has anyone built a free-standing studio?

  • Thread starter Thread starter lilcapn
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lilcapn

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i'm thinking of building a shed, garage, lean-to, anything, to get my "studio" out of the spare bedroom it's in.

i have a little room on our lot, it doesn't need to be fancy, just bigger than the room i have now and not in my house.

has anyone done this (i read JoelPatterson's post about building a 3-story barn, sounds cool but bigger than i need or can afford)?

i was wondering about pre-fab garages or buildings in order to save some dough, i just don't really know where to begin...

thanks!
 
My builder is just completing my stand-alone studio. It is 16'X23' with a cathedral ceiling going from 10' to 14' at peak. It is constructed out of sand-filled cinderblock and has stucco on inside and outside, so it looks cool. I have double pane, fixed frame windows put on two sides (to connect with abandoned family), a small entry way to serve as an airlock with double doors, and a small vocal booth. It has a loft over the entry way end to house a futon and other spousal doghouse ammenities. I've attached a gif of it.

My builder did it (including electricity and dedicated HVAC) for only $10K US. Keep in mind that he was building the main house at the same time and was able to leverage costs accordingly. It is going to be way cool, although I have a lot of acoustic treatment ahead of me, it seems.

Good Luck!
 

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nice one!

wow -- that's going to be awesome, and really cheap for what it is i'd say! stucco does look great and covers cinder block nicely.

how big an HVAC unit do you need for a structure that size?

are cathedral ceilings problematic acoustically? obviously they look great.

thanks!
mac
 
Sounds very cool...$10k isn't bad at all, either. We want pics, Todzilla!
 
Pics are coming, although I posted some earlier that mostly just showed the shell.

HVAC unit looks like a big-ass window mounted AC, though I don't know the BTUs or anything. I live between DC and Atlanta, so I will have a greater cooling demand than heating FWIW.

Cathedral ceiling should be way cool, as long as I don't try some parabolic curve thing. It will give me lots more volume. I will probably blunt the peak with some absorbers.

Yes 10K is way cheap, but I spent more than 30 times that for the real house, so it's not like I'm ripping off my builder. He's a bass player too, so he saw the studio project as a really fun thing.

Here's a pic from a couple months ago...
 

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Here's the inside, pre-stucco. You can see the HVAC in the entryway to the left. Also note the loft where I can chill when wifey sends me out of the house for leaving lid up...
 

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Here it is from the other side. Again you can see the HVAC unit and the ugly goombah modelling it.

There's the main house behind it
 

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That center post in the inside looks like it has water damage. Or is it just old and dirty. You might want to give that a closer look.

Beezoboy
 
The center post is actually finishing up curing. It is from a beech tree on the land itself. It has dried enough to contain shrinkage, but further curing will give it great cracks and showy knots. It will look really cool and the kharma of using timbers from the land is way out there. It is over-engineered, so it will have no problem bearing the load.

For aesthetics, I will wire brush the final crud off it.

Cool.
 
eno basin

hey todzilla -

thanks for the pics -- these are quite heartening to see! it looks great. how long will the whole process have taken when you're done do you think?

i see that you're here in NC as well -- i live btw Chapel Hill and Hillsboro!

can you put me in touch with you builder?

thanks!mac
 
Lilcapn,

No shit! I live right outside Hillsborough, just west of Occonneechi Mountain (really meaningful to all the others on this list). Are you off of 86?

I'm juggling kids, move-in projects, full-time job and the wonders of spring, so it's hard to put an exact time frame, but I'm hopping to be finished by mid-summer.

My builder is Michael Chandler. Here's his website:

http://www.buildyourdream.com/chandler/index.html

I can't say enough about how great it was to work with him on the whole house, and you can imagine the opportunity for problematic relationships.

He has built a bunch of really nice houses throughout Orange County and has done a lot of home studios in conjunction with Wes Lachot of Overdub Lane. He plays bass for the "Off the Road Band" a kind of mellow rock- deadhead outfit.

Give me an e-shout: tjones52@csc.com perhaps we can get together.
 
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