Len Morgan's Studio Build Diary

len-morgan wrote:

Gravity, wishful thinking, and loooong nails. Seriously, The theory here (according to guy helping me to do the woodwork) is that the drywall will hold it all together and everything will help support everything else. Since the only purpose of these joists is to up the drywall on the ceiling.

I don't like it either. At the very least I would think you should have some of these metal braces: From scalpshifter's thread In any event, it will be interesting to see what Mr. Inspector has to say... :roll: --Keith :mrgreen:

Rough Framing Is Done!!!!! After a loooong push this weekend, we got ALL of the rough framing built, anchored, plumbed!! I did learn a valuable lesson: Don't make design changes half-way through a project without thinking about them carefully!!!! If you look at the design on the first page, you can see a little "kickout" in the NE corner of the control room with the door a little further South. I thought it would be neat to have the door right on that little kickout instead so when you walked into the control room, you wouldn't immediately see everything. You'd have the big "reveal" :-) So, we went ahead and framed up the east wall of the control room and all was well. I slept on it Saturday night and was woken up with the thought that the little kickout was intended for an A/C silencer and bass hangers. While kids might have fun navigating through the bass hangers on the way into the CR (at least until they started scratching from the fiberglass), it just wasn't going to work. Unfortunately, the CR walls were already anchored into the floor. We managed to remove one of the 2x8 studs and had just enough 2x8 material left to frame a door way where I had originally put it. Whew! I'm sooooooo sore from all the lifting and hammering (not always into the wood) but glad that we managed to get all of that lumber up without shooting a nail through any part of my body. This week we should have all the electrical done and be ready for the first inspection by the end of the week. :-) I'm going to probably get some of the drywall up too. I can put up the outside walls (in the little hallway between rooms) before the inspection because I won't be enclosing the other side just yet. At least it's not framing..... Ok, here's the pictures to prove it. len

Congratulations on reaching a very exciting milestone, Len!

len-morgan wrote:

This week we should have all the electrical done and be ready for the first inspection by the end of the week. :-) I'm going to probably get some of the drywall up too. I can put up the outside walls (in the little hallway between rooms) before the inspection because I won't be enclosing the other side just yet. At least it's not framing.....

Len, you may want to hold off on the drywall for a bit. Even though you probably can proceed, I'd recommend waiting until after the inspection. Why? Suppose the inspector spots something wrong with the framing. It would be a lot harder to correct the problem with drywall attached to one side! :shock: This will be your first inspection. Anticipate that you probably erred somewhere, and be pleasantly surprised (and pat yourself on the back heartily) if it ends up that you didn't. :) --Keith :mrgreen:

That's a great point, Keith. I hadn't thought of it in that light. It wouldn't be too bad if I had only screwed it in but I had been planning on taping/mudding those outside layers. Something I learned when living overseas - Always expect the worst and things can only get better. If you're right, at least things are the way you expected. I'll probably start putting up the insulation in those walls I was going to drywall since all I'll have to do is poke them out to fix anything they might find. You know, there IS another side to this story too: If I had the drywall up, something that might meet minimum might get by because the guy feels sorry for me. Not like planning to pour a concrete ceiling on 2x4 framing, but something that is not "perfect" but does meet minimum requirements. If it's too "easy" to fix, he might require it if he got into a fight with his wife the night before. :-)

At last, some pictures!!! Work has slowed a bit because of scheduling conflicts, life, family, etc...... As you can see, I've covered up the front glass with galvanized roofing so I don't have to worry about rocks any more. :-) Anyway, we hope to get the electrical done tonight so we can have it inspected tomorrow so I can begin drywall/insulation, etc. Here's the pics:

Isn't that flex conduit going to be a "conduit" for vibration/noise transfer from outer leaf to inner? :shock: I'm assuming Romex is not an option for you, since it's commercial space... Right? Also, are those junction boxes attached to the underside of the roof going to be accessible? If not, I don't think they'll pass code! :(

sharward wrote:

Isn't that flex conduit going to be a "conduit" for vibration/noise transfer from outer leaf to inner?

I really don't think so. It is very light gauge aluminum stuff and has enough slack in it to decouple. I'm sure there will be some minor amount of vibration but this is not the coiled/flex copper stuff that is used on natural gas lines (which is very stiff).

sharward wrote:

I'm assuming Romex is not an option for you, since it's commercial space... Right?

That's right. Believe me, I'm not trying to spend more money than necessary and would use Romex if it was an option. It would be so much easier (we probably could have had it all wired in a day).

sharward wrote:

Also, are those junction boxes attached to the underside of the roof going to be accessible? If not, I don't think they'll pass code!

They will be covered by the drywall but not unaccessible. It wouldn't be easy but it's not impossible (there is still a crawl space above the rooms but that is where my small size would be an advantage. I'm not quite sure why there is a requirement for accessibility in this case. ALL the wiring is in conduit so fire is not a problem. We are adding lots of extra outlets (more than is strictly necessary for normal studio use). Finally, the city has already acknowledged it is EXTREMELY unlikely that this building would be sold for any other purpose than a recording studio and therefore any future tennant would be tearing down what I've put up anyway. We'll see tomorrow or Thursday when the inspection is done. len

len-morgan wrote:

They will be covered by the drywall but not unaccessible. It wouldn't be easy but it's not impossible (there is still a crawl space above the rooms but that is where my small size would be an advantage.

