North wall. If you look closely, you can see some old insulation batts above the top plate. Now, they are sort of trapped in there by the top plate – not good. We’re probably going to remove small sections of the top plate, reach in and remove the old batts, and then blow in as much cellulose insulation as we can pack in there, thus filling the airspace completely as opposed to having a bunch of loose batts floating around in the open airspace above the plate.
South wall frame (control room). The interior wall will get two layers of drywall with Green Glue in between. The exterior wall will get QuietRock 525. Finally, on the furnace area portion of the exterior wall, I’ll add a layer of ¾” plywood salvaged from some shelves I took down from the north wall before starting this project. The inside of the frame will get packed with blown cellulose.
Dividing wall picture taken from SW corner of iso. The window will be 2' by 4'. The current plan is to put one layer of QuietRock 525 on each side of this wall, with blown cellulose in between.
how are you attaching the studs to the foundation wall? Is there a small void between that back of the studs and the foundation wall?
will there be any issues with the stud wall along the foundation wall "vibrating"?
Looks like there’s not much space, if any, between the studs and the brick wall. There’ll be blown cellulose between those studs and above the plate – as much as I can possibly pack in there. There’s only going to be one layer of regular 5/8” drywall over those studs (seeing as it’s a basement wall and all). At the moment, I’m looking into getting some used office cube panels that would cover the majority of the space on a bunch of the walls but especially that one (that’s the north wall). These office cube divider panels are big and very heavy – feels like ¾” plywood with a thin layer of mineral fiber on each side, covered with a burlap-like grey cloth. If I get a bunch of these and throw them up over the drywall, that will mean a ton (almost literally) of extra mass – if that happens, then I think that wall resonation will pretty much be a non-issue. I’m still waiting for pricing on the used office cube panels. They’re in great shape and they look great too.
I've had my eye on those partions too, for conversion to gobos around drums - wanna arm-wrestle for 'em? <g>
According to Rod's book (pg. 221) a little space is desirable between the walls and the foundation.
Hi, James!
Peace and Groove,
Thump
South wall of Iso. Note the new staircase. This will eventually be entirely walled off; left turn will be the only option when you get to the bottom of the stairs.
My whole studio cost less than what you would have charged me for new stairs. :twisted:
What I really wanted was a fireman's pole / batcave lookin' thing anyway. :wink:
all that room for an amp iso booth...I bet his amp goes to 11
Wiring coming soon? Looks like most of the framing is completed?
what kind of floor did you go with again? hdwd right?
Yea, those stairs are very slightly angled down all right. They had to do it that way to satisfy some building code related to the distance between the last step and the wall. I know, that sounds really weird. I’ll find out more tomorrow.
Some HVAC work is next. Still some framing yet to go. I don’t think that the stair frame is going to be part of the outside supporting wall. I’ll be clarifying that tomorrow. Yikes, I should know these things.
The floor will be a snap-together oak veneer made by Bruce. It’ll be stuck on top of a moisture barrier with some kind of acoustical layer in there. I might be pouring in some resin over the concrete to level the floor, but it’s pretty level already, so maybe, maybe not.
Code minimum is 36" from the bottom tread/riser intersection to any wall / door, Finish to Finish. If no permit is pulled then you can do whatever you want. The best way to tip a stair into it's opening is to make the stair just shy of the total rise Finish to Finish and tip it "up" so the tread ends point down. If you tip the stair the other way, you'll always catch yourself scraping the tips of your shoes going up the stair, or even tripping up the stair. It won't feel right when you walk it. a general tip of roughly 1/32" heavy per tread is a good rule of thumb.
resin will definitely help "fill in" any voids and slumps and make the hdwd install look and go in much better.
So you're saying that it‘s good to have the steps tilt a bit like that? Our local inspector didn’t stop by – he told contractor to do the best he could and then just send him a picture for the files – looks like we got a waiver or something.
I’ll remember what you said about the floor. It’s pretty flat, so it shouldn’t take much fluid to even things out 100%.
a nose tip down is o.k. No more than 1/16" per tread isn't to noticeable, both visually or walking wise.
Most likely got a pass on the stairs because the contractor made them no worse OR slightly improved the rise and run that existed. Also probably because there is no other way to get the flight to meet code due to existing framing conditions...he may be able to subtlety improve headroom at the bottom of the flight if he "splays" the header a bit......
can't wait to hear the recordings out of this room...
The new stairs feel 100% better than the old ones. I always figured I'd break a hip on the old ones - the beginning of the end as they say. Now it's like I have a new lease on life. Those old stairs were freaking treacherous man. My dog even fell down 'em a few times.
Here are some ductwork ‘before’ shots. HVAC mods start tomorrow. There aren’t going to be a lot of changes. Basically, we’re just replacing stuff that rattles with stuff that doesn’t rattle, snuggling those big ducts up against the joists in preparation for building a soffit around them, and rerouting the control room supply through a small plenum and then into a new duct positioned down by the floor (the vent is currently on a ceiling duct now as you can see.
The iso room isn’t getting a vent. I’ll be putting some electric baseboard heaters in there.
I have base board heaters in my studio...they suck power big time and are either on or off so, its either too hot or too cold in these WI winters.
You should not have too much problem though...just leave your control room door open when not tracking.
Paul
I second Paul's concern about electric baseboard heat. There's a very cool product from Canada that goes right under the hdwd like a matt that provides infloor heat and is very efficient in terms of electricity use. They have distributors in the U.S....
the product is called Nuheat..here's a link:
http://www.nuheat.com/home.html
Just to toss another viewpoint in re: baseboard heating.
A friend of mine owns a studio somewhere between Milwaukee and Racine, and he's completley satisfied with his results using 6 6' baseboards (240v) in a well insulated building. I've been looking at this option myself to heat my garage which has R13 in the walls and will have R32 in the ceiling after I install it. Since I'm keeping the original concrete a NuHeat-type system wouldn't work for me. Anyone have any suggestions?
(I'll be happy to start a new thread in Studio Design if this is too much of a hijack)
Peace and Groove,
Thump
what about a hydronic baseboard system. just a fancy name for water based baseboard heat..might be an option?
check this site out for other alternatives to plain old baseboard heat.
http://www.hydronicalternatives.com