Before i go Building.

Eran wrote:

Xspace, Thanks! There are a lot of little holes and cracks there... If i close the big ones i think i need to caulk the small ones too. Using wood for the big gaps will take a lot of time and energy as the pieces would have to be cut individually. Is there any other material i can use that will be a little easier to manipulate? Hey Gullfo, Welcome! With your contribution i think this idea is starting to make sense.

This is remodeling . Someone may present a more energy efficient manner to plug these voids, but until that happens, I'd get used to the idea of cutting wood blocks and caulking cracks. I have wondered if cutting sheetrock would be a good plug product. What I cannot really tell is, how difficult will it be to attach and have this stay in place. It would require several pieces of 1/2" rock per hole to do this with any effect. You'll have to be the judge here.

I think Drywall will work perfectly for the ceiling gaps, some pink stuff inside the gap, drywall and caulk.

Hi Everybody, I finally got my permits! They approved my plans as they were but added "No use by the public is permitted-use is solely approved for homeowner+family members only" I'm not sure what to make of that. I bet you're thinking it's pretty straight forward but it really isn't. Define "Public". May i have friends over? Pleeaassse...? :evil: Can I write a song with a collaborator..? Can i get a singer to help me sketch a song? ohh pleaassee... WTF? Can i invite industry people and play my latest mix for them? Some feedback would be appreciated, I'm definitely not scratching this scab with the building department people. Other than that i got my copy of Rods book this week and it very clearly indicates that wiring the studio circuits to one leg of the panel and other loads like lighting and HVAC to the other leg would be desirable. I don't think that's so relevant in a home studio situation as you need to have some kind of balance to the load distribution. The ceiling Issue is addressed as well and there is a very nice solution to my issue in the book, when i build it I'll share. Also, i went to the home depot the other day to look at prices for different things and came across two packs of 3" thick thermafiber mineral wool. I know they don't stock these so i asked what the hell, they ended up selling them to me for $5 each. :lol: I'll be using pink stuff (R19) for all walls and ceilings any ideas on how to use this thermafiber stuff? That's all for now. I hope to be doing some actual work next week. Later E

i think you should ask your town what their definition of public means. I'm guessing but assuming it means "commercial" in the sense of running a business. having a person or two coming over occasionally wouldn't seem to violate that. having people over frequently and doing work as part of conducting business would seem to violate that. in addition, commercial facilities require additional features such as ADA access, emergency and safety controls, separate entries, licenses, taxes, etc.

Eran, I ran into the same thing here... EXCEPT... In my case, I made sure that the permit clerk and the inspectors knew that this was a business venture... why? Because the repercussions if I hid the fact that this was indeed a business... fines, penalties and a pissed off county system. Because they're definition is almost exactly the same as ours, I can assure you that Guilfo is giving you sound advise. (sorry about the punny...) Occasional use of the space for having a "friend" over to help with a song is quite a bit different than paying a singer to come over and help you with laying down scratch trax. IOW, if you generate income, or in any way use the facility for any for profit venture where any non family member is gainfully employed or expects renumeration in a work for hire situation, you are in violation of their definition... So the answer to ALL of your questions is technically a "No". Another way to look at it is this way... If any of this is reflected on a tax return/filing... the answer is "No". Better to go back and deal with the commercial structure issue head on, than getting half way through and something goes wrong... that is if indeed you wish to operate as a business where you will have a work for hire situation. My .02 Max

I don't know about everywhere - but here - in CT - a commercial public facility means just that - open and accessible to the public. If they can walk in and cut a deal to do business with you - then you are a commercial facility. A private studio that sometimes earns a dollar is not always operating a commercial business - for example........ you happen to be an artist - and your friend Joe comes over and says he wants a portrait of his wife to surprise her on her birthday - and he'll pay you a thousand dollars to paint it......... taxable income - yes - commercial business open to the public - not by defination. Or - your neighbor pays you 50 bucks to tune up his lawnmower - and you choose to do it in your garage - that doesn't make your garage a mechanics shop. This because your business dealings are limited to family - friends - and not open to John Q Public. ON THE OTHER HAND - hang a sign out on your garage that you do tune-ups for lawn mowers - or "Please stop in and have your portrait painted" - or run an ad that your studio is now open for sessions and tell them to call to set up their recording time - All of those are commercial business ventures open to the public becuase anyone in the world can partake of your services. Rod

Thanks Glenn and xaMdaM. I agree with you in principal. So i contacted the lawyer that did my closing on this place and we'll see what he says. Rod, Welcome! I'm happy you've joined our discussion with this fresh reality check. Let me ad to it. When i demolished the interior of the room i didn't get any permits. nothing happened and there was a huge pile of construction junk on my property in plane sight for 9 days. No reaction from the borough. One of my neighbors had a crew on his property using cement saws doing a new patio . He had a building inspector show up and he just "handled" him saying the patio was already there bla bla.., the building inspector said "well if any of your neighbors complain...". No body complained. Also one of the clerks at the Building department told me "we don't care about what we don't know" when discussing whether i can or can't teach music out of the house. Now, my business is Production. I make my money when i'm hired to produce. I bundle up my studio's cost into the Production fee and give my clients a great break on Guitars, Vocals, Keys and Mix. I usually cut drums at one of the great rooms NYC has to offer at a very affordable price. Chung King is not that expensive any more you know... So, Although i think it's important to be inline with the borough and i'm still moving in that direction I just can't see them poking there noses deep enough into my operation to distinguish between clients that pay me for consulting, somebody doing Pre-Pro, or someone who just needs a voice over. So the only issue is really an insurance issue if the place burns down when i have 3 ppl over or something. We'll see what my lawyer says. Thanks all!!!

Hi everyone, So i went to see the lawyer. This guy has a lot of experience, and even some specific experience with zoning cases including representing the borough. Bottom line, he took the "reality check" attitude. It is more important what it looks like than what it really is and as long as i don't have a separate entrance or a sign out side than who knows what people are coming to see me for. Mind you, if you're going to have 5 cars parked out side five days a week and an obvious "rock & roll" presence on the lawn and in your neighbors face than you should really go to the trouble a dentist goes to to have an office in the house. I don't need to. I think those of you who advised me otherwise probably have bigger more obviously commercial spaces. There is nothing i can really do to qualify this room in my house as "commercial space". So, started shopping around for an electrician. found this website called BidClerk.com you post the job on there and contractors bid on it. I got some real nice replies from people who actually have some music studio experience and seem to know what they are talking about. I hope to be rolling next week. Thanx :D

Hi everybody, Time sure flies when waiting for building permits... After my zoning application was approved it took me a week or so to find an electrician and then the inspector decided i need to get drawings from an architect because i wanted to seal of the windows. Took a day before i managed to read his mind and realize all i needed to do was leave the damn windows in place. I'll seal them off from the inside later. It's also better for my resale value. I'm still waiting for an answer from them. A lot of the threads on this forum are blessed with helping sons, brothers in law and just cool friends. Me and my wife are immigrants so we don't have that support system, it's all up to me. Bottom line is i had to make one big order from the home depot and have it delivered all in one go. Hired a couple of guys to bring all of it in. I added a live room in the basement to the build so i needed 82 pieces of drywall, studs, R30, 4 solid core wood doors, 3/4" plywood for doors, 2"x6" for door frames, 1"x4" door stops, 1"x6" door trims, tong and groove wood panels, hinges, nails, screws, saw, tape, joint compound, and more. The home depot will put any order above $2500 into a "bid room" and match local lower prices. They knocked off $500 of my order. Can't beat that deal but they didn't have R13 unfaced and the building inspector didn't allow me to use R19 so i'll have to get that separately. Question I decided to put a window between the booth and the control. I'm going to do the 1/2" and 3/4" double window from Rod's book and was wondering if i could just use 2 pieces of 1/4" laminated sandwiched together for the 1/2" inch and 3 pieces of 1/4" for the 3/4" piece instead of ordering the solid pieces. The 1/4" size is readily available and amount to about %50 savings. The guy at the glass place also offered an option that was 2 pieces of 1/4" laminated glass put together with 1" of dead air space between them. He said two of those are commonly used by studios. That seems to be a quadruple leafe assembly to me and i would just put the 1/4" pieces together and increase the dead air space in the middle, just like in all the wall assembly drawings in Rod's book. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Also, I started putting drywall on the bottom of the ceiling between the joists as described in Rod's book and demonstrated in Cram's basement build. The drywall is not really flush with the sub floor, there are all kinds of nails sticking out which i'm bending and other inconsistencies. There is going to be 1/16" sometimes less sometimes more space between the gypsum and ceiling. Just wondering if that is common. I think considering this 1930's wood construction the word "flush" is pretty much moot. Thanks to all who can help and here are some pics to ad some color to this long post I hope to have some real advances coming soon. Later

My studio in pieces. :-)

My permits are here! HHaallleelllluujjjjjaaahhhhhhh Got some progress with the dry wall between joists. Here are some pics and another question: One of the joists is very dry practically falling apart there's a picture of it. The dryness doesn't go through the entire width of the joist but it's alarming when this thing just crumbles in your hand...any thoughts? Please check out my window question in the last post. Thanks!

Dry Joist.

Sub floor treatment. Pre-Caulk.

I'm getting kind of lonely here... Could any one please comment on my window question, in short i want to use 2 sheets of 1/4" lami to sub for 1/2" piece and 3 sheets of 1/4" lami to sub for 3/4" piece. Again the cost benefit is about %100. PPllllleeeaaassseeee.... I did some framing today. Pics!

