all productions emanating from these 'unofficial' premises? fuuck

[AdamJay]

well its been a few weeks since i last posted on this thread...
happy to have some new pics for you all..

easiest way to show whats happened would be to use some before/after pics. so here we go:

The garage door has been removed, and a new exterior wall with siding has been taken its place. Along with a window that is roughly 6' long x 1.5" tall. starting roughly 7.5' up. No looking in, and it will provide ample natural light for the live room. You'll also notice the extension of the roof, for an outdoor sit-down area, also doubling as a carport (beams will be moved out from the structure another foot and a half). The backing of this covered area is a new structure attached to the original garage. this is a 4'x12' utility room where i keep my bikes, lawnmower, etc. The old roof still remains, there is actually a new roof floated over the old. Which provides superior drainage and also further isolation in both directions.



I think the structure as a whole looks much larger and less "garagey"

Here is the rear corner, this is the aforemetioned utility room/shed. This added-on room also serves as additional isolation. As it is the closest corner to the neighboring house.






More pictures of the utility room...

inside...its very tall. shelving and a bike rack will be added


Let's go inside... not much happening here.... yet. Old window frames are currently being filled in. The existing cross beams will be removed and in their place will be a more centralized support system with reinforcement posts going up vertically from the floor (but seperated from the flloated floor and celing) through the OC703 packed soffit mounts in the control room. This shot is of the area that will be the future control room:

[AdamJay]

and this corner will be the isolation room (vocals, guitar amps):
Notice the long window, thats a duplicate of the double pane exterior window earlier seen. It is for the interior wall and will be installed on a 5 degree pitch with 3 to 3.5 inches of dead air between it and the exterior window. We originally planned on 1 inch dead air space between interior and exterior walls, but for increased isolation we've changed that to a total of 3 inches of dead air seperation.
The other 2 square 4x4ft. double pane windows will seperate the isolation room and control room. Starting at 3 feet on the bottom edge up to 7 feet on the top edge.






to give you an idea of the height of the ceiling in the live room, it will be just a few inches above the top line of this window, and at the corners of the window, it will follow the diagonal lines of the room. So roughly 9 feet up from the floor at its tallest down to just under 8 feet at the sides:





and one last side shot from the house, a good pic of the floating roof (this thing moves water crazy fast!) :

the fence, once finished being painted will extend to the edge of the cement. For now its just giving the guys more room to work, and is posted temporarily so my dogs have room to play.


next step is painting the exterior, installing gutters, and doing the rest of the cement leading up to the covered area/car port.
Then we'll start on insulating the outer walls next week

[IndyGuy]

Damn! thats a nice porch area you've got there. And i dig the long horizontal window. Natural light seems to be a real commodity in smaller studios.
So I take it "phase 2" is the interior construction?

[Factory101]

Good luck Adam ...it's all very inspiring.

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by IndyGuy

Damn! thats a nice porch area you've got there. And i dig the long horizontal window. Natural light seems to be a real commodity in smaller studios.
So I take it "phase 2" is the interior construction?

Well Phase 2 has now since totally passed, and unfortunately i did not have a chance to take many pictures during that phase. Things went a little haywire. It all got completed but i nearly had to sue the main contractor to have it completed, and it took twice as long as anticipated, and i almost got in a fist fight with my future father in law, and....
geeez i really should have taken pics, eh? ehe.

So anyways, its all done now and after some harry issues with the HVAC for the last year and a half, i can say its 100% completed. I've been working out of this building for the last year and a half and i love it.

An old ruff floor plan to scale (cept i built a bench into the rear of the ctrl room, instead of couch furniture)



The live room sounds incredibly big for its size and i never find myself fighting its sound when i track. Drums sound exactly how i want them. The control room also sounds heavenly. I'm having a couple diffusers made but the room really isn't that deep so they will be very short and not that big at all. Just one last touch i need to make.
I've discovered that my utility closet makes a great box for any loud amp and a Beyer M160.

I've got a friend with a great wide angle lens and i'm going to have him by to take some really nice pics of all the rooms. Until then, i have just a few pics to share.
Once again, sorry for no Phase 2.



CTRL ROOM:

[AdamJay]

LIVE ROOM:





(can't really see the Wurly.. more pics coming)




ISO ROOM:



looking into the live room...


AT-4060.. and looking into the ctrl room....




more to come....

[AdamJay]

Exterior photos, thanks to the creepy privacy violating Google Street View
I think these were taken a year ago, yea... i really needed to weed-eat that week...

Its a very discrete building, my neighbors are mostly nosey senior citizens and they think its soooo coool.






You can see in this photo the seperate electric service to the building. And i must say, its so nice to have a properly grounded power service!

[AdamJay]

Back to the non-existent Phase 2...

Yes, i used 703 on both the outer wall and the inner walls, in the floor, and in the ceiling, and there is 2" of dead air between the outer wall and the inner shell. The entry... 2 foam filled doors to the outside is the only area where sound is leaking through. I'm going to treat it and look at some other solutions for a more tighter seal.

I haven't measured with a dB meter but i've spoken with my neighbors and its well within the realm of their happiness. I had a really hard drummer in recently and my neighbor didn't hear anything within 20 feet of the building. It was only when he got really close to the entry door did he hear anything, and it was a 70's Supraphonic so go figure.

Back to the construction materials. We of course doubled up and used 1/2" and 5/8" drywall on all interior walls and ceilings. The floor beams were floated with U-Boats, and a laminate floor was installed. All windows are double pane, energy star. The large natural light window (4 panes in all) has a 7" gap between the 2 main pieces. Light spray foam was used in the 1" gap between the finishing frames, then sanded and painted so it appears to be seamless piece of trim, but it is pretty well isolated in the middle.

In the isolation room, i used 703, pressed to the wall with a light wooden flat diagonal fence, covered in a fine but breathing fabric. I can't remember which fabric it was. It wasn't expensive but much much nicer than a burlap or even a cotton/nylon weave. We also used this for built-in bass trapping in the rear corners of the CTRL room, although its secured with a finer, thinner plastic fence weave. It worked quite well.
You can see the navy fabric in the isolation room pics. Pics of the rear of the ctrl room are coming soon...

[pan60]

nice!
very cool!

[AdamJay]

more photos coming soon, promise. had to find the right wide angle camera lense to convey it, ya know