Basement Studio + Lessons from the Pros

Hello Forum Folks! My name is Seth Gorden, and I am building a basement studio in Bloomington, Illinois in the US. Just bought my first house with my wife (huzzah!) and I finally have a space that I own to begin a real studio construction project. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on. And thanks to this forum I'm not only more educated on how to cheaply and effectively refine my design, but I've decided to the go the legitimate route and get a city permit/inspections. This is my first post here, and I am thrilled to be a part of such a knowledgeable forum. The thing I really want to write about today is an excellent meeting I had with an electrician at the house yesterday, but I'll detail the room and design first so that any feedback you all might have will be useful and detailed (I read the "Read This First" page, trying to be a responsible member here). I'll add to this thread as I continue the process, being sure to share what I learn from other professionals as I go. Room: East-West Interior Dimension: 24.72916... feet North-South Int. Dimension: 13.333... feet Ceiling (at bottom of joists): 7.25 feet There is currently a drop wall (non-load bearing, that will be removed shortly) which is about 5 inches thick, and approx 14' 2.75" from the west wall and about 10' 1" from the east wall. That will be removed to make way for a new splayed angle wall. In the south east corner, there are the bottom of stairs hanging down. It's 6'4" width (w-e), and 3' 5.5" length (n-s), and it hangs down 27 inches at the lowest point. There are some unmeasured ducts and pipes that hang down on the east side. But I have roughly shown where they exist on the picture below. There are 3 windows, each 42 inches wide and 21 inches talls. They are aligned at top of the ceiling (bottom of joists). The joists offer another 9.5 inches of space for insulation above everything, except where ducts are installed flush between them in a few placed, mostly on the west side of the room. The only ducts/pipes that hang below the joists are shown (roughly) in the picture below on the east side of the room. The walls are cement blocks, coated with Dry Lock. The floor is currently solid cement. The floors above have a sub floor of angled boards, a layer of plywood (I think) and oak hardwood flooring on top. It squeaks, and I have read the threads on here about doing a 2-leaf ceiling with Resilient Channel (probably what I'm going to do). I'll put the drawing of the existing space here, and follow with a second post of the my current design idea.

Okay, I'll step through the current design in pieces. But in general, I'm going to build a floor with walls that rest on it (not touching the outer walls). It will be sealed up against a 2-leaf ceiling using the above floor as leaf 1, and a double 5/8 drywall attached to it with RC. The 9.5 inches that joists provide will be filled the recommended pink, fluffy insulation. The floor will have a layer of plastic so-called "sleeper" to give it some separation from any moisture that might seep into the basement. This is just sheets of plastic with little "cups" studded all over them that act as feet. Then it will be plywood, carpet pad, and carpet. Not wanting to float or put in any studs, need to keep it as thin as can be to save on space. I'm not finalized on how to handle to the small control room. Right now I'm just hoping I have enough room for those doors. The ceiling in the control room will almost certainly be level to the floor where there are no obstructions, since it will be complicated enough dealing with the hanging ducts and pipes. Note: Duct work is not an option, in terms of moving/adjusting them. Just not within the scope of this project. Budget: Trying to stick close to $2000, with a little wiggle room. Also, trying to accomplish the build in less than a month from the permit-issued date (don't know when I'll get that). No work is going to contracted except for an hour or two of an electrician's time (already quoted), as detailed in the next paragraph. Electrical: Made a plan (pending permits and schedules) with an electrician setup a two-stake grounding field for my star-pattern grounding system for the studio. We're also going to run a sub-panel into the control room (probably into the north east corner), likely a 12-slot 50amp box. All studio-gear outlets will be grounded to the star group bar (in the sub-panel) and run via a single #4 copper wire to the new grounding field. All lights and non-studio-gear outlets will be run back to an additional (new) grounding bar on the main house box, and run outside to the regular house ground. That's the current plan. Internal wiring will be done myself, box adjustment and external grounding fields to be handled by the electrician. Two 4-plug outlets are currently in the west (live room) area, and there is one 4-plug outlet in the east (control room) side. These will be rewired to the new sub panel, with grounding as described above. Also, I'm thinking about getting a snake or two to embed in the walls for microphone plugs. Probably on the north and west walls. A friend of mine has done this in his studio and it works well for him. Here's a picture (probably not to scale): Questions: For outer walls of this studio design (those designated in picture as staggered stud), do I need to place drywall on the outside of the studs? Or can I rely on the cement walls to do the job? I'm hoping this is the case. Wall angles? I've seen examples in "How to Build a Small Budget Recording Studio" (by F. Alton Everest & Mike Shea) that have very subtle angles between 5 & 10 degrees. Is that a good rule of thumb to work with? They say so, but how do I choose which angle, exactly, to use? Ceiling Slope: I'm trying to save physical head-room as much as possible. If just slope the ceiling by an inch over the live room space from west to east (to the double wall), is that sufficient for dealing with the parallel surface to the floor? If not, I am likely to leave it level and treat it later with absorbers so that tall folks only hit their head on something soft. The studio window: I'm thinking about 4' x 2' or 3' x 2', certainly no bigger (cost and effort). I can get up to 1/2" glass at my local glass & mirror shop. I'm only going to have (afford) two panes, and I'm told not have them parallel either. Do I need 1/2" glass (It's really heavy)? Can do with 3/8", or other? I'm thinking two panes of 3/8" would be pretty solid acoustically, if I install & seal them well. Outer Wall Windows: I've read quite a bit of debate over exterior basement windows on this forum in terms of code vs. practical isolation. I assume the best solution is to not have windows in the wall I build, with middle-ground solutions that relate to leaving the window operable with some treatment over it. Please offer suggestions on this, if you have handled basement windows and left them operable. Next post: My meeting with the electrician and things learned.

