gyraf.be studio

Hi all, After reading, thinking and dreaming for years, I can finally present to you all: my studio design thread !! I’ve been reading for years on this and other forums and have finally dared to step out of the silence… First of all let’s get acquainted: I’m Herwig, married, father of two children (20 and 2 months old), full-time musician and part-time AE. I live in Belgium, in a small town called Sint-Katelijne-Waver (20,000 inhabitants), very agrarical (sp?), mostly farmers. I live in the centre of this town (anyone with Google Earth: 51° 4'15.40"N 4°31'52.83"E). Two years ago the wife and I bought an old beautiful house here (°1880, 4m ceilings, first location of brewery Maes) on 835m² of land. The house itself is 12m wide and 10m deep, the land it’s on is 24m wide and some 35m-ish deep. I’d love to build a studio on the lot to the side of the house, and this is where I could *really* use the help of this forum… How crazy am I to do this if you know the following: *) it’s gonna be attached to the house. I have no idea yet how our outside wall is constructed, I don’t know if they already used two walls with an insulated cavity in between, but I doubt that. It’s a 1 ½ brick deep wall (+/-20cm) *) the front wall is going to be at the street side of the property. This street is a “Zone 30” (max 30km/h allowed) but no one cares around here. +3.5t trucks are forbidden but there’s always a few a day that pass through and when they do I noticed that the house mechanically VERY connected to the street. In my temp control room (spare bedroom) I see and feel the monitors move… *) I have 12m of empty lot at the street of which I can use 9m maximum (code says to have no buildings 3m from neighbours line) and my neighbours (former owners) have a wider driveway. I will and can use that strip of land as a driveway and would like it to be 3.5m wide as to be able to load/unload cars in an easier way. So that means that I will have about 8m between the studio and the neighbours living room (single paned glass, brick walls). [*) not really and issue but I thought I’d mention it as well: my back neighbour has a disco ! Only open on saturdaynights and sundayevenings. From the bedroom we sleep in (streetside) you can only very faintly hear bass freqs] On that 8.5 x 10m patch of land I *need* a storage room for the wife (5x3m), a control room, a live room big enough to hold a (5 to 6piece) band rehearsing and a small bathroom (1,5x2m). HVAC is a must. A machine room is high on the wishlist, an iso booth lower, lounge not really needed. I have a dB-meter but it has no indication of what kind of weighing it uses. I also haven’t done any measuring of street noise as well but intend to. I monitor at medium levels (<100dB), but bands I play in are LOUD and that is my main concern. The goal is to have a semi-professional studio, a great drum room, comfortable control room and decent acoustics. I already figured out I will need concrete floating floors in at least the live due to mechanical connection of street-pavement to my outer shell and probably bombshelter-PaulWoodlock-type inside walls. No windows to the outside world, as few doors as possible, sliding glass doors between live room and CR welcome but maybe not needed if this means loss of TL. I’ve come up with an idea of a design but that’s an early alpha version. Building will be done by me and friends except for things we don’t dare or need licences for (eg HVAC). Budget ? I don’t know yet, will plan that in Woodlock-style: spreadsheets to the rescue. Any thoughts/remarks/comments on this ?? Piccies with explanation follow… Kind regards, Herwig

The house. The land I'm planning to build on is to the left of the house. The garage next to the house will be demo'ed

Closer view of location

Even closer view

neighbours

yet another view

view from the backyard

with house. Note that our plans including laying a new terrasse (sp?) and extending the kitchen (making it deeper - right door and window)

Very nice introduction to your project, Herwig! And what a beautiful piece of property. 8) I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. Do you plan to have an area in the rear of the property for cars to park and turn around? Do you have a picture of the rear of your property, perhaps from the vantage point of your rear deck? Are there any utility easements or other obstacles under the ground where you would like to build? --Keith :mrgreen:

sharward wrote:

Very nice introduction to your project, Herwig! And what a beautiful piece of property. 8) I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. Do you plan to have an area in the rear of the property for cars to park and turn around?

No. 1) As said, this is not really a pro facility, so I gather I won't have sessions 24/7 (who does nowadays ? :D ) 2) there's parking space in the street + a free parking lot for 40cars 50m away. the driveways function would be loading/unloading and parking of wifes' car.

Do you have a picture of the rear of your property, perhaps from the vantage point of your rear deck?

I don't understand the word vantage but here's a stitched picture of the garden front to back (taken from the kitchen door, use the children's swing for orientation)

Are there any utility easements or other obstacles under the ground where you would like to build?

Not that we know of at the moment, but we're talking to an architect (need plans drawn by a licensed person) and I'll ask him. Proposed designs will follow asap. Thanks for fast reply, Herwig

Great picture -- including the cat I see! 8) It looks like your property goes back quite a distance. It would be nice to see a drawing that shows the entire property and the relationship between the neighboring properties, showing where you propose to put the building. Exciting! :D --Keith :mrgreen:

Hi, attached a quick sketch(up) of the property and proposed building. In the meanwhile we've been talking to an architect. We've agreed that he'll do the outside work and I'll do the insides of the renovation. If you look at the sketch you'll see the green area as being the house as it is now (dimensions aren't 100% correct yet, architect is coming to measure everything next week - costly + the downsides of having a really old house). In yellow are the proposed changes for the family (extension of the kitchen with some kind of garden room to the back and laundry room/stock to the side). In brown is the area reserved for the studio. I'm currenrtly collecting information about materials/prices and more importantly deciding on a system, but as it looks now I will be going for the Paul Woodlock (studiotips) way of building: two separate rooms, both completely floated on concrete, high TL, especially in 'my' (bass) register. What I really don't have a clue about for the moment is doors and window. I figured I probably need 3 doors: outside -> live room, outside -> control room, live room ->control room. Note that you could replace 'outside' by laundry room. I don't want any windows looking outside (my precious TL...), but I know I NEED a window between live and control - searching/thinking about that now. I'm free to choose ceiling height, and had these ideas about height: *) to have the studio floor flush to ground level (that means digging in to lay concrete subfloor + floating floor) *) to have about 2.50-2.70m/8'-9' free ceiling height with (at least in the control room) about 40cm/16" above for some serious bass trapping. Kind regards, Herwig