New Studio Build, Hello!

Alright! Finally finished beefing up and sealing the outer leaf! What gigantic pain in the --- that was! I laid out my walls and got the first built and temporarily tacked up last night. Hopefully will be finished framing this week, going to try and do a little after work each night but we'll see how that goes. It's really HAPPENING!!!

Great work Allen! I can't wait to be at that stage(framing inner walls) :D "What gigantic pain in the --- that was! " Perfectly said!

New day, new wall. I got the first angled wall built, I'm hoping to get the front wall and possibly the angled one on the other side done today too... We'll see... I'm doing a double top plate as well, just have these tacked up temporarily to make sure everything fits right, then will bring them down add the second plate and nail them to the slab.

Lookin' good Allen. Great to see that the beef-up is finally behind you. You did two layers of 5/8" beef correct? Are you already noticing a difference in the noise from upstairs? Any hindsight tips you noticed along the way? Also I have a question for you on framing. What is the purpose of doing a double top plate and when would I choose to do it or not do it? Does one have to do it for code, or is it just adding to the structural capability of the wall that may be a factor if for example, you are framing your ceiling joists on these walls. Many thanks for sharing and keep up the great work! Andy

then will bring them down add the second plate and nail them to the slab.

Don't forget to caulk under the sole plate before you nail them down! Those seals are important... 3 beads of acoustic caulk along the sole plates: one down the middle, and the others about an inch each side of that. (If you can't get acoustic caulk, then any good-quality, non-hardening bathroom/kitchen caulk will do.) Did I mention that seals are important? :) - Stuart - (PS. Don't forget the importance of air-tight seals!)

Hi Andy, Yes its for the structure, I'm attaching the joists to the top plates "decoupled ceiling", actually as far as the inner leaf is concerned I'm trying to go a little above and beyond what is required by code for my own peace of mind and so hopefully I don't get harassed by the building inspector, :wink: I'm so happy to be done with the outer leaf beef up!!! Yes I did 2 layers of 5/8s everywhere. The biggest tip can think of right now is to pay somebody else to do the beef up! :shock: There was definitely a difference in the noise from upstairs at each step, both in footfall and air born. Stuart, thanks for the tip, I will definitely do that! I have an HVAC question that I think I know the answer too but would love a confirmation. I was thinking of doing this for my return, but am I losing a bunch of isolation by not having the silencer directly attached to the inner leaf? If that IS the case I was thinking of putting a silencer in the floor joist above porting the duct straight out the back and buying one of these Fantech exterior mount fans to send the return outside. The one I'm looking at is a RVF 6 that is speed variable and does 381cfm. If I go the joist silencer option and I'm mounting it between the sub floor joist above, how do I decouple from the outer and or inner leaf? Thanks! Allen

Ok, almost done with framing, finishing up the ceiling joist right now and I have a question. Is there any difference between angling the ceiling down towards the front wall for RFZ or hanging a hard backed cloud? Based on my room size 16x14x8'3" even if I angle the ceiling am I most likely going to be adding a soft backed cloud for LF absorbtion anyway? I planned on doing an angled ceiling and have the angle worked out already, but now I'm wondering if it's worth it if I can achieve the same RFZ design with a flat ceiling and angled hard backed cloud. Thanks Allen

Ok, finished the framing, will take and post some pics this weekend, I decided against the outside mounted fan for various reasons one of which being not wanting to cut a 6 inch hole in back of my brand new home. I believe that the drawing I did for the return with the silencer built in a soffit in the adjacent room is good, the only thing I want to make sure I got right is the neoprene on the vent in the gap decoupling the inner leaf from the outer leaf, just worried about sound escaping from there. For the soffit housing the silencer I am planning of building it out of double 5/8 drywall and filling loosely with insulation. Thanks, Allen

Ok, Finished the framing! Starting to look like something now! I decided to go with putting the HVAC return silencer in the exercise room that is adjacent to the studio. The silencer will have a vent that penetrates both leaves which will be cut in the middle and wrapped with rubber and sealed to prevent flanking, as per one of Stuarts suggestions. I have built a soffit in the corner of the exercise room that will house the silencer and the a Fantech FG6 that will be drywalled but have an access panel for future serving of the FG6. The fan will be attached to the outlet of the silencer and then exhaust to a register in the soffit. I am going to wire a speed control for the fan into the studio.

Not sure why some of my photos are rotating when I post them, I tried rotating the and saving them on my computer to compensate for the rotation on the upload but they still rotate the same amount? Any suggestions?

Not sure why some of my photos are rotating when I post them, I tried rotating the and saving them on my computer to compensate for the rotation on the upload but they still rotate the same amount? Any suggestions?

Maybe you accidentally posted the wrong ones? Save the rotated ones with a different name, to be certain. For example, add "rotated-" to the front of the file name. - Stuart -

Finished building the vent silencer and got in the open space between the foundation wall and the splayed wall at the front of the room. just need to measure the vent opening, cut it out and attach the 2 sheets of OSB and I should be good to go with the silencers.

Looking great! How are you mounting the duct liner? are you using staples or glue? I will be doing it in the near future, thank you.

Thanks man, I used staples. Next up wiring the studio both electrical and putting my snake in the wall. I think I am going to go with surface mount outlet boxes and conduit to eliminate holes in the wall. Cutting the hole through the wall for the return vent was painful after spending 2 and half months sealing everything. :shock:

Thank you very much for the tip. "I think I am going to go with surface mount outlet boxes and conduit to eliminate holes in the wall" Not a bad idea at all, i have to think about that because i'm debating the idea of building wooden enclosures that will be nailed and sealed to the wall studs and then sealed to the inner room drywall. Idea from: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10153&p=72212&hilit=isolating+outlet+box#p72212

One of the outer leaf walls in my studio is common with my basement rec room, more specifically on the other side of that wall is a 120" fixed projector screen with in wall speakers, outlets and some wall switches, on the backside of that wall, "the one facing the studio". I had to build enclosures for the back of the speakers, outlets and switches. I will tell you that after I sealed the speaker enclosures with acoustic caulk that you can virtually hear nothing from the back of the boxes when the theater is cranked, you can only hear the audio coming in through the open doorway so I have to imagine that the boxes around the outlets and switches are getting similar results. I'm just not sure if I want to go and cut 8-10 holes in my brand new double 5/8s green glued walls or not, still on the fence. Trying to decide if I like the look of the face mount stuff or not.

Thanks for the great information. I have to agree with you regarding cutting so many holes in a brand new double 5/8s green glued walls, now i'm in a dilemma myself :D I will also do some more research on the surface mount outlets, I will try to find studio pictures that are using them to see how they look and get more ideas. Thank you.

No problem, I was looking at some 3/4 plastic conduit at lowes that could be painted, I added it to my sketchup finishes drawing and it looked ok.

Quick update, Finished all of the fire blocking, it was a bit of a pain. I furred out the top plates to within an 1/2 to an 1" all the way around with either 2x4 lumber or 5/8s fire retardant drywall and then filled the gap with Roxul Safe and Sound. Will post pictures. I will be finishing the electrical wiring today and calling for my combination close in inspection this week! Can somebody answer an important question for me? I am going with a RFZ design. Typically is it necessary to hang a cloud on the angled part of the ceiling? The answer to this will determine how I wire that area for light fixtures. If it is most likely necessary to hang a cloud I have plug in LED pucks that I will install in the cloud and just put a surface mount outlet on the ceiling, if not then I need to think about in ceiling fixtures. The only thing I am concerned about in regards to hanging cloud on the angled ceiling is lowering the ceiling height too much there and it affecting the soffit mounted speakers. The low point of the ceiling at the soffits if I hang a 4 inch cloud 4 inches below the ceiling is going to be around 6'2", if the A8X's are acoustic center is 4' above the floor am I ok with having 2'2" of baffle above the center? Thanks, Allen

Hi Allen, I think it depends on if you have true RFZ in the vertical plane. As I recall you did do 3d ray tracing for your RFZ design correct? If the angle was designed such that you are able trap the reflections then I don't know if you need to hang a cloud per se. I believe that hard backed clouds are usually used by folks like myself that aren't doing an angled ceiling. In your case you likely need to build there room, test it, and then apply treatment based on the test results. This might mean putting something there, but not necessarily a full, angled cloud as your describing. Let's see what the experts say though :) hopefully this helps in the meantime. Keep up the great progress - I'm excited to come check it out when it's done! I hope it's okay to invite myself since we're practically neighbors :D All the best, Andy.

Hey Andy hows it going! Ya my design is a true RFZ, I did all the appropriate ray tracing for both walls and ceiling and have no reflections coming off the either at the mix position. I'm not concerned about a hard backed cloud for early reflections, was more wondering if it is common to still need a soft backed cloud/bass trapping absorption on the angled part of the ceiling in room my size. I know it is hard to say with 100 percent accuracy before the room if finished and tested but as my lighting will be affected by the possibility doing this or not I would rather just go with what seems to make the most sense right now. If adding a soft backed cloud (broad band absorption) above the mix position is not going to adversely affect the room, then that is what I would like to do as I can build my lighting into the cloud and not have to put more hole in the ceiling, if it is a completely unknown factor at this point until testing is done then I will figure out another lighting solution for that area, but it seems that in a room my size the more bass trapping and absorption the better. Right? 16x14x8 (kinda because of splayed walls and ceiling) Oh ya Andy don't worry about the self invite, you're welcome to come check it out.... As long as you're not some kind of nut! :D Wait Andy, disregard that last comment, I forgot you are working on your second build! You CLEARLY have a screw loose! :wink: Allen

Could somebody tell me if this is good to wrap the gap in my cut return vent with to decouple between leaves or if I need something else. It is a 1/4" thick sponge neoprene. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ID ... UTF8&psc=1 Thanks, Allen

Had my close in inspection on Friday, after having to educate the inspector on many many things I got the ok to insulate and drywall. Finished insulating and getting ready to hang drywall now but really need to know about the rubber for my through wall vent. Anyone? Thanks, Allen

after having to educate the inspector on many many things I got the ok to insulate and drywall.

Loved that comment about "educating" the inspector! :) :lol: Congratulations on passing that inspection! :yahoo: - Stuart -

Ya, the inspector came in and literally said, "what the heck is this?"