20x20' Garage plan revisited

Hi folks - I'm posting a new take on my old plan. The ceilings are 8'. The gas water heater will be removed, and replaced with an electric one. The walls enclosing the water heater will still hinge, but now there's no worry about ventilation, so they'll be sealed. The door into the control room will be full ceiling height (otherwise, I was looking at removable sections of wall held in place with bolts, and decided against that). The ceiling of the control room will be vaulted, but flat from the listening position to about 4 ft back (so to where the side walls meet the back wall). I hope I've got the geometry right for soffit mounting the monitors. All of the windows will be double paned, and I'm hoping to find storm doors I can use for all four doors in the tracking areas. The vocal booth will be as dead as a layer of acoustic foam will make it, with a drawable curtain over the window. The wall construction will be 6" double-leaved, with staggered studs, and stuffed with insulation. 3 new power circuits, 1 for lights, 1 for power to the tracking area, 1 for control room power. Please let me know watch you think. I'm planning on recording mostly acoustic music, with not a lot of drums. The nieghbors are 30 yards to the east, and 60-70 yards to the north (the neighbors in the other two directions aren't worth worrying about... they're too far... :wink: ). Scale is 6" to a block, 20' by 20' square. Thanks for looking - John Tougas

John - maybe you could avoid the attic access problem by doing this?? cheers john

I forgot to notate on the original picture that the opening on the south wall is the door into the house. Sorry. :oops: But it does give me some other thoughts... Did I have the wall angle correct in the original? (I've been drawing this on graph paper without the benefit of a compass, so far...) - John

Here's my original with the rest of the houselines drawn in (the green lines).

:oops: I hadn't noticed that door. ;) I'm trying to make the attic stairsway work - what is the measurement from left side of the bottom door to the right wall? cheers john

Hi John - From the left side of the south door frame, to the inside of the east wall, is 6'. The attic access panel is 8 inches in from the wall, 13 inches past the left side of the door frame, about 34 inches wide (I left these measurements at home, I'm at my parents for the holidays), and about 52" long. Thank you for taking the time - John Tougas

So would this work and still keep your attic access?? cheers john

Hi John - What if I did this? That door would need to be covered, obviously. I've had the bottom of a water heater drop out on me once, and I'd like to be able to have quick access to it in case (God forbid) it should happen again. But I do like that it gives me two rooms plus an iso booth. :D Does that larger room have enough space for drums, on the off chance I'd end up recording some? Does the wall I added to your design come out at 90 degrees from the south wall, or a shade off? Thank you - John Tougas

Yep that's the way to go. BTW have you costed moving the heater?? we stick ours outside.:) cheers john

This'll be my first house, but there really isn't another location in the house I can put it, except maybe in the laundry room... that can't involve moving pipes too far... My parents (who have far more experience at this home ownership biz than I do) claim I can get an electric water heater from the electric company, installed, and pay for it in installments on the monthly bill. Apparently, that's how they got their dual unit in this house, and pay something like $2 a month on the bill towards the purchase. Works for me. :-) Thanks for looking, spending the time to look at my design and make your suggestions. I'll post pics when construction starts. :-) - John Tougas

Hey John - Just out of curiousity, would this floor plan need any tweaking if I start doing any surround sound work? Thanks - tougas

Yes it would - here's how a 5:1 lines up in your room. You could alter the front section amd freestand your rears though. cheers John

Hey John - I've done some serious thinking about the room distribution, and came to a conclusion : wouldn't it be better if the control room backed up to that North-Eastern corner, instead of the South-West? With the kind of enclosure I'm planning on putting around the electric water heater, I'm pretty sure it'll be quiet enough. I'm prepared to lose a room in the shuffle (as long as it's a small one). ;-) Thanks. :-)

yeah - but it will mean going through the studio to get to the control room which can be annoying ;) cheers jon

John Sayers wrote:

yeah - but it will mean going through the studio to get to the control room which can be annoying

No, North East corner, not North West. In that last drawing you did for me, for the 5.1 mixing setup, there's a small entry way for the doors from outside and into the kitchen. That space would still be there, just shaped a little differently. Basically, take my original drawing and rotate 180. I'll try and draw up what I'm talking about, but I'm a little knackered right now, and I'm heading off to bed. (hmmm... no emoticon for 'drowzy'...) :-Zzzzz... That'll have to do... :-)

tougas, Don't forget you can also put a "water heater pan" under the water heater and plumb the overflow to the exterior of the garage... then you won't have to worry about "water, water everywhere"....

steverino wrote:

Don't forget you can also put a "water heater pan" under the water heater and plumb the overflow to the exterior of the garage... then you won't have to worry about "water, water everywhere"....

That along with a floating floor under the new ne to dampen vibration, plus something to break up the (hopefully never heard) sound of water dripping into a tin pan... :-D

I realised you meant Nth East - either way you'll have to go through the booth to get to the control room which you don't need to do now. cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

I realised you meant Nth East - either way you'll have to go through the booth to get to the control room which you don't need to do now.

The other thing I was hoping to accomplish was having the 'loud' room back up to the house instead of out towards the neighbors. I know it won't make any difference internally, but I'd really like to minimize the chances of pissing one of them off (the physically closest one is a cop... which is a good thing/bad thing). :-) Thanks for all of your help. :-D

John Sayers wrote:

I realised you meant Nth East - either way you'll have to go through the booth to get to the control room which you don't need to do now.

I am prepared to lose one room in the process, as I think the trade off for better isolation from the rest of the world is worth it. Thanks for your help and time. :-)