Studio Build in Central Portugal

[gullfo]

ah... very nice! you'd almost want to slice off some to decorate the drum section of the live room to bring some of the natural environment into your space... maybe just a heavy picture window to view it with some lighting on it would be a cool effect...

[OSC46]

Original idea if you see the drawing at the beginning of this thread was to use some of the granite blocks but in the end the space is just getting smaller and smaller and it is a bit complicated to do this with the natural stone. We will use it on the outside to make the building look like the old ruin though...
scott

[OSC46]

April 12th

Started off sunny but was cloudy but 15. The guys made good progress on the steel shuttering now that the steel was finished. The first 3m is almost done. Paul said they will try to shutter the entire thing instead of doing 2 pours. He said there is a lot of security work as you can’t have it leak or collapse as it would be a total disaster. He thinks they will pour it next week but if they have to wait for the concrete it is not a problem as all the bricks arrived today for the walls. 12 pallets!! 25cm wide and about 40 or 50 long. Did not measure it. Seems like way too many blocks. We will see. Still need the ones for the roof and the concrete beams for the roof as well. He says they are on schedule for finishing by May 12th, when they will come take the crane away. Got another bill from him to pay today. About 6000€ left to pay. Some rain the next 3 days so it will be slower work perhaps.

Tuesday April 13th

Raining on and off today. Guys did not show up until after lunch. Finished the supports on the back for the retaining wall. 3.5m x 11m…. Still some more steel on the top. They put the first blocks on the building today! They are huge. Special thermal bricks.

Weds April 14th

Made huge progress on the blocks. We had to move the window on the front that was now too close to the corner since we moved the building 1m away from the house. The bass trap would no longer fit. They did a great job.

Thursday April 15th

Wow.. walls are 2.5m wall now. They will be 3m in the front and 4.5m tall in the back. It looks like a big building now but I did some measurements on the inside and it is going to be a bit tight when bands are playing. The live room will be max about 4.8m wide and 6m long. Smaller than I had hoped and we will lose a few square meters in one of the corners for the storage room as well. I imagine that the drums will go in that smaller area near the control room window with the highest ceiling. It is so cool that I can really imagine what it will look like now.

Friday April 16th

The guys arrived a bit before 9 today.. normal time.. Paul said today they will pour the front pillars with cement and steel as well as the concrete at the top of the windows that will support the rest of the building on top. He is pretty sure they will pour the rear wall next week one way or another even if they can’t get metal shutters they are trying to find. They will do it with wood. They are used to do it this way for swimming pools. He is happy with the progress. We also discussed the granite for the side of the buildings and some landscaping ideas for the front..

Very happy with the progress..
Dr Space

[gullfo]

wow! they're progressing pretty nicely!

[OSC46]

Monday April 19th

Guys arrived a bit before 9. José had to deal with his car and would be coming after lunch. Metal shutters were supposed to come at 16 and did not. They removed the framing of the cement above the windows and door today. Looks good. Gil put up two more layers of bricks so we are up to 2.9m now in the front of the building and on one side. This will slope up to 4.5m in the back.

Cement for the back wall has been ordered in for thursday. They are supposed to get the metal shutters tonight at 19 and bring them tonight. Paul will look into the windows tomorrow. Had a talk with Joe and he clarified a few things but Paul still want to talk to him.

Tues April 20th

José did come with two other guys at 19 last night with the panels. They used the crane to unload them. Now for sure they will finish the framing of the back wall today.

Spoke to Joe and we agreed that the inner walls we will have a 5cm gap between the brick wall and the frames wall. The framed wall will be made with metal framing (5cm) with one layer of plasterboard on the brick facing side, filled with rock wool and two layers on the outside. The most outer layer damp resistant. This will make the walls about 13cm thick to give us a bit more room in the live room.

Windows will be normal double pained glass with reflective mirror on film for the exterior for all windows. All the internal windows will be normal double pained glass except the live and control room, which will be laminated inside to provide less sound reflection.

Weds April 21st

It was ok weather in the morning but the rain really picked up in the afternoon and they had to quit a bit early but they are ready for pouring the concrete tomorrow for the back wall. Just one small section they have to foam up and it is ready to go. Exciting. Only took a couple of pictures today.

Gear for the studio arrived today. Now I have all the 6 speakers for 5.1 and the surround monitor controller by SPL. Some headphones for people if they need them (AKG) and the 16 channel of ASP880 microphone pre-amps. Rated very highly and working well with the UAD system for giving clear, non-coloured sound.

