Turning overhang into studio-need design guidance

[CavityCr33p]

Hello all!

I am finally going to be able to build a computer based home studio. I have, in my backyard a overhang that was used for a carport for years, It has a slant roof on it, and the size is 24'Lx12'W.

Here is what I plan to have in it, eventually.

Pc, dual monitor, probably make my own desk for it so I can fit everything plus the studio monitors on it.

guitars, atleast 1 halfstack, small mixer, electronic drums (in the future), bass, bass amp.

I need a vocal booth and a control room, but I'm not sure if I should just go with the main rehearse part as the control room.

Studio will be for mainly rock stuff. m/

I plan on enclosing it and insulating, any tips on this would be great. I am eventually gonna go with the electronic drum set ala Hart or V-drums for the sake of being quiet, If I want to rehearse, we could atleat turn it down.

I'm not overly concerned with sound proofing, so I don't really want to go with a room within a room construction, mainly because I won't have that ki nd of cash. The overhand is over a concrete slab.

Also, if anybody could come up with a hypo guess of how much something like this would run me (enclosing, insulation, booths, and little acoustic treatment) I would appreciate this... Can it be done for 2 grand? I have access to windows, doors.

I'm attaching a crude image of the floor layout, and I figure the roof peak is about 20 ft, and then end of the slope is about 8-10 ft.



One more question, whats a good design program for something like this, where I could render in 3d. I have access to Punch home designer via interior decorating relative.

Thanx for any input, Im sorry I can't give more details, this is all I could think of ATM.

 

[Michael Jones]

Hmmm.... got any pictures?
You say this used to be a carport? So it basically has a driveway under it?

In building something like this, you start from the ground up; with the foundation.
A driveway IS NOT a foundation! It probably wont support the load of a fully enclosed structure. It wasn't designed to.
At the very least have an architect or structural engineer come out and look it over.

It would be a major bitch to go to the trouble and expense of building a room, only to have the slab crumble under the load.

Now, if it is a structural FOUNDATION with internal grade beams, and a perimeter footing, you're probably good to start planning the building, but the only way to know for sure, unless you have the plans it was built from, is to do core samples through the concrete at specific intervals.
A structural engineer would need to specify where the cores are to be taken.

This isn't something you want to take lightly, and just start building. An inferior foundation could cause a catastrophic failure of the structure, and none of us want that to happen.

Sorry if I've dashed your hopes, but.... safety first, right?

 

[CavityCr33p]

I'll try to get pictures for you later.

The concrete was a foundation for a small back house, it even has the holes where it once had a bathroom, etc. It has cracked in quite a few places, but I planned on pouring a new layer of concrete over it to fix that.

The overhand was at a previous house, we had it moved over to the new location, and is held up by 4 big poles (not sure what you call these, im no carpenter) that are deep in the ground, around these poles concrete has been poured to ensure they stay there.

Like I said, I'll try to snag some pictures this evening.

 

[CavityCr33p]

Photos!

Can anybody figure out a decent design, and how much it might cost to enclose this and insulate it?

 

[Michael Jones]

Well, as I suspected, your foundation is basically non-existant.
"Pouring a layer of concrete over it" isn't going to fix it.
So that's one problem.

I couldn't tell by the photos if the overhang beams were 2x4's or 2x6's but either way they appear to be over-spanned.
So that's another problem.

Your stated dimensions are 12'x24'. Those are multiples of each other. Not an ideal dimensional ratio.
So there's another.

A fairly basic residential type building is going to cost about $100 per square foot to have built. Add in the necessary sound proofing construction techniques and interior acoustic treatments and the price can elevate to around $120 - $130 per sq foot or more depending on the elaboration.

If you did all the work yourself and contracted out the foundation, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and roofing you could probably get the price down to about $60 - $70 dollars per square foot.
For a 12' x 24' building (288 sq. ft.) its going to run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000. And thats probably a low estimate.

 

[CavityCr33p]

Oh lord, I wasn't going into the project that serious about it...I mean, I won't be recording anybody else there but myself.

I was just going to enclose it, I was told by my father, who used to do a little contract work, that it would be in the area of 2-3k tops. I just wanted to get a second opinion.

I don't need plumbing, all that jazz, I just want to enclose it, throw some insulation in, and put my stuff in there, then work on putting up the acoustic treatment

thanx tho!

 

[Michael Jones]

Are you going to put your expensive gear in there without heating and air conditioning?

You're going to need electricity to run everything. If its not inspected and done to code an insurance agency wont even touch you should there ever be an accident.

The foundation that you have isn't going to support the load of enclosing the walls. It might hold up for a while, but over time your walls are going to buckle and fail, not to mention rotting out at the base.

If you had a usable room in your house, 2 grand would set you up a decent recording environment. But 2 grand isn't enough to literally "scratch the dirt" outside.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but there's really no cheap way of doing this stuff. And I would NEVER advocate a project of any size without first obtaining the necessary building permits and going through the inspection process.

Throw your money away if you want to, but if I were you, I'd either walk away from that overhang, or start off with a proper foundation and go from there.

 

[Innovations]

Yeah, I have to admit that the existing carport is pretty much a zero net gain. In other words what you gain by having the roof already there you lose by having to work around it being already there.

A good sounding recordig studio, one with good isolation from outside and good sound inside, is a specialized space. It isn't a screened in rec room.