Studio Build in Central Portugal

I am building a 80m2 studio from the ground up here in Central Portugal. The studio was partially design by Stuart Allsop, who used to be on this forum. Construction starts on March 9th, 2021. The GOAL: Create a studio with world class acoustics. The STUDIO: The building will be 11.2 x 7.1m. The height is 5m, in the back and sloping down to 4.2m in the front. Inside we will construct three rooms: The height of the building to the eves will range from 4.5-3.8,m, and the interior heights of the ceilings in the rooms will be minimum:: Control Room 3m, Live Room 3.5m.  The control room is aprox. 5m long x 4.2m wide.  Floor area: 21m2, room volume: 58.2 m3.  The live room is 5.4m x 5.9m.  Floor area: 31 m2, room volume: 109.2 m3.  Building The Building is to be constructed on a massive concrete slab, approx. 50cm thick. Curl form layer, vapour barrier, smoothing layer, thermal insulation in the floormate system, lightweight concrete and final layer of cemented cement ready to receive flooring. Conduits for the power, microphone tie lines, CAT, midi, XLR returns, LRS, Headphones, etc.. will be placed in the floor and run to the 4 walls of the live room and control room. At the back of the building (which backs up to a huge granite wall), we must construct a 30cm x 5m tall retaining wall with steel. A drainage tube is placed at the back of the wall and lined with plastic to protect from water entering into the building. This will then we surrounded on two sides but 40-6cm thick granite stones. So we will have a massive amount of isolation on three sides. The building is being constructed by a local company called Waters Edge. The build will be made of 25cm thermal blocks with 10cm of insulation and a vapour layer to protect against humidity. This is using the technique in Portugal known as the capotto system. Roof Concrete beams. Slopping roof with 6cm of insulation and red roof tiles. Studio Inside Stuart created a basic design and this is what we are going with but since he never finished it, Joules Newell, is finishing the design with modifications and will build the inside of the studio. Joules and his team have travelled all over Europe building world class studios, so I trust that this will be done properly. They plan to isolate the control room from the other two rooms and construct the three rooms using 2 leaf MSM construction with two layers of plasterboard (the most inside Eco). The windows will be double pained and laminated on the inside. From what I understand, Joules will use a suspended ceiling in the live room. http://www.newellacousticengineering.com/ HVAC The HVAC system will be installed above the small entrance room with the ducting and silencer tubes in the ceiling of the control room, where they will also exit the building through a gap in the granite wall structure. The studio will have about 200m3 to air space. I would like to error on the side of caution though and have a higher capacity then calculated since it can be quite hot in the summer and wet and humid in the winter here. Projected Time Line March-mid May to construct the building (depends on the weather) June-July- Joules and his crew complete the inside. Estimated Budget: 70,000€. Once this post is approved I will post weekly updates. All the best ricardo or Scott or Dr Space

One thing I should add that I need advice on is I am using the Yamaha HSM80 monitors which have a rear port and we plan to soffit mount these. What is the best way to do this to make sure they get ventilation, etc? One suggestion was to block the port but I worry that this compromises the speaker design and could lead to damage the speaker? Any thoughts?? Thanks Dr Space

there are a number of folks who have mounted the yamaha. of course a front port would be nicer but the LF components of the response will be suppressed by the interior of the baffle system. my recommendation is build the ventilation using duct board so its a nice even flow from top to bottom.

Best of luck with that. The design probably deserves a higher class of speaker though, IMO. Neumann KH310 for instance.

Wow.. Glenn.. that looks great and I will send this to Joules for sure. They started today but no large progress as they are still just clearing the site for the foundations. Thanks for the comment about the monitors, Dan.. I understand that a lot of people consider them low class but I have made some amazing mixes with them and my ears are used to them now after so many years. Dr Space

You're the Doctor..... Well how about make spaces in the Front Wall big enough to accommodate any future speaker.

Very good idea Dan.. I will make sure to put this on the list. Thanks.

