My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[Door County Bass]

Silky;
Out of curiosity, have you given any thought to the first project you want to work on when your studio is finished?In other words, a “celebratory “ project, sound, or piece that’s been knocking around in the back of your mind during the build?
When I helped build my house, I envisioned a great sunny day with guests on the deck and me tending the grill (Italian sausages, peppers, etc.). It came to fruition, in a total downpour. We all laughed and enjoyed the day.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your build. Have fun.

 

[silky smoove]

What, no windows?

How does the room sound when you snap your fingers?

Same as it has since I hit the critical mass with panel installation a few weeks ago. Echos. Big echos. Long decay times. Very long in fact. No flutter echo, but that will probably manifest as I furnish it. All of this will be dealt with by my treatment plan.

 

[silky smoove]

Out of curiosity, have you given any thought to the first project you want to work on when your studio is finished?

An excellent question. I have a solo album that I’ve wanted to finish for years. I’ve got a funk rock album that’s partially tracked (it needs keys and vocals) that some friends and I have been dying to finish. An old client of mine is nearly ready with her second album, and after her first excellent release I’m excited to work on the sophomore effort. A buddy wants to do this Spanish influenced indie rock thing with me that I’m excited about. One of my bands has two new songs ready to track that I’d like to pick off.

So... Lots of choices!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your build. Have fun.

Thanks! It’s much appreciated. The finish line is within sight!

 

[silky smoove]

Picked up some paint and flooring samples over the weekend. Drywall is being sanded right now. Tomorrow night I'm going to put on the primer so that it's ready for texture on Wednesday.

Playing an interesting game with Overly Doors. The manufacturer doesn't sell direct so they bounce to their west coast distributor. The west coast distributor only sells in California and bounces me to a local distributor. The local distributor sells the door slab, but not the glazing so I'll need to get a contractor who can install doors and windows, as well as windows in doors. This whole thing is turning into an adventure! Door lead time is about 6 weeks at present. That might torpedo my "doors open by end of summer" decree. I'll still count it as a victory if everything but the door and trim is wrapped up by then.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Picked up some paint and flooring samples over the weekend. Drywall is being sanded right now. Tomorrow night I'm going to put on the primer so that it's ready for texture on Wednesday.

Playing an interesting game with Overly Doors. The manufacturer doesn't sell direct so they bounce to their west coast distributor. The west coast distributor only sells in California and bounces me to a local distributor. The local distributor sells the door slab, but not the glazing so I'll need to get a contractor who can install doors and windows, as well as windows in doors. This whole thing is turning into an adventure! Door lead time is about 6 weeks at present. That might torpedo my "doors open by end of summer" decree. I'll still count it as a victory if everything but the door and trim is wrapped up by then.

any other door manufacturer's you can take a look at? gotta be a couple people who make those.

 

[silky smoove]

any other door manufacturer's you can take a look at? gotta be a couple people who make those.

There are a couple, but all of the studio construction pros in the US seem to say the same thing: "Either build a DIY sound door, or buy one from Overly." I absolutely need the door to be full-lite since there are no other windows in the space for natural light, and doing a full-lite glazing on a DIY door is a little out of my league. Overly it is!

 

[silky smoove]

Sanding and touch-ups day one.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Is the sanding been done by hand or with a machine?


I’ve seen one of these in action, it was very good. I’ve used a Dewalt random orbital palm sander, it worked better than hand sanding for me on rough areas. It required a light touch. The proper drywall sanders are similar but utilize a larger disk.

 

[silky smoove]

Is the sanding been done by hand or with a machine?

No idea. My contractor works on it while I'm at my office. I come home and progress has been made is all I know

 

[silky smoove]

Just got off the phone with my drywall contractor. He's on track to finish sanding today, and he wants to spray texture tomorrow. That means when I get home from the office tonight I'll scarf down some dinner, throw on work clothes and immediately go and put on all of the primer. It'll be a late night, but I'll get it done.

I've got quotes for the Overly door going with two local distributors. I went with the dual magnetic seal 460460 model. It shuts and seals magnetically like the way a refrigerator door closes. Very cool. Hopefully those quotes come in soon so I can get that rolling. Overly told me it's a six week lead time on building the door, and then another week to ship it.

 

[CryingBass]

Good. That gives you time to get the wet bar built

 

[Ulf_Hansson]

Just got off the phone with my drywall contractor. He's on track to finish sanding today, and he wants to spray texture tomorrow. That means when I get home from the office tonight I'll scarf down some dinner, throw on work clothes and immediately go and put on all of the primer. It'll be a late night, but I'll get it done.

I've got quotes for the Overly door going with two local distributors. I went with the dual magnetic seal 460460 model. It shuts and seals magnetically like the way a refrigerator door closes. Very cool. Hopefully those quotes come in soon so I can get that rolling. Overly told me it's a six week lead time on building the door, and then another week to ship it.

Overly Doors - Model 460460

That's cool. What color is the metal frame in?

 

[silky smoove]

Overly Doors - Model 460460

That's cool. What color is the metal frame in?

I don’t know yet. I’ll learn more as things progress. I assume it’ll all need to be painted to not look out of place.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Just thought that I'd ask:

Is there enough room for the door to fully swing open into the vestibule?

