Buying a House: Help Me Choose Better for Studio

I'm in the process of selecting a new house for purchase. My plan is to use the basement for a studio. As I have a number of options available to me, I wanted some comments on which basement floor plans you think are better suited for studio design. The floor plans of the two major contenders are shown below. What I want, in decreasing order of importance: 1) control room 2) small room for storing the noisy computer and other elements. (Should be nearby to allow short cable runs) 3) Vocal Isolation booth 4) "Live" studio 5) Additional recording space (iso booth). Items 3 and 4 are both at relatively the same priority. In addition, those elements might be constructed later as budget allows. Presently the budget is about $6,000. I would prefer to have the larger, live room first to accomodate drums and singers. But, for cost reasons, I may opt to construct the small iso booth, leaving the more costly live room until more budget is available. (And by the way, I"m not aware if $6,000 will even get the control room. If my budget is way too low, feel free to comment now. The basements can have either eight or nine foot ceiliings. Nine footers cost $2,000 or $3,000 more. I assume the 9 foot ceilings are worth this extra fee, which will not detract from my $6,000 budget. Am I well advised to get the nine foot ceilings? (As whatever house I purchase will be new construction, my next series of questions will be regarding what options I can have the builders perform to make the studio better--before it's too late. I'll ask, what is wise to do now, what can wait, etc). This is my first post in what may be an endless stream as my project begins. Thanks to everyone involved for the excellent resource. Grant

Well - your current plans are just speculative - I'd wait till you've got a real area to work with. As far as choosing features I'd look at the following 1) 9-10 ft ceilings in the basement. 2) as few support beams as possible. This would involve additional cost in steel I-Beams instead of the standard timber bearers. They would allow for greater spans without upright supports. Much easier to design around. 3) If it's an underground basement make sure there is adequate provision made for water seepage and walls are properly sealed - you haven't said where you are but it's worth considering. 4) Keep your utilities in one area and any ducting to upstairs should run along the walls instead of crossing the ceiling spaces. an additional consideration could be whether to build in a basement or an additional building out back. hope this helps cheers john

Thanks for the info. The I-beams shown as dotted lines are steel. Are you suggesting that more steel I-beams should be used or were you thinking that the dotted lines represented wooden I-beams? The basement is underground. And it will be in Colorado, USA, which is fairly dry. Is it still wise to take the precautions you mentioned for water seepage? I don't think that using an additional building is practical. Lot sizes are small and I think it would violate local ordinances. (Besides, wouldn't that be much more costly?) Assuming that the builder does not allow me to modify the plans from those shown above, do you have a preference? And what about the $6,000 budget? Is that in the ballpark of enough? Thanks, Grant

Ah - I see what you mean - The Tanner for me is the best layout as you get a long wide clear section for the studio. Sorry I didn't realise they were proposed "off the plan" designs. As far as a budget is concerned it will be VERY tight. Even if you do all the work yourself you will be hard pressed to pay for just the materials. f you were to use the upper section of Tanner it would be 48 x 18 which is 864 sq ft. with $6,000 that's approx $7.00 per sq ft. I suspect you'll have to consider a smaller studio than that. cheers john

I think I'll plan, then, to only build the control room first. Most of my work currently is mixing. Thanks for the input, John. Grant