Day 6- march 15th They set up the crane today. Work on the foundations will continue tomorrow. The steel cages will also proceed tomorrow for the foundation footings. Progress.. dr space

whoo-hoo! big crane country! :-)

March 16th Great weather and Paul and his two helpers did a great job today. The corner of the ruin was cut off, the foundations for that side of the building cut dug out, the kiwi transplanted, the steel cages for the rear foundation put in place.. Looking good… I took a lot of pictures. March 17th Weather was amazing today again and they got all the foundation footings dug out now and have laid the steel cages in 2 of the 4. It is looking good and concrete has been ordered for next weds to do the first pour. I took a few pictures but was a way most of the day. March 18th They had to get some supplies from another site so were not here til about 11 today. Only Paul and Gil. All the footings are dug out now and only one more small cage for the right side and then the rest of the steel. They still look to be on target for having all the steel in place for the cement next weds. Progress… March 19th All the footings are dug out now and the cages in. Some steel still missing but they will finish this and put in the vertical steel on monday and tuesday. Cement comes Weds.. It was a great day today. They got a lot done. A couple of pictures of the progress on the foundation footings. A lot of steel!!! So far so good...

Vaya con dios

March 22nd José and Gil showed up about 8:45. Weather is awesome. They will focus on the steel work and the frames for the front of the foundation. Paul showed up for a little bit today and said he will have all the paper work for the camera tomorrow. Concrete is postponed until Thursday afternoon but they will also book the cement for the foundation for the Tuesday the following week. Then they work on the wall!!! That will take an entire week. March 23rd Gil and José just got on with the steel work. All is ready for the footings so they are starting to make the steel for other parts of the structure. Paul came later today with the papers I need for the official license. Looks like I will go with the architect Thursday. Concrete has been delayed until Friday afternoon, so they will not show up the next two days. Joules will come back with the diagram for where the tubes will go in the foundation for the electricity and cables tomorrow as they expect to pour the first foundation next Tuesday and then that Friday the floor. After that they can build the retaining wall. March 25th I attempted to go and get the official license today but turns out that I still do not have all the documents according to Pedro. He filled in the Livro da obra so I don’t need to have Pedro with me next time but I still need a proper health and safety document (signed) and also another letter for who takes responsibility. Also, a major fucking headache now, is that Paul told me that it was ok to change the build if you make it smaller but not larger. Pedro said this is not the case. You have to build the exact building that was approved at the camara. The engineer who is signed on as responsible, if he comes out the site and sees that the building is different and then writes in the Livro da obra, that there have been changes, then you will have to submit a new project at the camara to get approval. If this happens, I am going to have to charge Paul this money as he said it was ok. Also Pedro said that you would have a funny shaped roof now and that cutting the tiles in this way leaves open a much greater chance for water to get in and under the roof compared to a completely straight roof. He recommends that we make the roof straight anyway. Fuck… March 26th The guys showed up about 9 and kept on working on preparing the steel for the beams, roof, etc.. Paul come about 10-11 or so. Not sure exactly as I was working in the garden. The concrete pump showed up at 13:45 and got in place. There was just enough room for them to put the extension legs out. Not much room to space. It was two concrete trucks, 12m3 of concrete. All poured in less than an hour. Gil lead the hose into the footings and Paul went around with the vibrator machine that gets rid of the bubbles and makes the whole thing smooth itself out. They had to adjust the steel bars a bit but that was it. Went very fast and smooth. great job guys. Paul said it would be hard enough tomorrow you could walk on it but it will rest until Monday… March 29th I went to the camera to turn in all the papers and try to get the official license now. Sadly, they wanted everything digital (first time ever, I was asked for digital stuff) so I have to wait to get some documents from Paul in digital form and then I can send them via email and they will respond and then I will go back in. Anyway, the guys took the frames off the footings and started to frame the foundation and lay the drainage pipe that will go around the perimeter of the building. They also put in the 10cm tubes that will carry the electricity and other cables into the control room. They laid down some black water sealant as well. Looking great…

April 1st Paul and the guys arrived about 12:45 and put the bricks and got their laser level set up, boots and tools and waited. The concrete pump arrived about 13:45 and the concrete truck a few minutes after. IT all went very smooth. 6m3 was enough to do a little less than half and it went fast. Overcast and a tiny bit of rain so good weather for concrete pour. The 2nd truck was just perfect and it was all over in 20mins. They are smoothing it all out now and gathering the concrete off the drive that was dump out of the pump truck and will add this to the foundation. Went very smooth. Quite a downpour for a few minutes so there is a small lake in one area now but rest looks good. I got the bill today and not Paul. Quick look and I could not see the cost?? 1081€ Now this will sit and cure until next Tuesday. Perfect.. Next up, the retaining wall construction and the block construction.

berry berry nice! does that very tall sandy-looking earth wall behind your foundation need some reinforcement?