Thurs April 22nd

Guys showed up at the normal time and did the bits they needed to for the right corner. Concrete was delayed until 14 (they did not actually come til 15) so they worked more on the walls and window sills. Starting to go up at an angle now. Anyway, sadly, they only got the first 6m3 of cement poured and it looked like the wall was starting to bulge or bend out tiny bit in the middle so Paul made the call to not pour the rest. The risk was too high. We may end up having to pay for the 6m3 of concrete in the 2nd truck if they could not find another job to use it on. Damn.. Anyway, the last cement in the tube they used next to the wall where they will put some of the old ruin stones. Progress but a bit of a set back as on Monday, they will have to take down the front wall panels and supports and start over completely to do it again, so this is a bit of a set back, perhaps 3-4 days of work. Not sure..

Friday April 23rd

Paul called the night before and said they had a change of plan and in order not too loose too many days, they would shore up the wall this morning and gently pour the rest of the cement 6m3 by hand. So they showed up at normal time and sure enough, worked their asses off and poured like 60 mixers of cement to get to the top of thee 3.5m wall. They worked super hard in the afternoon with no break between like 14-18.. We had a beer together afterwards. Wow.. Now they will let the wall set for 3 days and be back on Tuesday to remove the frames and see what the wall looks like. Paul says if the bulge is too much in the middle, they will have to shave some of the concrete back in order to make the wall straight enough. We just have to wait and see. I am very glad they did this as now, they will likely be able to finish all the walls next week and put the plasterboard into the building and start on the roof the week after.

April 27th

Guys showed up at 8:45 like normal. It was nice in the morning but it looked threatening rain all day with masses of black clouds around but in the end it hardly rained. Gil and José managed to get about half the panels off yesterday. It is a big job to disassemble the supports and all the screws, supports, ties, etc.. then you have to clean all the cement off the everything as well. It is quite clear now that the wall is far from straight. Not sure how they will deal with this but it for sure bends out quite a bit. Also appears to lean. We will see, when it is fully exposed tomorrow.

April 28th

Had a nice chat with Paul yesterday about his thoughts on the timing of some things with the building. I am trying to get Joules and Joe, in the loop of when we will need them to come and do the wiring in the walls. Paul figures next week they will finish all the walls and put in the vega for the roof. He will order up the plasterboard and put it inside the building before they do the roof. He figures they will have the roof and basic framed walls inside up by first week in June, if the weather is not interfering. So then Joules and Joe can come up and do the wiring in the open framed walls and then they can put the other 2 layers of plasterboard up.

April 29th

The guys did not show up until after lunch today and it was only Gil. Had an emergency pool repair. He managed to get all the framing off the back of the wall so I assume they will finish it and start to do the rest of the brick work on Friday.

April 30th

José has a bad shoulder so is slowed down quite a bit but they managed with Paul’s help to get all the metal shuttering off and the concrete cleaned off (big job). They swept and cleaned up the inside of the building and now are ready to finish the walls. Paul figures 3-4 days and all the walls will be done. He will look into the plasterboard on Monday while the guys do the walls. They lowered down some bricks so that they are ready to go.

I spoke to Joe about walls today as Joules and Joules is suggesting is to just attach the metal framed wall filled with rock wool to the brick wall. Then doing the wiring and put up the two layers of plasterboard. The inner layer will be the blue-green weather resistant type and the outer, normal plasterboard. I know this will not decouple the the live and entrance room from the building but Joules is planning to float and completely isolate the control room from the rest of the building. He says since I am on a budget and we have massive walls and the building is surrounded by granite on three sides, and your nearest neighbour is 300m away up the road behind the building, we don't need more isolation of sound. I have asked Stuart what he thinks, if this will compromise things too much, rather than do proper MSM or MAM walls as was originally planned. I will have a bit more floor space and it will be much easier for Paul (less labour) and cheaper for me.

May 3rd

We will have amazing weather all week so they should easily be able to get the bricks done this week. Doubt they can get the roof as well since it will rain for 3 days in the following week. We only have the crane until May 16th, I think.

May 4th

Paul was here for a few hours helping them yesterday and they managed to finish most of the side walls to about 3m and then add 2 layers of blocks on the huge concrete wall, which has to be blocked up to about 6m. They added some blue insulation to the outside of the building on the ruin side by the pool. There is not a lot of space in there. I am still not sure how they concrete and water seal that?? Anyway, he said they would trim the top of the ruin wall to match the height of the building roof and put tiles over the top of the ruin. This is great, then we don’t have to worry about water getting in on that side at all.

May 5th

They arrived about 11 today and started to continue on the back wall blocks. They have about 6 layers to go, I guess. I doubt they will finish all the walls today but for sure tomorrow. Paul got one quote for the plasterboard today. 6€ for the weatherproof and 4.8€ for the normal plasterboard. He estimates it is 110 boards and will take 10,000 screws!! He thinks he can get a better price at another place. They hope to get it delivered soon so then they can start on the roof.

[gullfo]

whoo hoo! fortress OSC!

