Two-Eight Studios JAPAN - Building has started!

I have posted a few times with questions as I tried to prepare to build, but after a long wait have decided to bite the bullet and start, and try and deal with issues as they arise. I have tried to ask a few questions in the past, but I don't think there has ever been all the information needed so I will try this one more time, including as much information as I can as well as include some photos of our progress. Building has started! Overview My family and I bought a house a year ago. We specifically looked for something that had the potential to be used as a small private recording space. Being in Japan, size was an issue ( especially for me at 186cm ). We were lucky enough to find a 3 level house that had been constructed "following" North American standards. I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, as I think that although much of the wood and design is North American, I don't think it would pass any type of North American inspection. I have researched online, here at this site, and with the help of the often recommended Rod Gervais. Having no building experience, almost all of it was a bit above my head, and the search for materials described in the book has been very daunting. I have managed to track down resilient channel, sound installation caulking, putty for the outlets, rockwool, etc... The goal is to isolate the bottom floor of the house from the second and third (where the family and a tenant reside). The tenant is directky above the room we are currently working on but she is a drummer and is OK with some noise. Neighbor to west is very close, but is rented by construction workers, and I think we will be OK with them. North points to the road way, East is an open lot with an older lady on the other side, and behind us to the South is a large open space with an illegal tenant (squatter) so he doesn't matter (don't get me started -:) I am planning on building a room at a time as I can't afford to do all 4 rooms at once. We have decided to start with the "drum room" for now, as I would like to be able to start recording drums soon. Most of the projects to date have been rock and alternative, so we will have volume. I am guessing that we will learn alot during this first attempt, and I imagine that I will move the mixing room into this space when we build the other rooms. Again, because we are in Japan, and there is a lack of space, we are using the inside out design that is referenced by John at the SAE site as well as used by a number of builders here. http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html I am modeling my build based on alot of the information found at JohnG's studio build thread. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... el&start=0 Current Room I am somewhat ignorant about all the details of the current room, as I have had trouble understanding some of the builders explanations about the building. I will get confirmation tomorrow, but know that it is wooden construction with no brick or concrete in the walls, but with a concrete foundation. I don't think it is providing much of a leaf. There is a window in the west wall that we have closed and sealed, as well as an opening in the south wall that used to go to another room (that was removed to sell the house as it didn't meet code). This left an opening that was resealed and then closed off like the window in the West wall. The ceiling is similar to the designs on the SAE site, with joists running North to South. There is no cross bridging. There is no pipe work or other traffic under the floor with the exception of the electrical. Attached to the joists are 9 - 6 by 6 blocks that are then connected to a frame. Drywall was attached to this frame. This created the original ceiling, but we have removed the old drywall to beef up the area between the joists. This "drop ceiling frame" is connected to the joists in 9 places as well as along the 4 walls of the room. It is nailed. The room is 340(w) x 340(L) x 250(H) when the original ceiling was in place. What we have done so far - and the mistakes I think we have made :-( We started by sealing the window and old door frame. We added a layer of MDF board and used acoustic caulking to seal it. We then removed the original ceiling drywall. The next step was to beef up the area between the joists. This was done by screwing 2 layers of drywall to the floor. We did one layer, caulked it, then did the next layer and caulked it. We then placed 50mm rockwool flush with the bottom of the joists. I just re-read the ceiling section in Jon's book and realized that it recommends that the drywall is held in place by finishing nails and caulked then held in place (I think - it isn't explicit) by ledger board (battens). Q. As we screwed it all into place, do we still need the ledger board (battens)? Q. All the screws had their heads caulked when I realized we made this mistake. Will this do? Also, in Rod's book it suggests that the entire area from the drywall to the bottom of the joists be filled with insulation. John's images at SAE show just the bottom having rockwool. We have gone with the SAE version, but I am wondering if it should be pushed up to be flush with the drywall underneath? That is all that has been done so far (except for the electrical for the air conditioner and the air exchange unit). The rest of the plan and some more questions Tomorrow we will start beefing up the original walls. We are going to seal cracks and holes and then add a layer of drywall around the entire inside walls, up to the border of the dropped ceiling frame. We will leave a small gap under and at the top, as well as at the corners to fill with caulking. Once this is done we will do either the ceiling or the inside out walls. I am not sure which is the best order and this is what has me most concerned. Because the dropped ceiling wall is connected to the 4 walls of the room, I am wondering if this is going to cause structural born noise issues. Q. Will sound move along this frame and then run up and out the outside walls? Q. If so, should we do the ceiling first and run it all the way to the wall (or just short so we can caulk it)? OR should we build the inside out walls first and then build the ceiling to those walls? I am worried about the fact that the frame of the drop ceiling touches the walls. For the ceiling we will add Resilient Channel to the drop ceiling frame and then add 2 layers of drywall. Again, I am not sure of how this should be constructed (the order) so would appreciate any advice that you can offer. The walls will be done like others have done them and like they are shown on the SAE site. Once the inside out walls and ceiling have been placed we will add a door as well as air conditioner, air exchange unit, power plug, and cable box. The cost of the project is currently about 10,000 US dollars. I appreciate any advice, answers you can give me. Leon Edit - The comments don't seem to be attaching to the images and they are out of order so I will leave the comments here. Frame.jpg - This is the frame of the drop ceiling that goes along and is attached to the 4 walls of the room. Is this going to be the bearer of structural noise? Dropped.jpg - This is how the dropped ceiling frame is attached to the joists. There are 9 of these points of contact. We will add RC to this. WinowSealed.jpg - As it suggests, we sealed the window with MDF and acoustic caulking. Same done to the opening to the left. 003.jpg - Before we started. This is where we closed an opening that used to go into another room. 004.jpg - Looking in from the entrance. Ceiling.jpg - Not sure which is best. Should we run the RC all the way to the outside wall and then add the inside-out walls(left), or cut is short and leave the larger air gap (right)? Or do we build the inside out walls first and then build the ceiling? Help on this one please.

I think the battens need to stay on, but I also think you need to stop building and start reading a bit more here. The original drop ceiling frame will not only be a flanking path, but you should check with someone if the timbers can take the additional weight of plasterboard you will need to add to effectively give the desired isolation. I suspect they are not designed for this amount of mass and probably need to be replaced. If you do replace them use a design where the ceiling joists fit into the spaces between the existing floor joists ,this will gain you a few extra inches for your room height. Rods book has details on how to do this. You should use the RC and attach the plasterboard to this and ensure it doesn't make a direct contact with the existing structure. You should check out the reference section of the forum and spend some time there and familiarise yourself with many of the concepts associated with a build such as this. Theres info on layering both outside and inside corners in the caulking section. You need to plan this build carefully so you don't waste money doing work that is ineffective. Take your time and try to get it right first time. All the best Clunk

Tomorrow we will start beefing up the original walls. We are going to seal cracks and holes and then add a layer of drywall around the entire inside walls, up to the border of the dropped ceiling frame. /quote Are you guys planning on removing the existing paneling from these walls? Your existing perimeter walls already have two leafs just like they are. If you are going to use Johns inside-out wall, the construction of this wall will add another leaf just by design. If I were doing this room, I would remove the existing wood paneling from this room. Then I could beef up the exterior more if required, get my air right, and add the inside out wall. This would give you a better isolation wall, if it is like I'm thinking it is.