Gleeman Studios Construction

Looking great! Hey, I'm sorry we all missed your "how do I beef up my doors?" question. If it's not too late, and for the benefit of others, use screws. Also, OSB may not be your best bet: plywood would be better. In addition, Green Glue would be recommended as a constrained dampening layer. Finally, double seals is best. See Stick's thread for photos of this concept. --Keith :mrgreen:

lol no I have been working on it on and off but I haven't been posting much. I'll try to make up for it by posting a bunch of pictures now. I read the forum a lot I just don't post a whole lot. I have already bought the OSB so it will have to work. That Green Glue looks like an interesting product. I'm going to order some for the doors as well as the ceiling. I don't think I can afford to use it on all of the walls. Are you ordering it from www.greengluecompany.com ? Here are some pictures of me beefing up my outer leaf. I put 2 layers of sheet rock between the studs/joists on the walls and ceiling. I caulked around each layer and sealed all of the protrusions in the walls and ceiling. I spent a long time making sure the outer shell of my studio is completely sealed. I have used a ridicules about of acoustical caulk! On the ceiling I attached a layer of insulation over the sheet rock.

Jester wrote:

I have already bought the OSB so it will have to work.

I just think plywood will look a thousand times better, even if you paint over it. OSB is going to look funky. :roll:

Jester wrote:

That Green Glue looks like an interesting product. I'm going to order some for the doors as well as the ceiling. I don't think I can afford to use it on all of the walls. Are you ordering it from www.greengluecompany.com ?

Yes. It's expensive but worth it in many situations. In the case of doors I think it makes the most sense. Note that you will need to buy full cases (12 tubes per case). If you end up with leftovers, I'm sure there's no shortage of folks here willing to buy your extras. 8) I declare "dibs." :twisted: Yes, greengluecompany.com is the place from which to buy. Most likely you'll deal with Ted who's a stellar fellow. Keep those pictures coming! We don't actually believe you did as much as you said you did -- we need photographic evidence! :lol: --Keith :mrgreen:

So my electrical is finally in! Seemed like it took forever. I had my electricians install a star grounding system. I had them install outlets for my 5.1 system and outlets for 2 speakers in my live room. I had them wire switches for the soffit mounted speakers since I wont be able to the switches on the speakers. My studio is going to be primarily used for post production so I wired all of my rooms to have LCD TVs. My head phone monitoring system uses cat5e so I have a ton of that running to each room. I also ran cat5e for internet and phone to each room. It's tricky trying to think of everything you might need for each room. Plus who knows what the future will bring with technology changes. So I ran PVC conduit to each room for passing my audio cable and any thing I haven't thought of. I used a rubber connector between each room to decouple the conduit. Here are some more pictures.

Here are a few more pictures showing my studio windows, sound lock, and my studio 2 room. Studio 2 has double sliding glass doors and double outside windows. It's looking like instead of being a dead room like I thought it might end up being an Avid editing room. Lief

Nice job with the putty packs. 8) But... :? ...Ermmm, you shouldn't (can't?) use regular PVC plumbing fittings for wiring conduit... :roll: See "Kathy's Barn Conversion" thread, page 2 for discussion on this. She made the same mistake and corrected it before she got too far along in her build. See also fender1973's "Mic Cable Conduit Help" thread. And absolutely don't miss andy_eade's "Warning - Audio Cable runs also subject to code / inspection" thread. --Keith :mrgreen:

Ack another lovely mistake. Well neither my inspector nor my electrician commented on it so I might be alright. For my short runs I don't have any 90 bends and my long run has 1 90 bend. I pulled 2 8 channel snakes through the long run and didn't have any problems. Maybe I could just replace the 90 bend or should replace the whole thing?

An inspector's failure to notice or recognize a code violation doesn't excuse the violation, technically. Personally, I would redo it, because you may have to rerun or add cables in the future, at which point you might really regret not taking advantage of this opportunity. --Keith :mrgreen:

Well it's time to start figuring out my HVAC. I have a heat pump installed that is heating and cooling the upstairs of my house. I'm planing on using the same system for the studio. I have run flex duct sends and returns to all 5 rooms. I know flex duct isn't the top choice but it seemed like the best option with the amount of space I have to work with. I plan to make silencer boxes where the flex duct meets the ceiling. I want to limit sound traveling through the duct and keep my isolation at the ceiling. I'm thinking of making a box from JM Superduct covered with 2 layers of gypsum. It will have a staggered gypsum connection to the ceiling. Let me know what you guys think.

