Bonehead Studio new basement build

Hi All - I know most of you but I'm afraid you don't know me :D cuz i've been lurking and learning here for quite a while. I had a few posts on the design side where John was kind enough to comment on my (probably) boring build. I'm a little hesitant to post my progress here because it surely is not as sexy and aggressive as Lou's concrete, Kathys Barn and a few others that i've been following. I must say that they are all quite impressive in some manner and i do learn something every lunch break i spend on this site. thanks to everyone. I'm posting my project here for comments from the pros (obviously) and maybe hook up with some of you who appear to be in the general locality of me. I AM NOT A BUILDER - or a CARPENTER. I play guitar and work a PC and i write music. I AM A HACK when it comes to building - i have no patience for it. So some of you may roll your eyes or even choose not to spend time on my post - that's cool. But i would appreciate some constructive comments on what i am doing. So, the back ground is my wife and I owned our first home for 18 years where i split the basement into a couple of recording rooms/bar/theatre space and recorded a bunch of bands, made a little bit of money and bought more gear...etc (pretty common story). At the end of last year, my drummer friend learned that we always wanted a log home and mentioned it to his wife - Lorrie the Realtor. Long story short, we sold our very comfortable home and took the leap into our dream home just 20 minutes more north (central Connecticut) - an 1800 sq foot 1/2 log - 1/2 post n beam home on 2.8 acres with every bit of seclusion a recording musician can ask for. We moved in April 16 (during a bizarre blizzard!). The new basement is approx 30ft long and 16ft wide with a 86" ceiling from floor to bottom of (main floor) floor joists. It is smaller than the old basement because of a very large crawl space (5ft ceiling) that will eventually be used for guitar cabinet mic'ing and storage. The foundation is poured concrete with 10" thick walls and walks out to a brick patio - nice studio entrance. The two main challenges with this build is to make a comfortable space for a cheap as possible (the new mortgage is considerably higher than the last). Isolation between the two rooms is important to me but obviously the outside world is not an issue. The noise transmission level between floors is minor. The layout of the house puts the master bedroom suite very far and distant from the music area. Without any sound treatment at all, i was blaring guitars at 1am while my wife slept soundly two flights up and over the garage. I pumped tunes through the PA and walked around the perimiter of the house at 1am and the bleed (through walls and windows) was minor. The immediate room above the studio area will be the victim of some loud music but not really a concern in our house (my wife is the best - which is far more important than any sound treatment concept known to man). Let's start w/ pics - i didn't realize i have to post them backwards in order to present them in a cronological fashion - i'm a newb also - i guess i can only post 6 pics at a time? i'll add to this post in a second

as a comment: you'd almost want to swap the live and CR rooms so you can make the CR more symmetrical and expanding rather than contracting as you have it. also the access to the live space would have several doors and such to make moving things in and out easier and not through the CR...

and when i put a file comment with my pic, it does show up on my post :cry: I sealed the inside of the foundation with my Wagner sprayer. The log home was built in 1980 (Red Pine logs - New England Log Homes - now out of business- provided the kit) and the Post n Beam addition was built in 1996. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO evidence of moisture in the basement. We had 4 days of down-pour in late May and not a drop from any wall or floor. I only used the sealer for the dust and stuff like that. I built a 2x4 wall and allowed for a double pane glass window from a slider door set that i brought with me from the old house. i had a few of these glass windows that i used in the old studio. They are 74" x 34" x 1.5" thick - i plan to double up the walls in between LR and CR and double these windows back to back. I decoupled the wall from the ceiling joists using common exhaust pipe hangers from my local Auto Parts store. i bought a box of 50 for $80 and i bend them how i need them. The plan is to use these where i can but i'm not going to get too crazy. Large surfaces like this wall that will send sound directly upstairs is a good place to try and seperate the two surfaces. (i'll be blasted for sure on this statement :)

so, - moving along. As you can see from some of the dates on the pics - i started getting busy in June of this year. Understanding how much OC 703 and 705 costs (from this Forum) i was not in a financial position to just buy cases of it. At the time when we moved into the house, my office was also in the process of down-sizing and moving as well. I consider myself an opportunist :) and rented a truck and grabbed about 60 of the office cubicle walls that were going to be dumped in the trash. Follow me on this; the office cube walls are aluminum (black) framed panels with a 3/16" solid piece of fiber board trapped in the center - siliconed into a channel. On either side is 1" thick rigid fiberglass and then it's wrapped in a durable, breathable gray fabric. Bases on what i've learned here, these are pretty ideal for sound absorption and they look pretty good! Sizes of the panels are 2 1/4" thick x 48" high and a variation of widths (24",30",42" and 48"). There are 6ft tall panels as well in the same widths. Realize that i could not be choosey and i just grabbed what they were giving - so the sizes i have are random - but i have a ton of this stuff. I framesd the panels with 2x3's and attached them to 2x4's that are Hilti'd flat to the walls. I sealed the 2x4's to the walls - ran some electrical back there and layed out the widths to best fit the room. On the floor i used Dricore - so far the largest expense. 1/3 of the floor done and about $500 in Dricor. On the Ceiling i used the office panels, framed in 1x3 pine and screwed directly to the ceiling joists. I thought about using the exhaust hangers but couldn't concieve a strong enough method. So, there will be some transmission through the screws/panels to the upstairs. But again, she's cool about it 8) also note that i still carry on rehearsals, jams and drunken gatherings amongst the build. Sometimes i find myself with a screw gun in my hand while balancing on a Marshall cab to attach something to the ceiling. Again, I HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR THIS STUFF~! haha thanks for reading, that's all i got right now - i need to do some of my real job now! feel free to blast me - that's why we are all here. Take Care Bonehead More pics

Gulfo - no disrespect. i didn't realize you posted in between my babble. Man you drew that quick! I tossed the ideas back n forth - trying to decide which side should be the live room and which to have the CR and decided on this approach for a couple of (probably) stupid reasons. But the result is a symetric CR (no?) -extending 12ft from the glass behind the listening position and then i have some options whether i will close it in there or have sliding panels / doors...etc

my main concern was the walls becoming narrower instead of wider in the CR - this can cause unnecessary reflections back to your mix position normally you want the walls to expand away to alter the reflection path and/or time domain of the reflections. i like the cubicle absorbers! nice neat work!

hmmm, yea - i understand what you're saying - surprised that didn't come up on the design side of the Forum. i'm only nearing the completion of the LR and will (although i've already started down this path) will take a look at my options. i can't imagine much reflections with these panels though - it's all part of the learning process , i guess. thanks for the comment/explaination - i'll keep in the front of my mind.