Paradise Studio - Conversion of a detached garage

Hi all . . Here is my updated thread, I thougt I would share with you all a more start to present approach to my endeavors. I am sure many of you will have lots of shots to take at my style and approach, but in any regards I am happy with the results to date and tend to have an attitude of "what I end up with, I will be happy with" I live in a rural area of Western Pennsylvania where the closet neighbor is at least 150 yards (137 meters) away. We have little if no zoning and building inspection and codes are at a minimum. I symathize with those of you that have to pay so much money and time to get the spacing of drywall screws approved. Please understand that I agree with proper building techniques in regards to saftey, quality, and functionality. I am a consutlting electrical engineer, the majority of my business is in support of an engineering firm that does municipal water, sewage, bridge and road construction. I run most of my designs past my structural and civil counterparts before I make any decisions. I am doing most of the work myself along with the help of my father, son, family and musical commarades. I did not do any masonary or excavation; I left that to the veterans. This forum has been most helpful as I lurk around daily. Some of you I find a bit to annal for me, and most of you are a blessing. We can always take a grain of salt here and there as the bottom line is having fun. I sought out a piece of property a year and a half ago with the intention of finding some land and a house with a separate building. My wife and I ended up with a home on 5 acres back a private drive in a rural setting. I am not too concerned about the neighbors as they are as earlier stated far enough away. My only big issue is a rail road track about 650 yard away, its blocked by a large hill, but can be from time to time a bit of a pain. I must say already by simply beefing up outer leaves, sealing things air tight, and insulating, I am recognizing at least 60 to 70 per cent drop in levels. I can't wait to see what the second leaves do. Well here are the concept and overall designs:

I had a bad wall on the upper side of the building and last fall we raised the structure and had that wall replaced

Excavation was done for the footing of the 16'X24' addition to create a higher ceiling for a more live area. I also ran sewage, water, and data from the building to the house.

My hired mason did the block work for the addition, I did the footing and about that time winter came and I was on hold until this past spring. A little yard clean up as well for the utility ditch.

As this spring rolled around it was time to pour the concrete slab in the addition and prepare for framing the addition.

Framing the high room with the help of lots of friends. We put the trusses up ourselves as well, If you have lots of help and someone with previous experience, its not too bad.

The exterior is 1/2" OSB on the first layer. Here are a couple inside and outside shots. You can now see the old header from the garage doors. That had to be removed and was a pain.

The outer exterior is a James Hardie board product. Very dense and very heavy, Cement based. I used an industrial sprayer for the finish and matched up the existing building. Here the third or fourth load of drywall .

Next the control room floor. I opted to float for many reasons. The concrete is uneven, I like the sound of the wooden floor, and it will be nice and warm in the winter. I orderd the rubber from Acoustical Surfaces online, and found a good source for Rock Wool in Pittsburgh.

Heating is a dual stage propane system with DC variable speed blower. The furnace is very, very quiet. All duct work is acoustically insulated with turning vanes. Putting your ear in the duct work while its running you hear nothing. All duct work is over sized and the end effect is like a warm gentle breeze.

Completed control room framing and beefing up the live area walls with drywall.

Lots of insulation, it gets cold here in Pennsylvania. I blew R50 in all ceilings and R19 on the walls on the first leaf.

Currently I am framing the studio area. I used TJI-230 trusses and a large laminated beam for the bulkhead between the high and low ceiling. Soon to start the inner leaf drywall. I figure I need another 180 sheets on top of the 150 I already installed . . . oh well . . its still fun.