Regular PVC tubes is alright to run low-voltage wires like mic cables and such. As long you don't put power-supply wire (110/220/380 volts) through them. (Although they're prolly fireproof like the PVC piping used here in the Netherlands. But not up to code)

Jester, Just in case you've not already seen this silincer...

Take a moment to look at this: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=16137 it is mounted directly at the point of passage through the celing in this case - but could be used through the wall as well. The idea is to create a safe passage directly at the point of penetration. Does that help? Rod

From this thread: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8496 Not seen anyone yet make a silencer box with drywall, it's all been 3/4" plywood. Rod's diagram refers to "3/4" MD0" I'm noticing you got a window in one room, but can't exactly see where that is from your floor plan from page 1: EDIT: Regrabbed new Floor Plan from page 1, see following posts :D If you don' have a window in a room you need fresh air ventalation. I was just convinced (had an internal battle) to add fresh air to my room. Also that is a pretty sizable addition for a Heat Pump to take on. Have you already done the "math" on that. Are you planning to "Zone" your HVAC system, balancing dampers. Marc

Marc, Yeah that's a nice looking silencer. My main problem is that I don't have a whole lot of space for silencers. The way I was thinking about doing it was to basically build a ceiling box out of JM superduct board and then cover it in gypsum. My concern is more about losing isolation by using a standard metal boot than noise traveling through the duct. The plan you linked to isn't the one I actually went with. I just up dated the my first post with my final plans but in the process I broke your link. (sorry) So there is a window in one of the rooms but I'm still working out how to get fresh air into all of the other rooms. I think I will either install a ERV or pull air in to my system passively. Before I ran the duct work I talked to the builder and he said they had installed a heat pump that was capable of heating the basement as well. I didn't install any dampers but I am going to have a HVAC guy come by and make sure my system is still balanced. Hopefully when he is over we can figure out the best way to get some fresh air into the rooms. BTW I ran all of the ducts 6 months ago so I have been through a winter with the heat pump heating the whole house. It seemed to heat just fine and didn't seem to run more.

Jester, Glad your on top of your ventalation needs. I relinked last my last psot to you new plan. Marc

Jester wrote:

BTW I ran all of the ducts 6 months ago so I have been through a winter with the heat pump heating the whole house. It seemed to heat just fine and didn't seem to run more.

Heat takes care of itself - especially in the control room - ifthere's a screw up it always occurs with the air conditioning.......... WHat info did he require of you in order to size the HVAC...... I just sized that for a new studio in NC - and it was a 3 ton unit just to keep up with the gear in the control room...... I sized it to operate at low speed for that room - with the idea that it left him some room to grow..... The live room and iso-booth used another 2 tons - so that's 5 tons for a studio about your size..... SO how many watts of total gear (boards, computers, outboard gear, studio amps, powered speakers, etc., etc., etc. do you have in the room? here - look at the attached - you can download the spreadsheet at my website ifyou wish........

My unit is made by Comfortmaker it says SEER 13, 8.0 HSPF, and 1 1/2 - 5 Tons. Hopefully I won't have to replace this thing. I guess I will have a better idea after I meet with the HVAC guy. Hey Rod what is your websites URL? Any thoughts on my silencer/boot? BTW your book is great! I have bought every studio construction book that I have come across and most of them were painful to try to read. Yours has been a joy to read. It was a real lifesaver when I was trying to explain to my electrician what I needed done. In fact I gave him the book and told him to read chapter 6. Thanks for a great book.

Hey Jester, Like you I am installing an ERV. It will be connected to my basement heat pump/air handler system specifically for my Studio. At the present time I'm planning on tying my air supply and return of my ERV into my air handler supply and return. (That's one of the different installation options for my ERV). I talked with a HVAC tech and he stated I needed to balance the amount of return I'm taking out of my air handler to my ERV with the amount of supply I'm sending from my ERV supply to my air handler supply. Hopefully, all this will work out ok. You're probably going about it the right way by talking to a HVAC installer who could put it in for you also. I purchased my ERV (Fantech)from a place I saw on the internet. (Nothing was wrong with the transaction or the unit itself as far as I can tell) Most HVAC installers here act like my ERV has a PLAGUE! It's like this..."Hey, you no-buy your ERV from me, I do NO work on your ERV"!! After trying different installers I finally said, "the HECK with this...I'll put it in myself". I'm sure I can mount it and tie the duct lines into my air handler, but I MAY need some help in balancing the ERV. I finally found one guy who is giving me info on his knowledge of installing an ERV...that was a pure BLESSING. I did wonder something though...even though the Studio equipment will generate heat, how much a factor is it that a basement has a 12-18 degree (at least in my basement) lower temp than outside the house? Wouldn't it make the HVAC system work a little less harder? (I'm only speaking about temp control not dehumidifying) Thanx!

