Hello everyone,


I have decided to open this thread, because I know how interesting this stuff is, especially if you are planning or building a studio yourself.

I will post pictures of the process from beginning to end here.

Story:
Several years ago I acquired a property in Vienna.
It came with an old building which was about 70 years old.
The idea was to build there someday a modern house with an extraordinary studio.

After interacting with several studio designers, my choice fell on Wes Lachot.

The planning for the house was made by an architect in Vienna.
During this time I was often in contact with Wes.
We implemented Wes recommendations for the basement which gave him a better starting point.

After about a year, the plans for the house and studio were ready.

Lets see some pictures

- The old house
- New House Graphic
- Old house gone

Next will be some plans

Here we go:
The third plan shows the floor plan as it came from our architect in Vienna.
The large room is almost 100m² (1033 ft²). The dimensions are:
5,85m (19,2ft) x 16,30m (53,5 ft) x 4,15/4,45m (roughly 14 ft)

The first and second plan show what Wes did with it!

Crikey that’s a nice basement! I’m guessing it will be a commercial facility?

Hey Micoholic,

right, that's the plan

This is how it continues:
Since we have to dig a 5.5 meters (18 ft) deep hole, due to the height of the basement, the earth has to be secured from slipping. The stairs will be only 1,50 m (5 ft) away from the neighboring fence.
For this purpose sheet piles are installed

Awesome! Another Wes Lachot build on GS.

Looking forward to this one.

There's seem to be a decent amount of proper studio construction diaries here in the forum, which is great.

Best of luck!

Joao, thank you for your interest. I have just seen your blog. It looks great!

After the sheet piling were installed, we were able to continue.
What follows is a big hole and then pouring a thin layer of concrete.
This is called "Concrete cleanliness layer" in german. Thats at least what google translates :P.
It serves as a even layer for the bitumen seal and thermal insulation under the "real" foundation.

That's a big hole in the ground! Looking good. People don't generally build basements where I live -- usual construction is either slab-on-grade (common for commercial, and some residential, construction) or crawlspace. The climate is generally mild-to-warm, so we don't have to worry too much about providing a foundation below the frost line. Having masonry crack from expansive clay soil is more of an issue. I do sometimes wish I had a basement (usually when I'm crawling around in the crawlspace!)

Thank you! Yeah basements are quite common here in Austria. Since the frost line is about 1 meter (3ft).

Exciting build, Kaz!
Our frostline is 3', also, here in northwestern lower Michigan. I built a nice set up in a basement ca 2001 and hope to do another one, soon. I miss having the quiet isolated room and being able to have it set up and ready to work whenever!

Michael

Next, the 2-layer of bitumen waterproofing (2 x 0,5cm) are flamed onto the concrete layer and the thermal insulation is applied.
On the thermal insulation comes the reinforcement and the concrete slab.
The advantage of having the Bitumen seal under the thermal insulation is, that it keeps the insulation dry and so the insulation values dont get worse over time.

they are indeed

Concrete slab finished

when did you pour the slab? it's freakin' cold now in Austria.

Hey the fxs,

you are right, that was already some time ago.
The Basement concrete shell construction is already done. I will post more pictures and details soon.
We will start with the Studio build (inside) in spring 2019.

Next, the formwork for the walls are set up. The round holes with the yellow cover are wall penetrations for installations. They are needed for waterproof penetrations.

Here are some pictures of the further process.

finishing the walls and starting the ceiling.

Some new pictures and details. The outside stairs are completely decoupled so there are no thermal bridges for best comfort and low heating costs.

How are you going to drain the pit at the bottom of the exterior stairs? Having two feet of water rushing in upon opening the door after a rainy day would make quite a mess... I'd imagine it's below ground water level so you'd need to pump it out?


Dutchy

Hey Dutchy,

that was our main concern and we tried to get a safe solution.

The most important thing is, that a large part of the stair will get a roof.
I also attached a sketch of it.
In addition, there are 2 Rigole which lead directly into its own pumping shaft.
If the pump fails the water will rise under the stairs, but not in the basement itself.
Thats why we also waterproofed the room under the stairs.
In addition, a sensor will notify us in this case.

The first picture shows the room under the stairs after sealing.
The second picture shows the pumping shaft.

Thanks for the elaborate response, very interesting to see, you guys obviously thought it through! That's some serious drainage capacity, if the pump is of similar caliber it should stay nice 'n dry down there

I assume you're also taking care to slope any ground surrounding the stairs away from the pit?


Dutchy

Yes, we´ll also stay about 10cm under the stairs egde with the ground surrounding the stairs.

I made a few pictures with a fisheye lens.

Awesome build! Some serious mass going on!!!

One question. What is the purpose of the sound lock between the CR and the TR? I noticed that the door coming off the lounge isn’t in the sound lock. Just curious.

Thank you!

The soundlock is primarly a result of the control room shape and I think it has no special purpose.
We ll include Mic tie Lines in it, so the sound lock can be also used as a small booth, but since there are real booths with better acoustics, I think it will be rarely used.

We ve just got the Kinetics stuff from the US.
So we can start with the floating floors soon.
Currently we are laying down all cables.
For Mic tie lines I ve chosen the Sommer Cable SC Pegasus Multicore.

Kinetics KIP Isolators

how much did those KIP pads cost you?

Its about 7,50 € per KIP Pad + 20% Tax and Customs (1,7%)
and Ive needed 700 pads.

Ive shipped over two Pallets from the US with other stuff (Kinetics KSCH Hangers, Isomax Clips, Guillford fabric)
The shipping for the two Pallets was about 800,- €
If u order just the Pads, your shipping costs will be lower.

For people in Europe it makes more sense ordering the KIP Pads separately instead of the Kinetics Rim because of the shipping costs.