In related news: The amount of conflicting information on the correct way to air seal an existing structure is staggering.
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My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)
- Thread starter silky smoove
- Start date
Another question is how long a sealant is effective for. Some caulking can shrink and dry out. They say it doesn't but kitchen and bath caulking eventually fails as does caulking on outer doors and windows.
A question for those of you reading this slow moving glacier of a thread 
I'm putting together a list of the videos that I'm going to shoot for my YouTube channel documenting the construction of my studio. This will all be a duplication of the information present in this thread. Those of you that have been onboard since the beginning aren't really the target audience, but your input is very valuable since there are a few of you that know as much about this project as I do at this point, haha. These will be done in chronological order as construction progresses. The videos will be me giving a brief introduction of what will be discussed, footage during construction, illustrations of design concepts through the use of my SketchUp model, image/video inserts to illustrate things more clearly, and then back to me to close out the topic discussed, pitch my studio/business, spam you with links, etc.
Below is a list of videos with brief descriptions; Can you think of any additional videos that I should include, or details that I'm missing that would be good to document in the videos?
1. Basic Small Studio Design
This will cover the basics of what I have planned for the space in terms of use, why I made certain design decisions, the importance of doing as much design work up front as you can, the reality of budget vs execution, getting your ducks in a row for permitting efforts, and perhaps most importantly, how to create an effective studio environment in a small space.
2. Construction Backstory
This will be a quick video to document what steps I took from the time I started demolition of the existing garage to the point that I began interior construction efforts that are specific to studio building. This isn't there for any informational purposes other than to illustrate the fact that what you think of as the beginning of the project might not actually be the case, and to better set the stage for the rest of the videos.
3. Air Seal and Insulation
This will cover the process of air sealing the exterior framing and door, as well as installing the principle building insulation.
4. Isolation Perimeter - Inside-Out Walls
This will cover the concept and construction of the inside-out walls used to provide the sound isolation perimeter along the walls of the structure, as well as the interior "bays" for future acoustic treatments. I'll be discussing framing, drywall, Green Glue, air sealing, and how to build corners, as well as briefly touching on TL/STC values and concepts.
5. HVAC
This will cover the design, sizing and installation of the mini split, air handler and HRV, as well as air sealing of all penetrations. I'll also touch on the space requirements for these, which was something I left out of my initial designs, but have been able to accommodate.
6. Electrical
This will cover the design, and installation of the building's electrical and lighting systems, as well as air sealing of all penetrations.
7. Isolation Perimeter - Ceiling
This will cover the concepts and installation of the Whisper Clips, hat channel, double-up drywall with Green Glue, how to interface with the inside-out walls, and air sealing.
8. Isolation Perimeter - Flooring
This will cover the installation of flooring, including the structure's sub-floor, Green Glue, Densdecking, flooring underlayment and the actual flooring itself. I'll also touch on base trim and air sealing the perimeter.
9. Isolation Perimeter - Doors
This will get into the selection, need for custom build, and installation of the sound door, as well as all related air sealing. I'll also be touching on door rough openings again since it was already covered in the second video, but is a critical step to get right.
10. Storage Considerations
Another step that I didn't have completely handled in my initial designs was how to account for storage (cases, mic stands, cables, microphone locker, etc.) in a way that didn't eat up all of my usable floor space. This video will cover my approach to this, how it ties into the isolation perimeter and some clever things I did to make use of the space as best I could.
11. Acoustic Treatments
This will start with an explanation of room measurements, get into some basics of acoustic treatment theory and will carry all the way through installation of bass traps, broadband absorbers, Helmholtz resonators, diffusers, etc. I might need to break this into a couple of videos as I suspect it could get quite long as a single piece.
12. Finished Facility
A "close-out" overview of the finished facility to bookend the whole series.
I'm putting together a list of the videos that I'm going to shoot for my YouTube channel documenting the construction of my studio. This will all be a duplication of the information present in this thread. Those of you that have been onboard since the beginning aren't really the target audience, but your input is very valuable since there are a few of you that know as much about this project as I do at this point, haha. These will be done in chronological order as construction progresses. The videos will be me giving a brief introduction of what will be discussed, footage during construction, illustrations of design concepts through the use of my SketchUp model, image/video inserts to illustrate things more clearly, and then back to me to close out the topic discussed, pitch my studio/business, spam you with links, etc.
Below is a list of videos with brief descriptions; Can you think of any additional videos that I should include, or details that I'm missing that would be good to document in the videos?