Great thread! Sorry I took so long to check it out and to answer your question in my thread. I updated yesterday, but just in case you missed it, I'll also drop my answer here: Q: "I'm trying to figure out how to attach my flex duct to my ceiling. I was thinking about making a box out of duct board and it looks like thats what you did. How did you attach these to dry wall of your ceiling. Any more detail on how you did this would be appreciated." ----------------------------- A: The process was that they created a 2x6 soffit around when the flex duct was going to live. They temporarily used straps to keep the flex duct up and then, before the drywall install, they used plywood to seal up the soffit and compress the ducting into more of a uniform oval shape so that there wouldn't be any kinks in the ducting and air would flow smoothly. This was then dry-walled over when they did the ceiling. Let me know if this answers your question. Here's the pic that I refer to in my thread. I hope this helps. Great work!

I wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on my HVAC system before I order all the parts. I recently did a voice over session with 9 people and the room got insanely stuffy and hot. It made me decide to bite the bullet and install a split system. I’m thinking of getting a dual system with one unit in the control room and one in the main room. What units do people recommended? I have been looking at the Sanyo SEER 13 dual zone 9,000 btu unit. There are some ridiculously cheap mini splits on ebay (Bonair) anyone have any experience with them? For fresh air I’m planning on installing a ERV/HRV and connecting it to my existing forced air system (heat pump). Is the best way to do this to connect the supply and return to the to the forced air system return? The forced air system will then have a send and return run to each room. This will provide fresh air to all rooms as well as heating and cooling to my two smaller rooms that don’t have mini splits. Another option I have considered is running the ERV/HRV directly to each room in the studio. If I did this I wouldn’t run the forced air to the studio. That would leave my small iso and drum rooms with fresh air but without air conditioning and heat. I live in Asheville NC and the temperatures are fairly mild so this might be a good option. I’m thinking of using an AIRIVA HE150 or a Fantech VHR 1404. Anyone have any experience with these? Not sure if I should use a HRV or an ERV. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I’m starting to lean toward not using the existing HVAC system and just sending fresh air directly from the ERV to each room. AC and heat will be provided by a dual split system with one unit in the control room and the other in the larger live room. My other 2 small rooms won’t be used as much, shouldn’t ever have more than one person in them, and no heat generating equipment. I’m ready to get going with this so I would greatly appreciate you opinions.

I have already run a bunch of flex duct but after reading Rod’s comments and the ERV install info I am thinking about installing metal round duct. Have other people who have used flex duct had any problems? I have a very limited amount of space so duct board isn’t an option. If I use round metal duct should I use a liner? Does anyone make a lined metal duct or are people using JM liner? What size duct should I use?

I'm bumping your question Jester, as I'm very interested in the answer as well, since I'm using flex duct on my tiny project, and hoping for the best.

Well I ordered Fantech SER 1504 ERV and a Sanyo dual mini split system with 9000 btu indoor units. I was bit worried about getting the HVAC system right but as luck would have it my new roommate is a HVAC installer so that should help. I’m excited about getting this phase of the studio done.

hey i'm a new member, i was looking over your plan which looks great. i think you might be blowing what would otherwise be a perfectly symetrycal control room by having different sized windows on left/ right sides. although the effects may be minimal it creates an asymterycal control room.[/i]

I have received and installed my ERV. Yea! My original order for the ERV and mini split was canceled as they didn’t have the fantech in stock and I decided to wait till the drywall was up to order the mini splits. I ended up getting a Broan-NuTone ERV90HCS. I used metal duct lined with duct liner for most of the duct work. The ERV has oval ports so I used flex duct to connect it to the metal duct. I also used a few feet of flex duct at the end of the runs to help isolate the duct work. Each of the four rooms in the studio has a supply and return. Each run will end in a silencer box

Thought I would post some pictures of my silencer boxes being constructed. I ended up doing them a bit different than the plan I posted on the last page. I built them using 5/8” OSB and lined them with 1” duct liner. I then sealed them with acoustic sealant. There are 8 total, two for each room. For some reason I didn’t think they would take long to make but like everything else about studio construction they did. I will post some pictures of the being installed in a bit.