Advice Requested for my Philly Rehearsal Studio Business

Matt Will wrote:

guilfo is saying I should still build a double wall installation for the ceilings. What I gather from your response, however, is that the distance between the first leaf and the warehouse ceiling could be so great that the frequency is low enough for no noticeable affect. I assume you meant frequency of the air spring.

Glenn summed it up well in his above this. I just confirming as you asked me. The MAM frequency is for the warehouse ceiling to the room ceilings. Andre

Thanks guys.

A little advice requested on this tidbit. Take a look at the image of my basic 3d rendering that I sent to a contractor. Assume they build out the first yellow rooms. The purple wall was described as being a 'faux' wall of only one layer of drywall. As the customer base grows I will add more rehearsal rooms by converting this faux wall into something real. How do you suggest I go about recommending construction to the contractor? 1. Would I build entirely new sets of double walls to construct a room next to the yellow rooms? Essentially it would be like a 4 leaf construction, but with 4 walls as well that have an air gap. That might be overkill. 2. Thus I want to reuse some walls. For example if I'm building a room to the north of the room on the left then the northwall would be the southwall for the new room as well. Does that screw up the drywall construction though? If the purple wall is only a faux wall without double layers, gg, and insulation then would they need to tear down the current double wall to construct the new room properly? Do you understand what I'm asking? Essentially I should probably tell the contractor to construct the faux wall as a double layer green glued wall with the expectation that it will be grown into. Then when a new room is constructed I would probably have him cut a section of the horizontal wall that meets near the intersection on the lounge area side so as to decouple the space. What do you think?

you could create the purple wall as individual 4x8 or 4x10 modular panels bolted together so you can move and re-configure as you expand, say add 2 more rooms etc. or use (re-use) as an exterior wall of a room later. same approach for the green room as well.

gullfo wrote:

you could create the purple wall as individual 4x8 or 4x10 modular panels bolted together so you can move and re-configure as you expand, say add 2 more rooms etc. or use (re-use) as an exterior wall of a room later. same approach for the green room as well.

Thanks for the quick reply. My only concern is that it appears these modular panel systems would cost more than having a contract just put up some temporary walls. I may be mistaken.

build the modular walls... 3 metal 2x4 studs, 2 tracks per 4x8/4x10 section, 1x 1/2" drywall. some R11 insulation to dampen. bolt each section together... a bit more materials (studs) but shouldn't be too bad. cross-brace for support and/or some suspension cables to ensure they stay upright.

What do you guys think of this quote? The contractor said the construction for each of the two rooms would be around $12000. $3500 of which would be for the drywall work and $500 would be for the green glue per room. This does not include any wood laminate floor installation. This does include all insulation, electrical, two solid core non drilled doors per room, double wall construction, double layer 5/8" drywall and hvac. He had estimated that each room will require about 104 sheets of drywall. If that seems high then maybe he meant for both rooms total? So estimate a $24,000 dollar construction for two rooms with no flooring. Do you think I would be better served installing the drywall myself? $8000 for two rooms with green glue costs included versus what I would be able to do it for not including tool purchase costs. Does that seem reasonable?

Hard to tell what is reasonable with so little confirmed drawings to refer to. It could very well be as accurate as any contractor would submit in your area, but everything matters. Having all the hard data and knowing what it takes to do this type of work the obvious questions are "am I willing to attempt to do this myself", assuming the first two assumptions are accurate.

Well at least you didn't say the estimate was completely outrageous. Would you say the 104 sheets of drywall is per room or for both rooms?

what is the surface area of the room? it also depends on the size of the drywall sheets but if we assume 4'x8': room wall and ceiling surface area + 5% (waste) (in ft2) multiplied by 2 (layers of drywall) divided by 32 (ft2 per sheet).