Building a studio in Utah

Hi, I am about to begin building a studio in Logan, Utah. I have done the demolition and now I am finalizing my design. I would like to get any feed back from the experts or anybody who has gone through this before. The building I am renting has two stories I am renting both floors. The studio will be on the upper floor and in the back. In the front, which faces the street there will be a small performance space and under the studio will be two rehearsal rooms. I am aware that it will be a problem with sessions and rehearsals so I will have to schedule accordingly. I will be insulating and hanging sheet rock on the ceilings below the studio. I will not be able to build it out to much because the ceiling height is 7’ 2”. The flooring where the studio is going consist of 2x10 joists with ½ plywood laid down. The ceilings slant from 10’ 3” in the drum room to 7’ at the far end of the control room. Both existing walls are boarding on other businesses, one is unfilled cinderblock and the other is brick. On the brick side is an artist/painter’s studio, he has told me it will be very hard to bother him. The cinderblock side is a retail business, they don’t seem to be concerned about a studio being build but I am concerned about that side the most. The building is in the down town section of a small town off of the main street, it is a fairly quiet area. My Budget for the upstairs studio is about 10 to 15 thousand US dollars. I am planning on spending about 5 thousand on the rehearsal rooms downstairs. Here are a list of my concerns with the design and the construction. 1. Does my design make sense and I am getting the most out of my space? 2. To get the right symmetry out of the control room I would have to move the exterior wall in to much and I will lose valuable space, are there any other options? I have decided to put the control room on the side with the lower ceilings. 3. Is the vocal booth a problem because of its shape and size? 4. I am planning to make the first room more dead with carpet and then put hard wood floors in the last room because the ceilings will be close to 10 feet after the ceiling is added does that make sense? I am planning on using this room primarily for drums. 5. I am planning to put down a sub floor on top of the plywood, my question is should I fortify the current plywood with another layer of 1/2 inch 5/8 plywood before I put down the sub floor? Since floating the floors on an upper level is not practical are there any other suggestion on how to lay down the sub floor to prevent LF noise from bothering the neighboring business? Should I float the walls on the floor? 6. In conjunction with the last question should I separate the sub floor between the rooms and have the wall sitting on the sub floor or should the floor run the whole span of the studio? I appreciate any help anybody may be able to provide, this is the first time I have ever done this and I having a hard time making decisions on how to proceed. Thanks Tim

why not put the CR in the middle?

Hey Ro thanks for the reply, I had considered the control room in the middle but I had to change my design. My thinking was that I wanted to use the space with the higher ceilings for the rooms where I will be recording. I also forgot to mention that there is a 12x6 skylight in the middle room and to have the control room there I would have to straddle both walls under the sky light. The last issue is where the ceilings slope down to 7 feet at the end of the control room, because of the local building code I would not be able to add the sub floor all the way to the end. So I figured I could have a step down area where the seating is going to be. If you like I could upload some picture so you could see what I am describing. Any other feedback or design ideas would be greatly appreciate. Thanks again Tim

Aloha, A couple of thoughts: You may want to flip you CR so that the lowest part of the ceiling slope is at the front of the room and rises toward the rear. You may also want to retain a structural engineer to make sure that the floor can support the extra weight of a studio build. Food for thought.... Aloha 8)

Greetings, thanks for the reply, I am going to call a structural engineer and have him come in next week and check out the space. As for the CR I like your thinking but I would feel uncomfortable having my back to my clients, I am use to the traditional approach. I am going to upload some pics of the space in the next few days so you can see what I am dealing with. Thanks Tim

Hi there, I think Kendale made a very valid point bout making sure your current structure will be able to support all the mass that'll be going in. Could you post your .skp file for us to fiddle around with? Cheers, Sigert

Hi, here is a copy of the file. Thanks

Do you have the "empty" version of your room sketchup? This one's hard to edit... :?

Here is the empty version. Thanks Tim

I tried to maintain your layout as much as possible. I can only see one problem with it. Control room ceiling would preferably angle towards the front instead of towards the back. There is no room to make up for this with an inner leaf ceiling. I couldn't turn the room 180°, cause then the window would be in the back, and reflections caused would become a serious issue.

Wow, now that make a lot more sense, thanks Sigert. I really like what you have done with the design. I have a couple of quick questions. What are you thoughts on the wall construction? Are you proposing double frame construction? What would be the structure of the walls be especially along the hallway? Last question are the angled walls in the control room treatments or framed walls? Once again thanks for the great design. I will upload some pictures of the space tomorrow. Tim

What are you thoughts on the wall construction?

I'm not a building expert, but I CAN state what I've gathered from this website over the past 6 months. :)

Are you proposing double frame construction?

Yes. If you have the room to spare, it's the better option isolation wise. I did incorporate enough room in the design itself for a double frame structure.

What would be the structure of the walls be especially along the hallway?

Internally the studio layout has adequate isolation between rooms, it's indeed isolation from the outside world that's the issue. Two ways to go depending on your current structure. 1) The structure has the potential of being an outer leaf. meaning it can be made airtight and can or could be updated to have sufficient mass. In this case my design stands and all that is needed is an extra wall along the edge of the staircase (forgot that one 8) ). 2) The structure does not have this potential of being an outer leaf. In which case you have to consider how important isolation is (nothing worse than a passing bus ruining an otherwise perfect take). Build an extra leaf; lose the extra space (including ceiling height, which might become a problem).

Last question are the angled walls in the control room treatments or framed walls?

Aye, they are treatment. It took me some time to realize the difference myself, but the principle is quite simple once you 're able to see the difference between the isolation construction and the acoustic construction. I chose for a separate set of angled walls, cause you have the space for it. It makes it easier to change acoustic construction in a few years, should you want to, without having to demolish the isolating structure. In short: Glad you like the design. It's mainly the current structure which will decide whether it can be executed like this or not. Cheers, Sigert

Thanks again Sigert for the great advice. Do you know any good threads on acoustic construction? I believe my structure has the potential to be an outer leaf, I am not exactly sure how to determine this. I am planning on sealing up all the gaps I see in the current structure. I would like to add the last wall and the door. I am not sure the door will work without a landing with the building codes in the town I live in, I am planning on consulting with the inspector tomorrow concerning this issue. I am uploading some pictures so you can see what the space looks like. I am also uploading info on the skylight (5’ 6” x 11’ 1”), what I am planning on doing is framing out the side by the CR at an angle from the edge of the window to the outer wall of the CR and sealing it up. I still have to figure out what to do with the rest of it. I want to keep it for the natural light but outside noise does come through especially when it rains. I do understand that a large sheet of glass would be to heavy at that size and angle, so I am considering using thick plexiglass to seal the gap.

I'd need this idea to be confirmed by other members, but... since you're a bit short in ceiling height in the control room, maybe you could make the control room construction single leaf and the live rooms double leaf. All depends on your neighbours I think...