Cost Estimate

K

kp174

New member
Hi everybody,

I have a space that I want to acoustically treat and move my recording equiptment into, and its about 25x15
with slanted ceilings that peak at about 15 feet. I read through everything on John's page and I want to create a three room studio, the rooms being a control room, a studio room for drums, and a vocal booth. i want to create floating floors and double up the walls and all, but I am not sure how much this will all cost. Luckily my dad is a carpenter so he is willing to help me out on this, so I won't need to hire anyone else, and all that being aside, I was wondering if anyone had any estimates for a project like this. Thanks

PS. I read on the auralex page that windows should NOT be slanted, but on John's page (and elsewhere) I heard that they should be angled. Is this preference?
 
kp 174 - I estimate building cost by the square metre, your square yard and here in Oz to build the kind of construction you are talking about with floating floors, double skins etc, air-conditioned (the moment you create sealed skins you have to or you'll run out of air) , electrical wiring, etc etc I would look at around $1,000 per square metre which brings your construction out to around $40,000.

now don't panic! now you must consider the labour content in the project. Floating floors, double skins etc is very labour intensive. The building is made up of irregular walls, nothing much is at 90 degrees, it's all angles and this is labour intensive, thus the high estimate of $1,000/sqm. For example to build our 108sqm studio it took 3 carpenters (sometimes 4) 5 months to complete the construction. And it would have cost around $108,000, but we also used expensive timbers, wood crafted fittings built externally as well as complex internal wood work. All expensive and labour intensive. BTW the carpenters got around $3,000 per week, so over months that's $65,000 out of the 108K or 70% of the total cost.

So if you and your father build the studio and you pay out no additional labour costs your 40K comes down to
$12,000.

Hope this helps, I know it's aussie money but the percentages still apply eh mate.

BTW, everything I've read has said angle the windows, every studio I've ever been in has had angled windows. ;)

Cheers
John
 
It looks like, as compared to John's Oz costs, you should increase your material costs by about 20% to account for US costs. (they've got cheaper timbers and those wonderful things like sheep - wool I mean :>)
And I think that, in my next life (if I &&%$ have to come back again), I'm going to be a carpenter in OZ!!
Let me see ... $3000 per week, I would have made about 80.000 making my own place .... do I get overtime pay for saturdays and sundays? Oh well, hell NO! Just make another hit record, much more fun, pays better as well.

KP - I think you're very lucky with that slanted roof! That makes for some promising possibilities. Why don't you post a drawing of your room? Then we can all ponder, miander, excercise braincells (those left) and all that sort'a stuff.

Damn... I just realized that I've been working my butt off! Not bad progress doing it all myself - 7 months so far.
Just finished the last bit of varnish in the control room today, fitted the door, wired the lights up. Turned them on ......... awsome!!!! Tomorrow I'm putting the console stand up, and I'm eagerly awayting the arrival of the new monitors. Man, there is nothing like building your own place.
 
Hey sjoko - that's 3 carpenters @ $25 per hour. What do you pay a carpenter who has all the tools, compressor for nail guns etc, will do plaster work as well as carpentry and will lug huge sheets of 5/8 soundcheck?? :)

cheers
John
 
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