There may be a minimum vertical clearance in the crawlspace for the boxes to be considered "accessible" via that route. You should probably investigate that.

I'm not quite sure why there is a requirement for accessibility in this case.

Sometimes wire nuts come loose over time and wiring gets disconnected. When that happens, junction boxes need to be opened and inspected so that connections can be checked and/or resecured. At my old house, I was changing a regular outlet to a GFCI outlet, and in the process I ended up pulling too hard on one of the wires, which caused it to get disconnected from the wire nut in a junction box 25 feet away. This was in the garage and all that wiring was in conduits attached to the surface of the wall.

ALL the wiring is in conduit so fire is not a problem.

Good thing! :) --Keith :mrgreen:

Paul Woodlock wrote:

YIPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I Passed My First City Inspection!!!! It took about 10 minutes for the inspector to go through and look things over. He had some questions about things that looked "strange" to him, like "what's up with the double walls" and "why did you use flex electrical connections instead of cheaper hard conduit" but accepted my explanations. He gave me the go ahead to finish the rest of the project before I call them again. By the way, my $25.00 permit fee is the ONLY thing I have to pay unless I fail an inspection and they have to come back. Your milage WILL vary! :-) Lots of pictures to follow soon! len

Looking Good man. Real Good. And I am with the rest of the crew...Framing Pics just excite me :)

len-morgan wrote:

I Passed My First City Inspection!!!!

Outstanding!! I'm sorry I missed this until now! Congratulations, Len! I'm really excited for you! May we all have similar positive experiences! --Keith :mrgreen:

Thanks for the encouragement! By the way, Keith, the inspection was only yesterday so I would hardly say you were "late in seeing" the post. :-) I guess the framing is going to slowly start disapearing to be replaced with insulation and drywall. BTW: For those of you who have dry wall to lift, I decided to buy a lifter instead of renting one. They've got 'em cheap on eBay (watch out for shipping cost though!) I ordered on Friday and had it on my door on Tuesday. It's not the greatest construction in the world but I'm only going to be using it for this one job and it saves me from having to hurry the work to get the thing back to the rental place - not to mention that I'll just about break even on the rent vs buy comparision. Well, onto to the next step! len

I'm planning to buy a TelPro. See my comments here.

This thread makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I wish there was a need for a recording studio in my area and I had the funds to build one with. Great pictures, BTW.

Thanks for the relink to the telpro..... That thread grew so fast I lost the response to my Question... I am def. getting one next March. Need it. Will be doing a ton of construction in a few months. Have a Beauty Salon to build and a New STudio. :)

One more thing... I have seen one of these units for 450.00 with 11' of lift.

I have an update to the drywall lifter: Take Sharward's advice and either spend the extra money or rent one. While the Chinese knockoff will get me through my project, it's so poorly built that it won't last much longer. The tolerances are so wide (so EVERYTHING "fits" that the unit wobbles and leans when extended to just 8'. I don't regret my purchase because at the rate I'm at now, I would be broke paying for rental charges (see my next post w/ pictures to see why I should not be left alone around power tools and building supplies). Note that this is not a knock on all Chinese products. They make some things very well (like more Chinese - side note: Beware of ANY country with over 1 Billion people that says their favorite indoor sport is ping pong!). It's just that this one is not made as well as it could be. len

In my case, I seriously doubt renting would be practical because I'll be "off" and "on" with the thing so much. :roll: One should definitely consider the benefits of buying (gently used if possible) a Telpro and then selling it on eBay when finished. Even if it costs a little more to do it that way, think of the flexibility and peace of mind not being "on the clock" to finish the job within a fixed rental contract time frame... Especially for us folks who have little to no experience hanging drywall! :shock: Large, heavy objects + rushing = injuries! :?

Whihc knock off did you buy. I think the one I saw was a panellift model... Trying to find the link again so I can confirm (or deny. LOL)

Found the link.. here is the one I looked at. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CC ... e&n=228013

It's hard to tell if that's the same model but I think if it's red, it's one of the knock offs. If you can live with the quality, I found several vendors that had the same think for less than 1/2 the price. If you're going to be giving it a lot of use, go for the original (US made) and as Sharward says, see if you can find a slightly used one on eBay, the paper, etc. In Detroit, you should have more luck finding a deal that I did out in the boonies.

That's the "red one" I'm steering away from. :shock: Here's the Telpro one (also on Amazon). Note that there are no reviews of "the red one" but there are 21 reviews on the Telpro -- 20 out of 21 of the Telpro reviews are "five stars" and only one is "four stars." There you have it! 8)

Ok, here's some more pictures. The last picture in the second set I call "Measure Twice - Then call someone that knows what they are doing!" 8 x 10s available for a reasonable price. :-)

And here's a few more pictures...

I really want one of those in the middle photo -- an attractive lady on a ladder helping me with my project! :twisted: Where do I get one of those? :lol: