Studio Build Documentation

[miroslav]

Oh wow !!! Now I get it. I'm a little slow on the uptake. I saw the slab poured and it wasn't quite dawning on me how it was going to result in the big room you were talking about.

I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.

It's been hard for me to visualize the size of the room until now. I use to stand out in my yard where the outside corner would be of the new section to try and get some perspective...but it wasn't until now that I could really get the feel for the new room size.
The "yellow" section (that's leftover adhesive from old floor) is a 16' x 24' space...so now you can kinda see how much bigger it's really going to be, though even the pictures don't quite show it...you have to stand in the middle of the whole space to get the right perspective.

Anyway...today...

DAY 19

...I got wood!!!

I'm sure there's a lot more yet to come, and not sure if they will be starting this afternoon...but my contractor did say they were planning to work over the weekend to get the framing going.

[miroslav]

DAY 20

Most of the day went into prepping the old section of the foundation for the plates (some block remains and cement had to be removed to have a smooth surface)...and the setting up an squaring of the wall plates.

The old addition and slab were not 100% square with the rest of house. Not sure why or who built it (it was probably done 30 years ago)...but it had to be adjusted.
They saw it right from the start when they were pouring the footings, when they set up their laser system.
I'm sure 30 years ago it was done by chalk line and eye... ...so the decision had to made whether to square the new foundation to the house or to the existing, old addition slab.
Since the new studio will be following the line of the main house, it made sense to square to that, and then adjust the framing for the old portion.
Not really a big deal for them...it's just that by having it squared properly rather than following the existing old addition lines, it makes the rafters and roof that much easier to install properly, all cut to same length, etc, and it then brings the whole house in proper line.
I was always able to see that the old corner seemed to bump out a bit when lining it up to the rest of the house.

Anyway...tomorrow they should be starting the walls now that the plates are set and bolted to the foundation...and things should pick up now.
I'm still hoping that by the end of next week there will be a roof on the structure.

[miroslav]

DAY 21

They framed out the walls today. It really went pretty fast.
I was told that the LVL ridge beam (engineered wood beam) will arrive on Wednesday, and they think the beam and rafter should be done by Fri/Sat...depending on the weather (we have some rain tomorrow and again maybe on Friday). They will start sealing the walls in the mean time.

Hopefully the roof will follow within a day or two after that...again, weather permitting, but it looks like these guys are going to push through unless it's real bad...which means by Thanksgiving Day I might have a sealed structure.

Now it's taking shape, and you can get a good sense of size in the last picture, relative to the rest of the house.
I was smiling all day.

[bluesfordan]

are those three (I think they're called) head plates going to be doors or windows?

[miroslav]

are those three (I think they're called) head plates going to be doors or windows?

Windows are going there. We haven't decided on the exact vertical position...probably centered on the 10' wall, maybe a bit lower.
They are basically 2' x 4' windows.
Yes, the windows create a weak link AFA the soundproofing goes, but I wanted some windows because the natural light and view is worth it, and for added sound control at the windows I will have some heavy curtains I can close, and/or some inserts I will make...which will basically be like your typical 2' x 4' trap.
That's why I chose the 2' x 4' windows. I can make some 4"-6" thick traps/inserts out of the rigid fiberglass panels that could be inserted into the window cavity if desired or needed for any extra loud days or nights.

[miroslav]

DAY 22

Game called due to rain....

[TalismanRich]

DAY 22

Game called due to rain....

Bummer, but it beats "Game called due to 10 inch snowfall!"

[miroslav]

Bummer, but it beats "Game called due to 10 inch snowfall!"

Hopefully we won't have to deal with that for this build...it should be weather-tight in the next week or two, and we don't usually get major snow this time of year unless it's a freak...but long-range forecast looks OK for the next 2-3 weeks.

DAY 23

Nothing much happening today either.
They are waiting on the ridge-beam delivery, which should be tomorrow.