The sandy looking wall is actually granite!!! The ground is granite as well. Seemed strange to dig out 40cm of the granite, which is pretty solid and fill it with concrete for the footings. The next step is to build a 5x11m retaining wall at the back with steel. 30cm thick.. They will start to do the framing next week..

ah... very nice! you'd almost want to slice off some to decorate the drum section of the live room to bring some of the natural environment into your space... maybe just a heavy picture window to view it with some lighting on it would be a cool effect...

Original idea if you see the drawing at the beginning of this thread was to use some of the granite blocks but in the end the space is just getting smaller and smaller and it is a bit complicated to do this with the natural stone. We will use it on the outside to make the building look like the old ruin though... scott

April 12th Started off sunny but was cloudy but 15. The guys made good progress on the steel shuttering now that the steel was finished. The first 3m is almost done. Paul said they will try to shutter the entire thing instead of doing 2 pours. He said there is a lot of security work as you can’t have it leak or collapse as it would be a total disaster. He thinks they will pour it next week but if they have to wait for the concrete it is not a problem as all the bricks arrived today for the walls. 12 pallets!! 25cm wide and about 40 or 50 long. Did not measure it. Seems like way too many blocks. We will see. Still need the ones for the roof and the concrete beams for the roof as well. He says they are on schedule for finishing by May 12th, when they will come take the crane away. Got another bill from him to pay today. About 6000€ left to pay. Some rain the next 3 days so it will be slower work perhaps. Tuesday April 13th Raining on and off today. Guys did not show up until after lunch. Finished the supports on the back for the retaining wall. 3.5m x 11m…. Still some more steel on the top. They put the first blocks on the building today! They are huge. Special thermal bricks. Weds April 14th Made huge progress on the blocks. We had to move the window on the front that was now too close to the corner since we moved the building 1m away from the house. The bass trap would no longer fit. They did a great job. Thursday April 15th Wow.. walls are 2.5m wall now. They will be 3m in the front and 4.5m tall in the back. It looks like a big building now but I did some measurements on the inside and it is going to be a bit tight when bands are playing. The live room will be max about 4.8m wide and 6m long. Smaller than I had hoped and we will lose a few square meters in one of the corners for the storage room as well. I imagine that the drums will go in that smaller area near the control room window with the highest ceiling. It is so cool that I can really imagine what it will look like now. Friday April 16th The guys arrived a bit before 9 today.. normal time.. Paul said today they will pour the front pillars with cement and steel as well as the concrete at the top of the windows that will support the rest of the building on top. He is pretty sure they will pour the rear wall next week one way or another even if they can’t get metal shutters they are trying to find. They will do it with wood. They are used to do it this way for swimming pools. He is happy with the progress. We also discussed the granite for the side of the buildings and some landscaping ideas for the front.. Very happy with the progress.. Dr Space

wow! they're progressing pretty nicely!