Eran wrote:

I'm getting kind of lonely here... Could any one please comment on my window question, in short i want to use 2 sheets of 1/4" lami to sub for 1/2" piece and 3 sheets of 1/4" lami to sub for 3/4" piece. Again the cost benefit is about %100. PPllllleeeaaassseeee.... I did some framing today. Pics!

As you wrote, you are creating multiple leaf. No. Andre

Thank you Andre, But i have only two leaves, two 1/4" pieces as one leaf and three 1/4" pieces as another. One air space. :? The question is whether two pieces of 1/4" laminate glass smooched together can perform any where near a solid piece of equal width. Glass is made accurately and the two pieces will have no air in between....I think. Thanks

Eran wrote:

Thank you Andre, But i have only two leaves, two 1/4" pieces as one leaf and three 1/4" pieces as another. One air space. :? The question is whether two pieces of 1/4" laminate glass smooched together can perform any where near a solid piece of equal width. Glass is made accurately and the two pieces will have no air in between....I think. Thanks

Unless bonded eg laminated, they will rattle like crazy.

AVare wrote:

Eran wrote:

Thank you Andre, But i have only two leaves, two 1/4" pieces as one leaf and three 1/4" pieces as another. One air space. :? The question is whether two pieces of 1/4" laminate glass smooched together can perform any where near a solid piece of equal width. Glass is made accurately and the two pieces will have no air in between....I think. Thanks

Unless bonded eg laminated, they will rattle like crazy.

Eran, listen to Andre - he knows what he's talking about - that would be a VERY bad installation. Rod

Thanks a lot guys, Yes Rod, i take Andre's advise very seriously. Was just looking at my quotes to see what his advise "cost" me and got the e-mail notification, hoping maybe someone disagrees with him... :-) I'm better of with a solid consensus. So for 2'8"X2'3" laminated glass window i was quoted: $225 for 1/2" $325 for 3/4" That's half a distressor or almost a PCM70... What to do, one of my solid clients came to see the plans and was totally adamant about having a window in the booth. My original plans did not include one. Once again i think i'm better off. Thanks again guys.

Go for as thick a piece of glass as you can afford. the 3/4" for $325 is actually not a bad price at all. Go for it!!!

Thanx james, I ordered the glass today. I am doing one of Rod's windows from the book (give or take) so i ordered one piece of 3/4" for the out side and one 1/2" for the inside. I had a HVAC guy here today, the friend who put me up to the window brought him along. We discussed how to vent air between booth and control room. Mini ductless split for the control room And venting air in/out between control room and basement room. i need to make a sketch... If not today, Tomorrow! Thanks all :)

Hello, I would be interested in knowing more about how your HVAC design will look. I'm in my own planning stages right now and just received a quote from a professional. The quote was way off the scale (atleast budget wise) and the person did not even have any previous knowledge of doing studio HVAC design/installation. This puts me right back in square one on this topic. I look forward to seeing your results. /Gash

Eran wrote:

I had a HVAC guy here today, the friend who put me up to the window brought him along. We discussed how to vent air between booth and control room. Mini ductless split for the control room And venting air in/out between control room and basement room. i need to make a sketch...

Eran, there will probably come a point where you hate to see a post from me - but until then I'll contiue. If your HVAC guy is for real - he'd make me nervous - you can't pull fresh air into your rooms from the basement room - that is a violation of the mechanical/building codes. Because your rooms have no direct connection (either an operable window or direct access from a door) to the pooutside world - you have to duct your fresh air directly from the outside world - anything else is verboten. Rod

Hey Gash, It's funny but i also am looking forward to the complete design. I have Input from the forum, Rod's book, Common sense and my experience in studios as a musician. I'll have it in a couple of hours. Rod, I don't think that will ever happen, I have nothing but gratitude to offer to you and the other fine gentlemen who give such selfless help on this forum. With regards to the design flaw you mentioned; I fixed that today for other reasons so i guess my common sense does work. I'll make a sketch today and hopefully we can discuss this properly then. Thanks a lot

O.k Here are my sketches. I apologize in advance because i think it's a little confusing to look at, I took a few different angles hoping it will make it self clear. Just to clarify: 1) All ducts will have quiet inline fans in them 2) All ducts will have the twists and turns they need for sound isolation 3) Rod, i know i said i will eliminate the windows in CR but i decided to leave them after all. I'll treat them later. Option A, in sketch: Air flow from CR to Booth-low cold air intake Air flow from booth to CR-Hi warm air exhaust Air flow from CR to Basement- Low (in floor) cold air intake Air flow from basement to outside-Hi warm air exhaust. Option B (which i believe to be best): Same as A but no connection between basement and CR, Portable AC in basement+the indicated exhaust. Had an option C which was: Air flow from CR to Booth From Booth to basement From basement to CR (which Rod indicated is not to code.) Looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say. Here come the sketches.