[OSC46]

Indeed. This is going to be a hell of a solid building.. 80cm thick walls on the right and left sides. 30cm concrete wall with another 10cm of wall and insulation on the back. The front will be the least insulated and isolated but still quite thick...

[gullfo]

just need the machine guns and anti-aircraft stuff in the turrets

[OSC46]

May 6th

Guys arrived at normal time and Paul soon after. They have finished the walls now to the final height of where the roof will be. They still need to build the wall up to the top in the back but I guess they wait until they have the concrete roof pillars in place. They are going to pour the concrete pillars on the side in the middle of the building today and they have the 6cm blue insulation on the outside of the bricks, followed by the plastic protective vapour layer. Then we will have the 40cm granite blocks on the outside of that one the right and left sides. That is about 80cm of insulation and isolation. Paul was here working with the guys all day and painted the back of the concrete wall with the black waterproofing stuff.. They then poured a bunch of the small stones (britta) in the back for water drainage over the perforated tube that runs the length of the wall. We will leave this open and not fill it in completely.

Paul gave me a quote for all the materials for building the interior walls. 105 plasterboards (normal) 105 plasterboard- weatherproof, 10,000 screws, joists for the suspended ceiling. Everything has two layers of plasterboard including the ceiling which will need to have connection every 50cm due to the weight. This is going to cost 4300€. Includes all the framing materials and rock wool, tape, caulking, etc.. Paul said that the windows are perhaps the last thing they will put in. He had not idea when they will deliver them. They can take months some times.

May 7th

They had hoped to get all the tops of the walls framed to pour the cement for preparing the roof. They got pretty far though. they will finish on Monday and pour the tops.

May 10th

The guys were here until about 15 but it was raining 70% of the time just on and off all day and they finally decided to quit. They were cold and wet and it was windy and nasty.

May 11th

They got the round middle beam poured and all the framing around the top except the middle beam yesterday. I was away all day having a jam session with Martin.

May 12th

We had a real ordeal to start the day when all the materials for building the walls arrived about 8:30 but the driver refused to drive them down to the house. Paul had to call his boss and them him many other trucks this same size have come down already and it was possible. He finally after 45 mins convinced the driver to do it. Turns out the driver was terrible and knocked out part of our fence on our driveway, could not get the truck up the road so spent 30mins trying to figure out how to back around and in the end, he had to just drive down. Paul said he had not seen a guy this bad in a long time. All the other big trucks managed. Wow. It is an enormous amount of materials. Like 5 pallets of rock wool alone. It is threatening to rain now which is not good. At at least it is all wrapped in some small plastic cling film.

They stayed until nearly 19 last night and poured all the cement on the top of the walls and the central beam. Good job guys.

May 13th

The concrete beams will arrive today. They are moving and wrapping up all the materials as it looks to be raining quite soon for a few hours. They will move the rock wool pallets over to the pool patio area and cover it up with black plastic.

They plan to work on the stone wall of the studio nearest the house today as the crane is leaving on Monday or Tuesday next week and they need that to move these huge stones.

They should be able to get the concrete beams in place tomorrow and start to frame the walls again to cement them in place. By next week there will be roof on the studio. Wow…

[gullfo]

wow is right!

[OSC46]

A basic roof is on now..... Should more or less get completed this week... Exciting...

[gullfo]

this studio porn is rated XOXOXOXO!!!

[OSC46]

May 14th

I was surprised how fast it went yesterday. They got all the main beams up, supported them from underneath and put in the bricks for 85% of the roof! Wow.. They have to the beams in the front where there will be a 1m overhang in a different way but they put them more or less where they need to be, it was amazing to go inside the building now and you can an idea of what it will be like. Great work guys…

May 17-18th

The guys worked to rebuild the ruin wall on the side of the building closest to the house. It will go in several steps down. In the gaps about the stones they will make the caputo system of insulation and water protection

May 19th

Paul moved the huge pile of dirt with his digger and it looks quite good. They did the last bit of cement on the ruin wall closest to the house and started to tie the building into the other ruin wall. It is going to look great. Gil and José started to put up the supports inside the building for pouring the cement for the front roof beams.

May 20th

I am off to Denmark so I am not sure what they are doing but probably finishing up the supports and then they can put in the bricks and then pour the cement on the roof. They are going to leave a couple of gaps so that they can pour the cement for the final floor though those. Perhap Paul will start to move the rest of the stones in place to create a sort of walled area in front of the studio. There is still quite a bit of water inside the building. It is supposed to be 26C today so perhaps a lot of it will dry up. They should probably sweep it from the back to the front to help this process.