Monday April 19th Guys arrived a bit before 9. José had to deal with his car and would be coming after lunch. Metal shutters were supposed to come at 16 and did not. They removed the framing of the cement above the windows and door today. Looks good. Gil put up two more layers of bricks so we are up to 2.9m now in the front of the building and on one side. This will slope up to 4.5m in the back. Cement for the back wall has been ordered in for thursday. They are supposed to get the metal shutters tonight at 19 and bring them tonight. Paul will look into the windows tomorrow. Had a talk with Joe and he clarified a few things but Paul still want to talk to him. Tues April 20th José did come with two other guys at 19 last night with the panels. They used the crane to unload them. Now for sure they will finish the framing of the back wall today. Spoke to Joe and we agreed that the inner walls we will have a 5cm gap between the brick wall and the frames wall. The framed wall will be made with metal framing (5cm) with one layer of plasterboard on the brick facing side, filled with rock wool and two layers on the outside. The most outer layer damp resistant. This will make the walls about 13cm thick to give us a bit more room in the live room. Windows will be normal double pained glass with reflective mirror on film for the exterior for all windows. All the internal windows will be normal double pained glass except the live and control room, which will be laminated inside to provide less sound reflection. Weds April 21st It was ok weather in the morning but the rain really picked up in the afternoon and they had to quit a bit early but they are ready for pouring the concrete tomorrow for the back wall. Just one small section they have to foam up and it is ready to go. Exciting. Only took a couple of pictures today. Gear for the studio arrived today. Now I have all the 6 speakers for 5.1 and the surround monitor controller by SPL. Some headphones for people if they need them (AKG) and the 16 channel of ASP880 microphone pre-amps. Rated very highly and working well with the UAD system for giving clear, non-coloured sound. Thurs April 22nd Guys showed up at the normal time and did the bits they needed to for the right corner. Concrete was delayed until 14 (they did not actually come til 15) so they worked more on the walls and window sills. Starting to go up at an angle now. Anyway, sadly, they only got the first 6m3 of cement poured and it looked like the wall was starting to bulge or bend out tiny bit in the middle so Paul made the call to not pour the rest. The risk was too high. We may end up having to pay for the 6m3 of concrete in the 2nd truck if they could not find another job to use it on. Damn.. Anyway, the last cement in the tube they used next to the wall where they will put some of the old ruin stones. Progress but a bit of a set back as on Monday, they will have to take down the front wall panels and supports and start over completely to do it again, so this is a bit of a set back, perhaps 3-4 days of work. Not sure.. Friday April 23rd Paul called the night before and said they had a change of plan and in order not too loose too many days, they would shore up the wall this morning and gently pour the rest of the cement 6m3 by hand. So they showed up at normal time and sure enough, worked their asses off and poured like 60 mixers of cement to get to the top of thee 3.5m wall. They worked super hard in the afternoon with no break between like 14-18.. We had a beer together afterwards. Wow.. Now they will let the wall set for 3 days and be back on Tuesday to remove the frames and see what the wall looks like. Paul says if the bulge is too much in the middle, they will have to shave some of the concrete back in order to make the wall straight enough. We just have to wait and see. I am very glad they did this as now, they will likely be able to finish all the walls next week and put the plasterboard into the building and start on the roof the week after. April 27th Guys showed up at 8:45 like normal. It was nice in the morning but it looked threatening rain all day with masses of black clouds around but in the end it hardly rained. Gil and José managed to get about half the panels off yesterday. It is a big job to disassemble the supports and all the screws, supports, ties, etc.. then you have to clean all the cement off the everything as well. It is quite clear now that the wall is far from straight. Not sure how they will deal with this but it for sure bends out quite a bit. Also appears to lean. We will see, when it is fully exposed tomorrow. April 28th Had a nice chat with Paul yesterday about his thoughts on the timing of some things with the building. I am trying to get Joules and Joe, in the loop of when we will need them to come and do the wiring in the walls. Paul figures next week they will finish all the walls and put in the vega for the roof. He will order up the plasterboard and put it inside the building before they do the roof. He figures they will have the roof and basic framed walls inside up by first week in June, if the weather is not interfering. So then Joules and Joe can come up and do the wiring in the open framed walls and then they can put the other 2 layers of plasterboard up. April 29th The guys did not show up until after lunch today and it was only Gil. Had an emergency pool repair. He managed to get all the framing off the back of the wall so I assume they will finish it and start to do the rest of the brick work on Friday. April 30th José has a bad shoulder so is slowed down quite a bit but they managed with Paul’s help to get all the metal shuttering off and the concrete cleaned off (big job). They swept and cleaned up the inside of the building and now are ready to finish the walls. Paul figures 3-4 days and all the walls will be done. He will look into the plasterboard on Monday while the guys do the walls. They lowered down some bricks so that they are ready to go. I spoke to Joe about walls today as Joules and Joules is suggesting is to just attach the metal framed wall filled with rock wool to the brick wall. Then doing the wiring and put up the two layers of plasterboard. The inner layer will be the blue-green weather resistant type and the outer, normal plasterboard. I know this will not decouple the the live and entrance room from the building but Joules is planning to float and completely isolate the control room from the rest of the building. He says since I am on a budget and we have massive walls and the building is surrounded by granite on three sides, and your nearest neighbour is 300m away up the road behind the building, we don't need more isolation of sound. I have asked Stuart what he thinks, if this will compromise things too much, rather than do proper MSM or MAM walls as was originally planned. I will have a bit more floor space and it will be much easier for Paul (less labour) and cheaper for me. May 3rd We will have amazing weather all week so they should easily be able to get the bricks done this week. Doubt they can get the roof as well since it will rain for 3 days in the following week. We only have the crane until May 16th, I think. May 4th Paul was here for a few hours helping them yesterday and they managed to finish most of the side walls to about 3m and then add 2 layers of blocks on the huge concrete wall, which has to be blocked up to about 6m. They added some blue insulation to the outside of the building on the ruin side by the pool. There is not a lot of space in there. I am still not sure how they concrete and water seal that?? Anyway, he said they would trim the top of the ruin wall to match the height of the building roof and put tiles over the top of the ruin. This is great, then we don’t have to worry about water getting in on that side at all. May 5th They arrived about 11 today and started to continue on the back wall blocks. They have about 6 layers to go, I guess. I doubt they will finish all the walls today but for sure tomorrow. Paul got one quote for the plasterboard today. 6€ for the weatherproof and 4.8€ for the normal plasterboard. He estimates it is 110 boards and will take 10,000 screws!! He thinks he can get a better price at another place. They hope to get it delivered soon so then they can start on the roof.