1. Basic Small Studio Design
This will cover the basics of what I have planned for the space in terms of use, why I made certain design decisions, the importance of doing as much design work up front as you can, the reality of budget vs execution, getting your ducks in a row for permitting efforts, and perhaps most importantly, how to create an effective studio environment in a small space.
2. Construction Backstory
This will be a quick video to document what steps I took from the time I started demolition of the existing garage to the point that I began interior construction efforts that are specific to studio building. This isn't there for any informational purposes other than to illustrate the fact that what you think of as the beginning of the project might not actually be the case, and to better set the stage for the rest of the videos.
3. Air Seal and Insulation
This will cover the process of air sealing the exterior framing and door, as well as installing the principle building insulation.
4. Isolation Perimeter - Inside-Out Walls
This will cover the concept and construction of the inside-out walls used to provide the sound isolation perimeter along the walls of the structure, as well as the interior "bays" for future acoustic treatments. I'll be discussing framing, drywall, Green Glue, air sealing, and how to build corners, as well as briefly touching on TL/STC values and concepts.
5. HVAC
This will cover the design, sizing and installation of the mini split, air handler and HRV, as well as air sealing of all penetrations. I'll also touch on the space requirements for these, which was something I left out of my initial designs, but have been able to accommodate.
6. Electrical
This will cover the design, and installation of the building's electrical and lighting systems, as well as air sealing of all penetrations.
7. Isolation Perimeter - Ceiling
This will cover the concepts and installation of the Whisper Clips, hat channel, double-up drywall with Green Glue, how to interface with the inside-out walls, and air sealing.
8. Isolation Perimeter - Flooring
This will cover the installation of flooring, including the structure's sub-floor, Green Glue, Densdecking, flooring underlayment and the actual flooring itself. I'll also touch on base trim and air sealing the perimeter.
9. Isolation Perimeter - Doors
This will get into the selection, need for custom build, and installation of the sound door, as well as all related air sealing. I'll also be touching on door rough openings again since it was already covered in the second video, but is a critical step to get right.
10. Storage Considerations
Another step that I didn't have completely handled in my initial designs was how to account for storage (cases, mic stands, cables, microphone locker, etc.) in a way that didn't eat up all of my usable floor space. This video will cover my approach to this, how it ties into the isolation perimeter and some clever things I did to make use of the space as best I could.
11. Acoustic Treatments
This will start with an explanation of room measurements, get into some basics of acoustic treatment theory and will carry all the way through installation of bass traps, broadband absorbers, Helmholtz resonators, diffusers, etc. I might need to break this into a couple of videos as I suspect it could get quite long as a single piece.
12. Finished Facility
A "close-out" overview of the finished facility to bookend the whole series.
Pure silicone sealant isn't really prone to shrinkage like polyurethane or hybrid products. At least not on a scale that will matter for this build. There are also a number of acoustic sealant products that are highly regarded on the green builder DIY websites. Green Glue makes just such a product that clocks in at about $2-3 more per 10.1oz tube than standard silicone sealant like GE Silicone II. As per usual. More research is required.
A question for those of you reading this slow moving glacier of a thread
I'm putting together a list of the videos that I'm going to shoot for my YouTube channel documenting the construction of my studio. This will all be a duplication of the information present in this thread. Those of you that have been onboard since the beginning aren't really the target audience, but your input is very valuable since there are a few of you that know as much about this project as I do at this point, haha. These will be done in chronological order as construction progresses. The videos will be me giving a brief introduction of what will be discussed, footage during construction, illustrations of design concepts through the use of my SketchUp model, image/video inserts to illustrate things more clearly, and then back to me to close out the topic discussed, pitch my studio/business, spam you with links, etc.
Below is a list of videos with brief descriptions; Can you think of any additional videos that I should include, or details that I'm missing that would be good to document in the videos?
1. Basic Small Studio Design
This will cover the basics of what I have planned for the space in terms of use, why I made certain design decisions, the importance of doing as much design work up front as you can, the reality of budget vs execution, getting your ducks in a row for permitting efforts, and perhaps most importantly, how to create an effective studio environment in a small space.
2. Construction Backstory
This will be a quick video to document what steps I took from the time I started demolition of the existing garage to the point that I began interior construction efforts that are specific to studio building. This isn't there for any informational purposes other than to illustrate the fact that what you think of as the beginning of the project might not actually be the case, and to better set the stage for the rest of the videos.
3. Air Seal and Insulation
This will cover the process of air sealing the exterior framing and door, as well as installing the principle building insulation.
