Seeking Studio Design Comments

Thanks for the reply

From what you describe about windows, it sounds like I am supposed to do it just as I imagined. Let me rephrase what I've come to understand. One window goes, as normal, in the concrete foundation. The other window goes in the wall of the respective studio room simply aligned with it. As such, no physical connection should be made between the two windows and two window panes.

Without knowing what "as normal" means in detail, yes. Note Cadesigner's posts before me about detail. I Hope the 6k figure you mentioned was for the control room. Have a look at Blue Bear Studios on the Studios Under Construction page. That was about 60k Canadian with paid labour. If you take labour as being twice as much as the material, conservative for a studio, then the material was 20k Canadian or 12k US. Construction material costs have risen dramatically in the last while, so they might drop and be low when you build.

grant wrote:

As far as permits and such:Regarding access plans, John's drawing looks pretty good. Are those sliding doors pretty expensive?

I will not mince words. Yes. These will not be your garden variety doors but ones with thick laminated glass and really good seals. However they are replacing the functions of BOTH the doors and the windows. They will provide excellent sight lines and a feeling of spaciousness that an ordinary door/window arrangement will not. They will also be much easier to operate and move stuff through than pairs of swinging doors. They will also be easier to operate than pairs of swinging doors.

Other main questions involve windows to exterior. The thing is, I've been planning (perhaps unintelligently) to have the builder put in normal windows. Then I thought I'd build a (floating) room within the basement room having windows that simply line up with the actual exterior windows. Is this a bad idea?

Again, in a word, Yes. you want the window to match both the mass per square foot of the leaf that it is in and to have good solid seals. If it was a matter of years before you would be completing the studio I would say go ahead and get the cheapies to start on a present dollars/future dollars consideration. But if it is right away you will be ripping it out right away.

Is this double paned window something I can have the builder put in, then my troubles are over?

Double pane windows are good for thermal insulation. For sonic isolation you want a single heavy pane of glass that matches the weight per square foot for the walls.

Are these windows safe for fire escape?

Your building inspector is the final arbiter but generally for a room of few occupants a sliding door is a legal exit. When a room gets to a certain occupancy the exit hardware has to be of the type where you need only push on a bar in order to exit. That is usually the point where a sliding door would no longer be legal (The automatic sliding doors you see on businesses have a special breakaway feature.)

And by the way, neighbors will be close. But the main reason for sound isolation is to get clean recordings.

Isolation is a two-way street. If you can't hear them they can't hear you. You may think that your isolation is not as important because you just care about clean recordings but it is really the opposite. See if they are mowing their lawn and can hear you playing softly...no big deal. But if you are recording and you can hear their lawn mower quietly in the background...wasted track.

Thanks for clearing that up, Innovations. Now Knightfly's post on various window thickness combinations is making good sense. My next task is to contact the bulder to ask what options/thicknesses are available to me and at what prices. Is there a practical window thickness that mathches the density of the eight inch (I assume eight) concrete walls? (For what it's worth, I do understand that up to some bound, the thicker, the better; I'm just trying to get an idea for what is ideal theoritically). Thanks, Grant

Theoretically, glass and concrete weigh about the same, but 8" thick glass is kinda expensive - realistically, with that air gap 3/4" laminated for the outside would be plenty, then maybe 1/2" or so for the inside. I'm late for work so will have to play with this a bit later and get back to you... Steve

I thought the glass would have to be too thick to match the concrete. I'll stay tuned for your update. Thanks, Steve. Grant

This is getting into oversights, vagueness, and details. Try and get the window mounted as far out as possible. Out meanng so that the space between the panes is as large as possible when you build the inner wall and install the inner pane. Andre

This is getting into oversights, vagueness, and details.

What do you mean, Andre? I think I'm understanding the window issue. I'll try to maximize the space between the windows. Thanks for that advice. Grant

Quote: This is getting into oversights, vagueness, and details. What do you mean, Andre? I think I'm understanding the window issue.

Oversights: in my previous posts I did not mention the importance of the size of the gap between the glass. Vagueness: I blandly accepted you describing the installation of the glass in the concrete as "the normal way" without getting clarification what "the normal way" is in your region. Details: glass location is one detail. A related detail is that the frame that glass be put in is NOT hollow, like a metal extrusion or metal formed channel. Another detail I am not certain you picked up on is that glass be held by rubber or other resilient material to help isolate it from the wall. I hope that helps clarify my sentence. Andre