whoo hoo! fortress OSC! 8)

Indeed. This is going to be a hell of a solid building.. 80cm thick walls on the right and left sides. 30cm concrete wall with another 10cm of wall and insulation on the back. The front will be the least insulated and isolated but still quite thick...

just need the machine guns and anti-aircraft stuff in the turrets :twisted:

May 6th Guys arrived at normal time and Paul soon after. They have finished the walls now to the final height of where the roof will be. They still need to build the wall up to the top in the back but I guess they wait until they have the concrete roof pillars in place. They are going to pour the concrete pillars on the side in the middle of the building today and they have the 6cm blue insulation on the outside of the bricks, followed by the plastic protective vapour layer. Then we will have the 40cm granite blocks on the outside of that one the right and left sides. That is about 80cm of insulation and isolation. Paul was here working with the guys all day and painted the back of the concrete wall with the black waterproofing stuff.. They then poured a bunch of the small stones (britta) in the back for water drainage over the perforated tube that runs the length of the wall. We will leave this open and not fill it in completely. Paul gave me a quote for all the materials for building the interior walls. 105 plasterboards (normal) 105 plasterboard- weatherproof, 10,000 screws, joists for the suspended ceiling. Everything has two layers of plasterboard including the ceiling which will need to have connection every 50cm due to the weight. This is going to cost 4300€. Includes all the framing materials and rock wool, tape, caulking, etc.. Paul said that the windows are perhaps the last thing they will put in. He had not idea when they will deliver them. They can take months some times. [b]May 7th [/b] They had hoped to get all the tops of the walls framed to pour the cement for preparing the roof. They got pretty far though. they will finish on Monday and pour the tops. May 10th The guys were here until about 15 but it was raining 70% of the time just on and off all day and they finally decided to quit. They were cold and wet and it was windy and nasty. May 11th They got the round middle beam poured and all the framing around the top except the middle beam yesterday. I was away all day having a jam session with Martin. May 12th We had a real ordeal to start the day when all the materials for building the walls arrived about 8:30 but the driver refused to drive them down to the house. Paul had to call his boss and them him many other trucks this same size have come down already and it was possible. He finally after 45 mins convinced the driver to do it. Turns out the driver was terrible and knocked out part of our fence on our driveway, could not get the truck up the road so spent 30mins trying to figure out how to back around and in the end, he had to just drive down. Paul said he had not seen a guy this bad in a long time. All the other big trucks managed. Wow. It is an enormous amount of materials. Like 5 pallets of rock wool alone. It is threatening to rain now which is not good. At at least it is all wrapped in some small plastic cling film. They stayed until nearly 19 last night and poured all the cement on the top of the walls and the central beam. Good job guys. May 13th The concrete beams will arrive today. They are moving and wrapping up all the materials as it looks to be raining quite soon for a few hours. They will move the rock wool pallets over to the pool patio area and cover it up with black plastic. They plan to work on the stone wall of the studio nearest the house today as the crane is leaving on Monday or Tuesday next week and they need that to move these huge stones. They should be able to get the concrete beams in place tomorrow and start to frame the walls again to cement them in place. By next week there will be roof on the studio. Wow…

wow is right!