[miroslav]

DAYS 24, 25

Not a lot of obvious new construction the last few days...but there was work being done with flashing along one wall because it was too even with the grade, and there was a need to dig a channel, put in flashing, add another layer of pressure treated lumber, then another layer of aluminum flashing as a drip-cap...back-fill with stone..etc.
They also put in some of the fire blocking in-between the wall studs...and today the 34' long engineered ridge beam (which is 2" x 14") arrived, along with all the lumber for the rafters and plywood for the roof.

I'm told tomorrow they will start sealing the walls with plywood (zip-board...aka...rubber coated plywood), and then Sat/Sun they will hoist that massive ridge beam up and also put up the rafters. I'm waiting to see how they get that ridge beam up!
Expecting to have the ice-shield on the roof Mon/Tue...and then the asphalt shingles will probably go on after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

So...I didn't bother taking any pictures of aluminum flashing and more piles of wood.

[miroslav]

DAYS 26,27

Yesterday with the rain, they only got some outer sheeting put up (those are coated "Zip" panels), and set up the scaffolding for the big roof raising. Today the rafters were all cut and prepared and the last picture shows the big 34' 2"x14" LVL ridge beam that will be hoisted up to support the rafters and roof.
The plan is to do that tomorrow, but right now they are calling for rain all day, so it might not happen until Monday.











In the meantime, I've been reconsidering my room-within-room plan, and am now considering simply going with a single wall, and to add a third layer to the inner, double drywall layers, and to just use some dampening material (maybe Green Glue...or similar) in between the drywall layers. The third layer would be plywood (it would actually be the first layer on the studs)...that would provide a solid layer across the entire wall and ceiling surfaces, which is great for hanging and attaching things to them later, without only using the studs, plus it would be useful in the ceiling for applying adhesive for the first layer of drywall, since there is some concern that the weight of the double drywall could potentially rip off the screw heads (very unlikely, but the adhesive won't hurt).

The three main reasons for considering not doing the room-within-room are...necessity, space and acoustics.
After considering that double wall designs are primarily used in situations where there are adjoining rooms or rooms above and below, like in a multi-room studio or in multi-story living space or where it's a repurposed bedroom or basement, and you want to control sound getting into those spaces...I'm not really seeing the net value for my situation since my studio is basically a standalone room. There are no adjacent rooms next to, above or below me...and my entire structure is basically decoupled from any other structure...and that certainly would include any neighboring structures, which are at a good distance. So the added soundproofing of a double wall would provide only marginal value.

The other, and more important reason has to do with the amount of space that I would lose with the second walls/ceiling...about two feet total on both width and length but the loss of about a foot or more of ceiling height was the one that really bothered me. I mean, an 11' ceiling would still be pretty tall, but not as impressive as a 13' ceiling (I am already losing about a foot because of the 10" rafters, plus the double drywall and layer of plywood).

The third reason is that a decoupled wall system (clips/channels or double wall), while doing a great job at higher frequencies...has the potential to resonate at some LF and create node problems that could be substantial. Now...I don't tend to do bass-heavy music...but still, it is something to be aware of.
The best way to deal with LF soundproofing is with rigid mass, not decoupled mass.
So my logic tells me that it's very simple to treat a room for upper mids and highs with basic broadband trapping...but the hard stuff is always the low end...so why create a LF problem with a decoupled wall system, that I would then have to treat/correct (if even possible) acoustically afterwards....and acoustic treatment of the space was always the most important aspect of this build for me...and not the worry about noise suppression, which will be quite good even with a single wall system that has substantial mass and on a standalone structure (the double drywall + plywood layers would be about 2" thick total).

All that said...I will add that it will also be so much easier to build without doing the double wall, less hassle with the building inspector, since we never identified the room-within-room on the architectural plans...and not to mention, it will save me some cost that I can then funnel into the final acoustic treatment where it will do more good than the double wall idea.
Heck...in my current converted spare room studio I've had drummers drumming and I've cranked my amps at 3AM, and no one every came banging on my door to complain...and all that has been in a basic single wall room with one layer of drywall on a 2"x4" frame.
If you really have the need to soundproof...and you have the space to lose for it...double wall construction still IS a best-case method, but even as Rod Gervais says in his book, it's important to consider just how much soundproofing you really need...and the fact that it's almost impossible to soundproof 100% without building some kind of cement bunker.