May 26th

They did not work on the 24th and I have been away for some days to Denmark to play a concert and visit my daughter. Anyway, today they are pouring the cement for the roof. They had cemented in the concrete beams for the 1m overhang last Friday and all the steel for the roof was put in place yesterday. 13 and they are half way done. The two guys are mixing all the cement and Paul is spreading it out. IT is good that the crane is still here as it would be a lot more work. I guess this will cure for a day or two and then they can put the blue insulation on the roof and then the tiles. It is only the insulation and copouto. on the outside to be done after that and paint the building. The windows and door will be some of the last stuff done. I think Paul will even start to frame the walls inside before they are put in. Need to reach Joules.

May 28th

They just let the concrete settle for another day so did not come yesterday. I watered the roof in the evening and again in the morning on the 27th. It was quite hazy and not that hot so that was good. A nice slow cure.. No cracks. The crane is still hear and Paul is not sure when they come to get it so they used it a lot to day to move all the support pillars out of the inside as well as the clamps, wood, etc.. there is only the building materials inside and some scaffold now. I will shoot a new video soon. Looks great. They will take most of the next week off.

[gullfo]

[OSC46]

June 4th

I messaged with Joules and he is going to come next Weds for a meeting about the studio. This is great news as I have a lot of questions for him and I will make sure I get answers this time!! I hope they will come in July at the latest. We will see… Exciting. Thanks Joules…

June 8th

The guys showed up and pretty much just built the wall and steps yesterday in front of the studio. Great work.

June 9th

Guys are starting to work on the copouto on the front of the studio now and Paul has started to frame the interior walls. There are quite some questions about the windows though.. hot today…
Joules and Susan showed up at about 15:15 or so. Since Joe is still in England, Joules has a new partner for now. We discussed a lot of stuff and they were very impressed with the building and location and views.

We agree for three of the walls of the studio we will have the following:

12 XLR sends, 2 XLR returns
6 LRS plug lines (shielded)
USB plugs that can also send midi
HDMI
CAT6-7-8 cable
6 electricity plugs
4 headphone inputs (Consider combining headphones with the XLR returns instead, maybe keep 6 returns, but 2 xlr and 4 jack for headphones. 

Paul will put two electrical outlet ports on each wall running 25mm tubes for the electricity cables in the walls and put all the rock wool and plaster board up. They will just cut holes where they need to for the custom printed boxes for the XLR cables, etc..

As for the control room, we will for sure flush mount all the speakers, including the rear speakers. Only the subwoofer will be on the floor in front of the mixing desk. They will build a custom mixing desk with the patch bay and all the rack gear. IT will sit low with out having anything obscuring the hearing line from the front speakers.

We talked about the HVAC system and this will be ducted with like 30cm ducts so we can have a flow rate of 10L/sec exchange. This should be plenty of fresh air and can maintain the temperature well. This will all be in the ceiling about the entrance and control room. Entrance room will have a ceiling of about 2.6m and the control room 3m. They will put a like control hatch so you can have access to the HVAC and cables if there is ever a problem. Smart.

Suspended ceiling will be 30cm. Filled with rock wool. We will pretty much only run the electricity for the lighting and the one microphone that I want to hang from the centre of the room.

We agreed to put the main electrical box inside the storage room in the live room. The other electrical box (HVAC, fridge, etc.. can be in the main entrance.

Both Joules and Suse thought that it would be an excellent live room and would not require a lot of acoustic treatment since we have a lot of non-parallel walls and a high ceiling. We will do all the proper measurements and see though. They will make some adjustable gobo’s as well so that we can adjust the acoustics of the room if we want to. Smart!

As for the time line, it appears Joules and Suse will not work for 5-6 weeks straight (estimated time it will take) but will come for 7 days at a time, perhaps 2 weeks max and then go back and forth between this big job they have in Lisboa. That will work for us. Paul will have all the walls framed in about 2 weeks.

Very excited now..

June 10th

Holiday

June 11th

Guys are working more on the copouto. Paul is working on the framing of the walls. Some progress was made but they did not show up until 11 and Paul not until about 15. Progress is super slow the last few weeks.

June 14th

Only Paul and he showed up around 9:30 and worked until about 15, working on framing the walls. We spoke about how it was very important that this get done as soon as possible so that if and when Joules shows up there are no delays. He agreed. I hope they can get it all done and the floor poured next week.

June 15th

Almost finished the framing of the walls and put some of the tubes in yesterday. Wow.. It was really hot, over 30C in the shade so they were glad to be working inside.

June 16th

The guys finished the first layer of the outside of the building with the white insulation. Next is a sort of mesh and then plaster and then 2 layers of paint. They will finish the perimeter framing today and putting in the tubes for the wires (25mm) and 20mm for data and electricity. Then they can start to fill the walls with rock wool. They will have to cut them to fit the 38cm gaps. Plan is to put in the first layer of plasterboard and the internal walls and then they can pour the final concrete floor.

June 17th

Paul did the plasterboard around the windows and this looks great. They will only be here half day tomorrow.