So... my dad called up an electrician to start the official side of things on this studio project. Turns out he knew my dad, having been a student at a high-school during my dad's brief time as a teacher. So before we even mention the word "studio" that day, we're on familiar terms. That was cool. So we go and look at the house, explain what I'm trying to create, and we check on the possibility of upgrading the house main box, and doing the star-grounding, and sub-panel all that stuff. In the conversation about grounding, I mentioned hammering the stakes in. He laughs and say they have a better way. But he tells me that even back before they had the current tools, he used to use water. "I learned from the old-timers", he tells me. And he explains that you pound in the stake a couple inches (with your hand) and fill the gaps with water, and then pound some more, and repeat. He said it works so well than when he was learning he actually got about half way down the 8 foot stake and was pounding away and the rest just disappeared into the earth. Which made the "old-timers" laugh at him and tell him he was pounding too hard. Just thought I would share that. Anyway, the upgrade work was quoted at around $1800 if he does the upgrade, the sub panel, and the grounding work himself, and buys all the equipment through their suppliers. So we worked backward, figuring out how much of the current supply is likely to be used, which was not much. So I say "How about we just run the sub-panel off the current one and don't upgrade the house supply." He says, "That's going to be a lot cheaper. If you buy the supplies, and do all the room wiring yourself, I can setup the sub-panel and do the grounding in less than two hours. Just give me a call some time next week or so, and I'll come by after my day's work is done and I won't charge and extra for after-hours work." So that was awesome. And we start talking. He mentioned his sons are in high school (same high school I graduated from) and they're in bands. He talked about how there's just not much support for all the talent the younger musicians have. So we end our meeting on a note of mutual excitement about support for musicians, and exchange business cards. It was a good day.

Great story Seth! Don't have anything to add to your build except best wishes. I'm so green that I'm just studying other people's threads here. -Doug

great story Seth - just a note about grounding - if you live in a very dry area it's common for your earth stake to dry out and lose it's grounding. It can easily be repaired by pouring a bucket of salty water over the area.

Had my first visit with the city inspectors this morning. I talked to the building and electrical inspectors. The plan for wiring was simple enough, and I got that permit today. The building inspector said that as of 2006, if remodeling is done to a basement, one window must be updated to be at least 5.7 square feet, and no more than 44 inches off the ground of the basement. That is the only major difference between my plan and what's required. So, a little more work, but there's a good part to this. My studio only takes up half the basement. Only one window is required, so I don't even have to put it in the studio space at all! I can build my walls solid where I need them, and make the window in the other half of the basement. Anyway, one permit down, two to go. Have to update my plan with the window and submit that for the building permit. And then I have to get a permit from the electrician who's installing my sub-panel and grounding stakes.

Hi Seth! One comment about your current layout: Your control room is not symmetrical. You need to fix that if you hope to mix decently in there! Symmetry is fundamental for a control room. - Stuart -

Thanks for that tip on the control room, Stuart! Glad you posted that before I submitted my design to the city. Sometimes, scouring expert forums on a subject you learn tons about finer details and miss the fundamentals. My previous design was more concerned with non-parallel walls, but missed symmetry entirely. For simplicity and time requirements of this project, I will have parallel surfaces in my control area, but those will simply have to be treated acoustically afterward. I've adjusted the plan to account for symmetry in the control room, and the safety window the inspector asked for (not located within the studio area). Ultimately, that will make my control room smaller, but an emergent benefit of the adjustment is a larger sound lock area where both doors can open into it. (I believe I read somewhere on this forum that both sound lock doors should open into the sound lock, whenever possible). So, I just have to deal with a small control room, but I have reliable headphones if the room gives me any trouble. I'll scan and post my updated plan when I get back home today. That being said, I got my building permit this morning, so I'm on good terms with the city now, and the project has a green light. Huzzah! Today's Lesson: I briefly asked about the subject of circulation/ventilation while I was talking to the building inspector. In McLean county, Illinois, if you are not adding/removing/altering the location of HVAC ducts, you can put vents into existing ones without requiring a permit. Not sure if that's going to be what we do, but now I know it's a permissible option. The other quick option is leaving one window in an area that can be opened. That, too, will suffice for ventilation requirements.

For simplicity and time requirements of this project, I will have parallel surfaces in my control area, but those will simply have to be treated acoustically afterward.

That's much better than having a non-symmetrical room, for sure! Parallel walls can be treated, but there's not much you can do about non-symmetry, except tear it down and start again! :) Many people do build successful rectangular control rooms, so you'll be in good company!

That being said, I got my building permit this morning,

Congratulations! That's a milestone worth celebrating!