Key posts: House built around studio design/build thread

Substantial posts by Gregwor, who started the thread, and by the forum’s most active contributors. 102 of 161 posts are listed.

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Gregwor, 15 February 2018I thought it was about time to post my progress so that the pros can tell me what I'm doing wrong! Some info: - Needed to move. Needed a new recording studio. Didn't…
Gregwor, 15 February 2018And here is the live/drum room. It is an oversized triple car garage. I'll park outside for the rest of my life and let my wife park in the single car bay. The deck area…
Gregwor, 15 February 2018Here are a couple other pictures for fun. I'm quite proud of these silencer boxes as it was difficult to maintain their design requirements while fitting them into the…
Gregwor, 28 February 2018So, I've slowly been digging away at more details. - Been getting DB2 conduit to install once the house builder gives me the go ahead to go dig and install. My buddy…
Gregwor, 28 February 2018And here's the house in it's current state... big heaters hooked into the gas line pumping heat into the basement to thaw the ground so the plumber can do his thing and…
Gregwor, 4 March 2018So, I just finished solidifying the wall and cloud angles. I used a few different colours on the ceiling to show the different parts. I also put in the Dynaudio BM15's…
Gregwor, 5 March 2018I thought I'd share this since it's related to my studio situation. After doing as much acoustic treatment in my in laws basement (where I'm currently working out of),…
Gregwor, 5 March 2018Here it is with no smoothing. The room is probably 12' deep, 10' wide and 8' tall. Just ugly as heck. I had a bunch of left over 1" 703 I stuffed up in the joists on the…
Gregwor, 7 March 2018Update: Here is my son standing with some DB2 conduit in my in laws basement where I prepped it. Image not preserved: Austin DB2.jpeg Today, a few friends, then my mom…
Gregwor, 8 March 2018After a 13 hour day, we finally finished in the basement. Keeping everything really spot on was super difficult. We did our best to make the conduit super solid so that…
Gregwor, 9 March 2018They all refused to even take gas money!!!! Good fellas for sure. And Canadian, big time, eh! hahaha Note, no one here has the "ouuuwwww" accent that I see on comedic…
Gregwor, 9 March 2018Here are two pics from yesterday. I'll be heading to the site shortly to seal up the wall connection points when they're stood. This is my sister in law using the…
Gregwor, 12 March 2018Well, today was another 12-13 hour day. It's almost 2am here and I just got home. My dad helped me (for half of the day) to add 3/4" OSB to the rim board in the…
Gregwor, 13 March 2018Bad news update! So even though months ago, before the foundation was even poured, I drew up my plan with a CAD drawing of the floor joists and my HVAC design, things…
Soundman2020, 13 March 2018Wow. That's serious. VERY serious! Major attitude problem. I would not accept that from a contractor that I hired. If I were in your shoes, I would can the contractor on…
Gregwor, 14 March 2018I think at this point, my hands are tied. I am building out all of the studio parts of the house myself. The "Custom House Builder" basically hires out contractors. The…
Soundman2020, 14 March 2018Greg, I would still seriously consider getting a lawyer involved, even if only as a bluff. Insist on a meeting with the general manager of the company, take along your…
Gregwor, 14 March 2018So, last night at 2am, I couldn't sleep so I wrote and emailed this to the builder and the plumbers/HVAC contractors: Hi everyone, I'd like to take this opportunity to…
Soundman2020, 15 March 2018Wow. So it just gets worse. So much for "custom" home builders! I think that's a really smart move: getting the lawyer involved. Hopefully he can be very obviously…