Will it swing the same way as the exterior door?

 

[silky smoove]

Both doors swing away from the vestibule. The exterior door is an out-swing, and the sound door will open into the main room. It could technically clear if swung into the vestibule, but it would block one half of the space. So, for instance, if I had it swing to the east I’d have problems getting guitar cases in and out of the vestibule. Opening into the live room solves this and keeps me from stacking anything being recorded too close to the rear wall.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Demolition Day One:

I would have liked to begin building my studio the day I took possession of the house, but way back in 1946, someone had built a pesky garage near where I wanted a studio. How thoroughly inconsiderate of them! I rented a demolition container from a local company that recycles the materials. This is a two-step process because the mixed demolition goes out at $90 per ton, and concrete/asphalt/masonry goes out at $20 per ton. There are separate containers for each.

I was simultaneously excited and terrified by the size of this thing.
View attachment 2417837

With sledgehammer and wrecking bar in hand (along with safety glasses, gloves and steel-toed boots) I took to tearing down the garage. I started by removing the garage door, which was being held in place by a little skinny wheel rolling along a piece of heavy aluminum that was no more than 1/2” wide. It was an absolute head smashing accident just waiting to happen. A slight jerk to the side and the whole thing came crashing down.

Well THERE’S your problem!
View attachment 2417838

Next the window needed to come out. On the off chance that it was to be dropped during removal, I used painter’s tape and made a large X across both sides of each pane of glass. If it broke, at least it would stay together. A couple whacks and a little prying with the wrecking bar and the entire frame slid right out.

There was an internal table/workbench made out of an old door inside the garage. When I broke it loose I noticed something written in Sharpie on the downward facing side. Someone had paid homage to both Madonna and Duran Duran before the door was skinned with OSB and relegated to service as a work bench. I’m guessing this was the door to some young girl’s bedroom in the 80s. Nothing of monetary value here, but a fun time capsule to discover that was good for a laugh in the middle of a backbreaking day.

The door got autographed by Madonna and BOTH of the Durans. Wow… Such prestige.
View attachment 2417839

Here’s where things went south on me. With all of the prep work done I could begin the real fun part of the demolition. The roof decking was in rough shape and I wasn’t confident in its ability to support my 215lbs frame, so doing the internet-approved demolition method of starting at the top and working down while leaving as much of the structure intact as possible was out of the question. I instead opted to just bring the building down and start dismantling everything at ground level before schlepping it into the recycling container.

The garage was parallel to an alley. I wanted the building to fall away from the alley and into my backyard. It would create a big mess for me, but at least it would be contained on my property. I left all of the structural support on the alley side in place, and systematically broke loose, via sledgehammer, the base plates and load-bearing wall studs on the backyard side of the structure. When that didn’t do the trick, I did the same thing on both sides running perpendicular to the alley. Magically, with only one load bearing wall still functioning, the garage showed no signs of coming down.

I decided that breaking the base plates and wall studs loose wasn’t enough. I needed to completely remove them on the backyard side of the building, and then it would have no choice but to fall. And fall it did… In the wrong direction!

I tried to play it cool in the video, but really my internal monologue was screaming “WHY DID IT FALL THAT WAY?!”


In defiance of physics, or at least my perception of it, the garage decided not to fall in the direction with zero structural support, but rather towards the only remaining supporting wall. I’m still baffled as to how that happened. It would be as if you cut a large notch into a tree and it fell away from said notch rather than into it. The alley was now blocked and any of my neighbors that wanted to come in or out of the alley were screwed. My wife and I spent the next hour furiously dismantling the section of the roof that was now sitting in the alley. Fortunately we got everything clear before anyone came home or left so all was well.

Another couple of hours later and we had the recycling container filled. It took roughly 3/4 of a 35 cubic yard container to handle the small 12’ x 20’ single car garage.

I was beyond ecstatic to see the container full and ready for the door to close.
View attachment 2417840

Narration is very nice ... but you should produce a version in SI units ...

 

[silky smoove]

Narration is very nice ... but you should produce a version in SI units ...

As soon as I build a studio in a country that uses the metric system I will.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Both doors swing away from the vestibule. The exterior door is an out-swing, and the sound door will open into the main room. It could technically clear if swung into the vestibule, but it would block one half of the space. So, for instance, if I had it swing to the east I’d have problems getting guitar cases in and out of the vestibule. Opening into the live room solves this and keeps me from stacking anything being recorded too close to the rear wall.

Fire regulations in some areas require that the door swing out when exiting a room. In your case, that would be into the vestibule. On the negative side, swinging into the studio means that you loose space where the door swings. Always a tradeoff.

It makes it a lot easier if you can choose whatever works best for you.

 

[silky smoove]

I’m fully permitted. I can do whatever I want. Regardless, it’s an interior door that swings into the room just like any bedroom you’ve ever been in, so it’s certainly code-compliant in that regard.

In theory it reduces main room space, but only when viewed in a vacuum. The area occupied by a door swing would still be needed for ingress/egress regardless of swing direction, so effectively nothing is lost.

 

[silky smoove]

Got the first coat of PVA primer on the walls and ceiling. Letting it dry overnight. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I’m going to do a second coat before my drywall guy gets to the studio to spray texture.