Awesome! 8) I predict this will be a very popular thread indeed! :D What exactly are you using as your elastomers? You mentioned the source but not the product itself. I'm also curious how you calculated the loads/spacing for them. I also noticed you used insulation with kraft paper on your outer leaf wall, which is going to act as a third leaf. It may be worth your time to slice the paper along the edges of the studs and then tear the paper off. That should eliminate the third leaf effect that you'd get otherwise. :) --Keith :mrgreen:

BTW does any one have trouble when replying such that you hit the reply button and it takes you back to the forum index and then you have to hit the thread a second time to actually get the reply window? Anyhow . . the rubber is neoprene, its life is less than EPDM but that life thing is more related to UV exposure than being buried under $60,000 worth of wood, rockwool, and gypsum board. I figure I'll be dead before any one notices. One of my structural engineers crunched the numbers and I placed the rubber under the floor runners. Thanks for the tip on the kraft paper but that's just too annal for me, I am going to slit the paper to reduce the barrier effect as my second leaf insulation will have the barrier . . for me that's like saying 9.98754 isn't 10. :lol: I keep remembering that I made a very satifactory CD two years ago in my living room studio at my old house (here's a photo). The new studio will be very project orientated. Its already sound proofed enough to use, but of course looks like hell right now . . remember no one can hear me out here and the trains are already almost gone . . .

You may think it's "anal" Mark, but by leaving the kraft paper intact, you're dividing one large air gap into two smaller ones... And we've all seen this image on the forum enough times to know that the ramifications of this can be severe. Call it "anal" if you wish... :roll: ...but it just seems like a wee bit of effort for a lot of benefit. Just lookin' out for you, bud. :) --Keith :mrgreen:

I understand the MAM properties . . show me the kraft paper's contribution, I only see plasterboard in your example.

With the paper between your masses, you no longer have MAM. You have MAmAM. (Like the lower case "m"? ;-) ) I don't have any calculations... But I do have these:

knightfly wrote:

. . . batts should be UN-faced for these walls. If you MUST use faced batts, put the paper against one wallboard surface or the other - but do NOT put TWO batts in a wall that BOTH have paper, and do NOT put paper ANYWHERE but against the wallboard - either will create somewhat of a THIRD LEAF, which may improve wall performance at MID range but WORSEN it at low frequency. (source)

knightfly wrote:

. . . use standard fiberglass batts there. IF you use paper faced batts, put the paper next to the wallboard side so it doesn't create a third leaf. (source)

knightfly wrote:

. . . If, within this double framed wall . . . you were to put insulation that had a paper backing, and you placed that backing ANYWHERE but against one of the wallboard surfaces, that would actually HURT the TL through the wall by acting as a third leaf between the other two; so, from an acoustic standpoint, the backing either needs to go against one or the other wallboard surfaces or be REMOVED, or use UN-FACED insulation. (source)

I'm pretty sure Steve would repeat the warning in your thread if he weren't so pressed for time these days... And that doesn't mean he won't. ;-)

I think I will make it MAmAM by cutting lots of big slits in it as I am concerned about the fiber glass coming down over the years behid the inner leaf . . I still would like to see the calculations and decide if I care . . . please understand I am not arguing with the laws of physics but rather to what degree it truly matters to ME! I promise not to post on this forum and rip anyone a new a*-hole for bad advice 8)

If you use the cheapest paint stir sticks you can get and either a large staple or small nail, you can secure the top of the fiberglass bats to your top plate framing and it will hold up. The only force working to move the FG is downward (gravity). I'd be worried about the bits of slit paper backing buzzing. Besides, unfaced FG is HALF the price of faced FG. You might have to wait a couple of days to get it, (mine to 3 days but I live in the boonies) but if you are using a lot of it, the money saved can be a lot (it saved me $600). len

I am adding this link to my studio power and lighting system in the "Installation and Wiring" section of the forum. http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5639

More drywall, we finished the ceilings up in the Studio-Stage over the weekend. Thank God for drywall lifts. I think I have over 300 sheets installed so far . . . really starting to hate drywall. Control Room is the last to go . . .

Omron Electronics Lighting Panel.

Its been a productive two weeks. I am finally on the last leg of drywall. Last calculation we have used nearly 300 sheets of the dreaded stuff. We did the last ceiling so I can finally put the drywall lilft to bed . . .

Flooring is in, I ended up with an engineered oak hard wood, got it on a close out at Lowe's for 58% off the original price, so I save myself a couple few grand. So now once all the drywall mudding is done we can begin the spraying of the walls with the industrial sprayer.