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Gregwor, 16 March 2018Just the basement room dimensions and the instructions that I did not want anything hanging down and taking height away from those rooms. In order to get the mortgage…
Gregwor, 4 May 2018Hey guys. So basically I've been locked out of my house and told that once all the rough ins are done (HVAC, plumbing and electrical), then we can do the walk through.…
Gregwor, 25 May 2018Hello friends! Well, things are moving forward. There have been things I've fought for and lost. And other battles I've won. Ultimately, things SHOULD work out in the…
Gregwor, 26 May 2018Good news update: I texted the HVAC dude I initially met up with and told him how bummed I was that he installed a single speed 80,000 BTU furnace even though I had told…
Gregwor, 28 May 2018I'm leaving for Disney Land in California in 2 days, so I tried to get some design stuff done before hand so it wouldn't be eating at me the whole trip. So, in case I…
Gregwor, 11 June 2018Hey guys! LA was a great trip with great weather. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The flight with them was... crazy. Anyway. They are pretty much done drywalling the…
Gregwor, 13 June 2018Hey guys. I finally have had some time to work on my design further. I decided to tackle my window design before my soffits. Here is what I've come up with so far: Image…
Soundman2020, 13 June 2018I noticed that you are tilting the glass on the CR side. Are you aware that will reduce isolation? Why only tempered, not laminated? 12mm tempered isn't going to get you…
Gregwor, 13 June 2018Yes. However, the solving the light glare problem is more important to me simply because the two pieces of glass are 10 1/2" away from one another at the closest part.…
Soundman2020, 13 June 2018Right, but not all "durometers" are equal! There are different scales for Durometer, and they all have "85" on them, but they are all different. You'd need to check what…
Gregwor, 17 June 2018So I'm brainstorming trying to come up with a soffit mounting design that will allow me to have a base/divider permanently fixed to the framing. Here's a rough draft…
Gregwor, 7 July 2018I thought I'd give you guys an update. I finally found some time to start my soffit design. It's far from done but here's the start: Image not preserved: Soffit Mostly…
Soundman2020, 7 July 2018Thanks! Appreciated. Those are all very nice speakers. Frank is using the Trio in his place (I'm sure you've seen the thread! :) ) so you can get an idea of how those…

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Gregwor, 8 July 2018Stuart, thank you for the encouragement. Whenever I get your approval, I know things are going to be alright! Two questions for you: - Would you recommend using Green…
Soundman2020, 8 July 2018You could, I guess, but I'm not sure how well GG will work with steel. Steel is pretty rigid, and the point of GG is to mostly to damp bending waves, which you won't get…
Gregwor, 11 July 2018So, if some of you don't know, I joined this forum around Christmas. I had done a lot of research online and like other new forum members, I had soaked up a bunch of…
Gregwor, 15 July 2018One thing leads to another. Control room size Good things: - I'm going to move the skinny part of my inner leaf (the front of my control room) over to where the frost…
Gregwor, 19 July 2018Image not preserved: Noggins Hurt My Noggin.jpg Do my arrows and text boxes help explain the issue better? In other news, I'm re-designing the entire ISO room HVAC as…
Gregwor, 19 July 2018Okay, I'd like some other opinions for this as well please! For my ISO room, as I stated in my previous post, I will have the inner leaf silencers inside the room. In…
Gregwor, 20 July 2018ISO HVAC: No one has chimed in, but so far I think I'm going to stick with my original design. I realized I can just flip the trunk and register positions which will…
Waka, 20 July 2018Hi Greg, struggling to see how flipping them like this allows you not to have a 4th baffle over the other design, but you seem to know what you're doing with it so all…
Waka, 20 July 2018Oh quick note! I realised when playing on sketchup the other night, if you trace the vertical RFZ from a single speaker at the correct angle, it's a little different,…
Gregwor, 21 July 2018For sure. I'm going to investigate drilling holes through the jack posts for this. I sure hope it's to code. Measurements will determine that. For now, fabric is the…
Soundman2020, 21 July 2018Ummm... that's why the rays of a ray trace should NOT come from the midpoint of your speaker! They should come from the acoustic center of the speaker! The spot where…
Soundman2020, 21 July 2018Draw a series of rays from the acoustic center to the cloud, all in the same plane, but at various angles at regular intervals, as I show in the diagram above. At the…
Gregwor, 31 July 2018Well, I've been working quite hard on the design, jumping from one thing to another. I have a question that maybe someone could shed some light on. Here in this picture…
Soundman2020, 31 July 2018I would drop the thickness of the one at the top of your picture to 2", and add 2" length to all of your hangers. The 2" thickness is still reasonably decent. Also, try…
Gregwor, 2 August 2018So here is a picture of the sub panels installed. The bottom small one is for the house central air conditioning unit and the ductless mini split I'll have for the drum…
Waka, 3 August 2018Looking good! About your fabric problem in the last image, Is there a reason why you need to use fabric here? To me it makes more sense to run your hvac soffit framing…
Gregwor, 3 August 2018Waka (please tell me your real name haha), thanks for your input as usual! Yes, leaving the top and bottom of the baffle "open" will prevent deflection of sound in those…
Gregwor, 3 August 2018I just finished the soffit wing design. You can see the hangers and such in the picture. The longest hanger is 4' 7 1/4" long. Homasote and insulation batts only come in…
Gregwor, 5 August 2018So I finished my control room and ISO room inside out ceiling design (minus cutting holes for my HVAC silencer sleeves to penetrate it. The thing that was really bumming…
Gregwor, 10 August 2018And continuing on with some ceiling design, I checked out some pictures of a Canadian studio design firm: http://www.pilchner-schoustal.com Basically, I was just…

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Gregwor, 11 August 2018I also called around/looked around at different insulation available in my area and wanted to compare price differences. There is no 701 around. There is only 1" and 2"…
Soundman2020, 11 August 2018OK, that makes a bit more sense. I was actually looking at it backwards! :oops: But now I got it. Have you thought of putting small hangers above parts of your cloud?…
Gregwor, 11 August 2018I was planning either hangers or super chunk style. I have 3 cloud portions before the flat hanging cloud (the one that I'm trying to design the cool shapes on). The…
Soundman2020, 11 August 2018Also, if you are going to put fabric on those frames, then bevel or round the inner edges of the frame, so that they don't make unsightly lines in the fabric, Route or…
Gregwor, 19 August 2018I've been working and studying very hard on this stuff lately! Here is the cloud module framing I've come up with. It's a lot busier than Id like, and maybe too messy.…
Soundman2020, 19 August 2018Why? :) I don't mean "Why do you want clean lines?". I mean "Why would hanging the cloud NOT give you clean lines?". Look at at Studio Three: That's a multi-segment…
Gregwor, 21 August 2018After some thought, messing around, and getting advice from the pros, I decided to just hang the front 3 cloud modules. I also did a quick framing of the top cloud. I…
Gregwor, 22 August 2018I snuck away to get a bit more done on the design this evening. I finished the diffuser. Here's some info on the design: - Based on Tim Perry's Leanfractal A1-Frac…
Waka, 22 August 2018Really liking the progress so far on your design Greg. It's really coming together! I really liked the look of those Leanfractal and Leanfuser designs. You picked the…
Gregwor, 25 August 2018I've started to solidify my rear wall hanger design. Homasote is just over $57 + GST of 5% here for a 4'x8' 1/2" thick sheet. Each hanger on the back wall would take…
Gregwor, 22 September 2018I know this thread has been quiet for a while. I've been studying a ton - thousands of pages of pretty heavy acoustics theory. Also, I've been doing normal life stuff…
Gregwor, 25 September 2018I'm sure these need tweaking. I need to do the window detail next but I think it's going to be a way bigger job than these ones. I believe I will have to do it in a 3D…
Gregwor, 26 September 2018Small amount of progress here. I've drawn up the basement portion of the studio (phase 1 for my building permit). It's the basic layout that I'll use for drawing the…
Gregwor, 10 October 2018I've kept quite busy on the design. I made a list of over 200 things I need to address for phase 1 of my build. VERY slowly checking them off. It's things like "where to…
Soundman2020, 10 October 2018Try your local printing shop: Printers ink (and other printing supplies) usually come in large vats or boxes, packaged with large bags of silica gel. I picked up a…
Gregwor, 10 October 2018Stuart, Every single place I've looked online comes up with this same chart: Image not preserved: Desiccant Calc.png For 200 grams, it works out to ~ 7.05 units.…
Gregwor, 18 October 2018I've been working hard on this sucker! I have a long ways to go yet, sadly. Here is the basement mechanical so far. It's rough, I know. But I'm not going to waste time…
Gregwor, 30 October 2018I just finished calculating the total pressure of the duct work, silencers and linear slot diffusers/plenums for the control room and iso room combined. The two air…
Soundman2020, 30 October 2018That's pretty high, Greg. You will likely need booster fans at some points. Even with the AHU, that's still high. Have you considered running some paths in parallel?…
Gregwor, 30 October 2018If you look at my pressure sheet, pretty much all of the crazy high values are coming from the right angled silencer box turns and abrupt exits (for gross impedance…
Gregwor, 23 November 2018Sorry about the lack of updates guys! I didn't have internet for 3 weeks once we moved into our new place. I've spent all of my time installing appliances, mirrors,…

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Gregwor, 30 November 2018Quick update with pics. 99% caulked the entire ceiling. 60% snipped/grinded off protruding nails/screws. Around 25% of ceiling has drywall mounted on it. 3% of that…
Gregwor, 30 November 2018Thanks Dan! The cleats were actually a breeze to make. I dug through the garbage bins around my neighborhood and found 2x4 cut offs from the framers building new homes.…
Gregwor, 9 December 2018Hi Dan, Thanks for the interest. I have a lot of the drywall up on the ceiling and everything is caulked. I need to move the cleats and fill those areas with caulk next.…
Gregwor, 8 January 2019It's been about a month since my last update. I just wanted to write and say that I have been working my butt off on the build. I'm close to being done the drywall beef…
Gregwor, 13 January 2019I've got my final little pieces of drywall cut and ready to install. Today my parents dropped off some power tools for me that my uncle indefinitely is lending me. It's…
Gregwor, 2 February 2019I've been too tired feeling to post regular updates. I am basically done with drywall on the ceiling minus the joist spaces at either end of the room which will require…
Gregwor, 11 February 2019Here is my ceiling so far: Image not preserved: Greg Ceiling Before Joist Side Beef Up.jpeg As you can see, I've finished a good chunk of the ceiling insulation. The 14"…
Gregwor, 28 February 2019I haven't done much on my personal build lately as I've been helping my buddy Darren with his design and build as well as working way way too much. I was inspired by…
Gregwor, 1 March 2019You can read all about the performance here: http://arqen.com/wp-content/docs/Acoust ... -Arqen.pdf It seems never ending. I just need some solid 8 hour days with help…
Gregwor, 2 March 2019After hearing how larger silencer boxes attenuate lower frequencies better than smaller ones, I decided to utilize the spaces I have for them. So, larger cross sectional…
Gregwor, 16 March 2019Depressing update: I made major progress with my ceiling. I've worked countless hours on it. It's crazy how long it takes to put up a few small little pieces of material…
Gregwor, 19 March 2019Thanks guys. I have the plumber coming tomorrow to change out/fix the sump situation. Now that I'm manually engaging the sump pump the walls are drying out. I also have…
Gregwor, 19 March 2019I have not 100% determined that. I can't believe the house builder hasn't sent someone out to try and identify the source of moisture. At this point, I'm quite confident…

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Gregwor, 24 March 2019Thanks Ron! I think the plumbing dorks did something weird with the sump. He came and swapped the pump out and didn't even check if it would engage when it filled with…
Gregwor, 4 May 2019I put everything on hold for a while waiting for the new home warranty dork to come assess the situation. The break was nice as it allowed me to catch up on a bunch of…
Soundman2020, 4 May 2019Wow. Conclusion I draw from this: the contractors got to the warranty guy first, and he was in their pocket. Deeply. It was probably a lot cheaper for them to pass him a…
Gregwor, 15 May 2019Okay. Here's one not so boring picture for you. This one shows how I made a skinny box to cover up a bunch of electrical and plumbing that goes up/over to our kitchen…
Gregwor, 6 June 2019Working on it tonight again. We went on holidays for a few weeks and I'm being distracted by work (recording and mixing concerts) as well as planning out our landscaping…
Gregwor, 20 June 2019I feel so defeated lately guys. Car problems, street bike problems, preamp problems, etc, etc. Then, we got a super heavy rain throughout the night. I went down to check…
Gregwor, 20 June 2019They wrote me this morning and said that cracks over 1/4" in width are covered under warranty. Mine is a hairline crack. So, I looked up the Alberta New Home Warranty…
Soundman2020, 20 June 2019The nightmare never stops! I feel for you, Greg. Incredibly frustrating. I'm wondering if the membrane is damaged. If it is in tact, then there should be no leaks, even…
Gregwor, 21 June 2019Right now, the humidity is 31% in our house. I got this in a email from the house builder: "Hi Greg. From the minimal amount of dampness that is there it is entirely…
Gregwor, 24 June 2019That is the garage so no, it is not needed on it. I'm sure I could but like recording, a first timer probably won't do a good job. This is one construction process I'm…
Gregwor, 26 June 2019Thanks for your suggestion! We do have weeping tile and a sump. I actually had a guy out to give me a quote for a repair and he said I should just do it myself. It's…
Gregwor, 23 August 2019Thanks for checking in dude! Life's been crazy lately. I've taken on too many recording projects (need to record to make money to build my studio and live!) and other…

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Gregwor, 21 December 2019And update, but not studio related. So after my doctor told me that he was out of ideas for what could be causing my wrist pain, I visited a physiotherapist. It was an…
Gregwor, 22 February 2020So I'm waiting to hear back from one of the engineers at the place I'm getting my air handler unit from. They build them right here in Edmonton and I had about a 2 hour…
Gregwor, 29 February 2020When the turds decided to frame up the wall at my stairs they thought it was awesome to use 2x10 lumber. Of course it made my already small hallway even smaller so I got…
Gregwor, 19 March 2020Tiny update: - Flooring guy quoted me $9000 plus 5% GST - I emailed the HVAC company who I met with to see if he had got me a parts list yet and he said he would follow…