John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hi all . .

Here is my updated thread, I thougt I would share with you all a more start to present approach to my endeavors. I am sure many of you will have lots of shots to take at my style and approach, but in any regards I am happy with the results to date and tend to have an attitude of "what I end up with, I will be happy with"

I live in a rural area of Western Pennsylvania where the closet neighbor is at least 150 yards (137 meters) away. We have little if no zoning and building inspection and codes are at a minimum. I symathize with those of you that have to pay so much money and time to get the spacing of drywall screws approved. Please understand that I agree with proper building techniques in regards to saftey, quality, and functionality. I am a consutlting electrical engineer, the majority of my business is in support of an engineering firm that does municipal water, sewage, bridge and road construction. I run most of my designs past my structural and civil counterparts before I make any decisions.

I am doing most of the work myself along with the help of my father, son, family and musical commarades. I did not do any masonary or excavation; I left that to the veterans.

This forum has been most helpful as I lurk around daily. Some of you I find a bit to annal for me, and most of you are a blessing. We can always take a grain of salt here and there as the bottom line is having fun.

I sought out a piece of property a year and a half ago with the intention of finding some land and a house with a separate building. My wife and I ended up with a home on 5 acres back a private drive in a rural setting. I am not too concerned about the neighbors as they are as earlier stated far enough away. My only big issue is a rail road track about 650 yard away, its blocked by a large hill, but can be from time to time a bit of a pain. I must say already by simply beefing up outer leaves, sealing things air tight, and insulating, I am recognizing at least 60 to 70 per cent drop in levels. I can't wait to see what the second leaves do.

Well here are the concept and overall designs:

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Mark

I had a bad wall on the upper side of the building and last fall we raised the structure and had that wall replaced

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Mark

Excavation was done for the footing of the 16'X24' addition to create a higher ceiling for a more live area. I also ran sewage, water, and data from the building to the house.

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Mark

My hired mason did the block work for the addition, I did the footing and about that time winter came and I was on hold until this past spring. A little yard clean up as well for the utility ditch.

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Mark

As this spring rolled around it was time to pour the concrete slab in the addition and prepare for framing the addition.

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Mark

Framing the high room with the help of lots of friends. We put the trusses up ourselves as well, If you have lots of help and someone with previous experience, its not too bad.

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Mark

The exterior is 1/2" OSB on the first layer. Here are a couple inside and outside shots. You can now see the old header from the garage doors. That had to be removed and was a pain.

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Mark

The outer exterior is a James Hardie board product. Very dense and very heavy, Cement based. I used an industrial sprayer for the finish and matched up the existing building. Here the third or fourth load of drywall .

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Mark

Next the control room floor. I opted to float for many reasons. The concrete is uneven, I like the sound of the wooden floor, and it will be nice and warm in the winter. I orderd the rubber from Acoustical Surfaces online, and found a good source for Rock Wool in Pittsburgh.

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Mark

Heating is a dual stage propane system with DC variable speed blower. The furnace is very, very quiet. All duct work is acoustically insulated with turning vanes. Putting your ear in the duct work while its running you hear nothing. All duct work is over sized and the end effect is like a warm gentle breeze.

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Mark

Completed control room framing and beefing up the live area walls with drywall.

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Mark

Lots of insulation, it gets cold here in Pennsylvania. I blew R50 in all ceilings and R19 on the walls on the first leaf.

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Mark

Currently I am framing the studio area. I used TJI-230 trusses and a large laminated beam for the bulkhead between the high and low ceiling. Soon to start the inner leaf drywall. I figure I need another 180 sheets on top of the 150 I already installed . . . oh well . . its still fun.

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Mark

Awesome! I predict this will be a very popular thread indeed!

What exactly are you using as your elastomers? You mentioned the source but not the product itself. I'm also curious how you calculated the loads/spacing for them.

I also noticed you used insulation with kraft paper on your outer leaf wall, which is going to act as a third leaf. It may be worth your time to slice the paper along the edges of the studs and then tear the paper off. That should eliminate the third leaf effect that you'd get otherwise.

--Keith

BTW does any one have trouble when replying such that you hit the reply button and it takes you back to the forum index and then you have to hit the thread a second time to actually get the reply window?

Anyhow . . the rubber is neoprene, its life is less than EPDM but that life thing is more related to UV exposure than being buried under $60,000 worth of wood, rockwool, and gypsum board. I figure I'll be dead before any one notices. One of my structural engineers crunched the numbers and I placed the rubber under the floor runners.

Thanks for the tip on the kraft paper but that's just too annal for me, I am going to slit the paper to reduce the barrier effect as my second leaf insulation will have the barrier . . for me that's like saying 9.98754 isn't 10.

I keep remembering that I made a very satifactory CD two years ago in my living room studio at my old house (here's a photo). The new studio will be very project orientated. Its already sound proofed enough to use, but of course looks like hell right now . . remember no one can hear me out here and the trains are already almost gone . . .

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Mark