4. Isolation Perimeter - Inside-Out Walls
This will cover the concept and construction of the inside-out walls used to provide the sound isolation perimeter along the walls of the structure, as well as the interior "bays" for future acoustic treatments. I'll be discussing framing, drywall, Green Glue, air sealing, and how to build corners, as well as briefly touching on TL/STC values and concepts.
5. HVAC
This will cover the design, sizing and installation of the mini split, air handler and HRV, as well as air sealing of all penetrations. I'll also touch on the space requirements for these, which was something I left out of my initial designs, but have been able to accommodate.
6. Electrical
This will cover the design, and installation of the building's electrical and lighting systems, as well as air sealing of all penetrations.
7. Isolation Perimeter - Ceiling
This will cover the concepts and installation of the Whisper Clips, hat channel, double-up drywall with Green Glue, how to interface with the inside-out walls, and air sealing.
8. Isolation Perimeter - Flooring
This will cover the installation of flooring, including the structure's sub-floor, Green Glue, Densdecking, flooring underlayment and the actual flooring itself. I'll also touch on base trim and air sealing the perimeter.
9. Isolation Perimeter - Doors
This will get into the selection, need for custom build, and installation of the sound door, as well as all related air sealing. I'll also be touching on door rough openings again since it was already covered in the second video, but is a critical step to get right.
10. Storage Considerations
Another step that I didn't have completely handled in my initial designs was how to account for storage (cases, mic stands, cables, microphone locker, etc.) in a way that didn't eat up all of my usable floor space. This video will cover my approach to this, how it ties into the isolation perimeter and some clever things I did to make use of the space as best I could.
11. Acoustic Treatments
This will start with an explanation of room measurements, get into some basics of acoustic treatment theory and will carry all the way through installation of bass traps, broadband absorbers, Helmholtz resonators, diffusers, etc. I might need to break this into a couple of videos as I suspect it could get quite long as a single piece.
12. Finished Facility
A "close-out" overview of the finished facility to bookend the whole series.
Perhaps a summary of lessons learnt. Things that you might change. This might be more appropriate some time after completion and you've had a chance to use the facility for a while.
Using the studio. Studio furnishings and equipment layout. Any ergonomic considerations. Reconfiguring for tracking vs mixing vs mastering. Monitoring.
When discussing dimensions, how many people can it comfortably hold. I recall stories of how in the early days, the Motown snakepit (studio A) which was a converted cinderblock photo studio, used DI for the guitars and bass due to a lack of space.
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I was going to wrap this into video 12 which is sort of a wrap up on the finished facility. You're right that it might be more appropriate once the thing is finished and I've been in it and working for a while.
This was going to get touched on during the first video (basic design of the space). I don't want to get too deep into specifics of equipment used as it should be targeted at as general an audience as possible. It might be worth recapping in the final video as well.
This is a good idea that I hadn't considered. I was going to touch on this during the introductory video, but maybe I should add a second post-construction video on usage of the space where I outline practical methods for how I'm using a small space effectively.
To me the whole substructure flooring was a "huh; never knew that" bit of fascinating reading, so glad to see that's in there.
I'd say the not-common tools/aids that helped the do-it-alone moments would be great (e.g. when you put up the wall studs this past week, etc).
I'd say the not-common tools/aids that helped the do-it-alone moments would be great (e.g. when you put up the wall studs this past week, etc).
Good call. I'll make a point to address those items on the individual videos.
The more video of you working and me sitting on my couch watching the better.
Woke up feeling great. My wife and I worked out, I cut the grass, and then I got back to it.
Loft framing is in place. I need to go and grab some smaller nails to do the field nailing on the joists.
Loft framing is in place. I need to go and grab some smaller nails to do the field nailing on the joists.
I forgot about this thread. Since it started we have fully moved into mine now. I'll post some pics. Not as elaborate a design as yours but very functional per the recording methods were using.
Good luck & nice job!
Good luck & nice job!
@peterpalmieri wins the award for "Best Non-OP Post of the Thread"
...and yes... They're level. Also, the wall is plumb.
...and yes... They're level. Also, the wall is plumb.
I got the fire blocking installed on half of the main room's western wall. Putting this stuff in is surprisingly difficult. First you end nail one side and have to maneuver a framing hammer to remain clear of the adjacent studs while both ends of the block are floating. Next you have to toe nail the other side while one end is floating. I'm going to be smarter about it tomorrow and cut two 2x6s to 45" and use them as a backboard to make nailing easier. It should speed things up considerably.
The state of my right forearm is currently such that I'm regretting not buying a framing nailer and compressor before starting this. Given that I have to frame out the interior portion of the inside-out MAM wall, and the frame for the bass traps... I still might.
