Basement studio in West Virginia: build diary

[britune]

Let me clarify. I do not have any duct liner board. It is just Owens Corning 703 rigid fiberglass, that is 1" thick. I put it inside my HVAC silencers. I wrapped it in thin, Hefty trash bag plastic, so the fibers would not become airborne.

Should I cut the plastic off, before it's too late?

[Soundman2020]

Yeah, I would get rid of the plastic. The 703 by itself should work just fine as is.

If you look at other silencer build threads on the forum you'll see that almost everyone uses just plain 703. The just install filters at the ends of the ducts (and clean them every now and then!) if you are concerned about airborne fibers.

[xSpace]

Rod gave some interesting input on this subject design concern :

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 959#p70959

This one seems to speak directly to the back pressure potential created with installing a filter:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 61&start=0

This one should be stickified:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 42&start=0

[Soundman2020]

This one seems to speak directly to the back pressure potential created with installing a filter:

Actually, it seems to be about a an issue with the poor design of a plenum, not really a filter.

What Rod said there about back pressure is: "Then there is this issue with back pressure created in the air supply duct that is trying to turn a 90 degree corner at the end of a duct run in a 1 1/2" space - which will cause tremendous buffeting at that point and a very large reduction in air flow........ ". There is no filter mentioned in that system. It looks like the issue there is the tight 90! bend, and the very thin air space in the plenum.

But point taken: I guess a filter could increase back pressure a bit, but I doubt it would be a problem, especially if you place it right at the outlet grill, where there is more cross sectional area. Of course, if you don't clean / replace the filters regularly, then you'd certainly have a back pressure problem, sooner or later!

[xSpace]

In your defense, I did look for threads with this setup you talked about with the new and improved search routine.

I just could not locate any and didn't know if this idea had been blessed, so to speak.

[britune]

Here are the latest pictures. I will have to rebuild my HVAC silencers without the plastic on the rigid fiberglass. I did finish the electrical wiring and electrical boxes for the lights. The insulation has begun. I did find out that Lowes sold me WAY too much insulation, and I was able to take most of it back and get a refund.

I finally can take a couple days off work to work on the studio project some.

[Soundman2020]

Two comments:

1) Light boxes: So your lights are coming through your drywall? Don't forget to make up for the lost mass all around the box, and caulk everything very tight. And also be careful about overheating, since there will be no airflow past those lights at all. Maybe use LED lights or something similar in there that doesn't get hot.

2) Mic in the bathroom: Cool idea! Mini reverb chamber? "Live" iso booth? I hadn't thought of doing that, but it makes sense! I might "borrow" your idea, if you don't mind, and run mic cables all over the place, to unlikely locations around the house.... Thanks!



- Stuart -

[britune]

Do I have options where my lights don't come through my drywall? Could I hang lights without a junction box above and just have an electrical wire coming through the drywall into the small metal box that is part of the light fixture?

[NativeLuv17]

If you are going to be using clouds for treatment, why not just incorporate them into those?

[britune]

Unfortunately, my ceilings are too low for clouds. I will have to treat the overhead first reflection points from the monitors. This will be have to be done very tight to the ceiling.

[britune]

I spent most of the last two days building new silencers that are made out of 19/32" OSB, instead of the 7/16" OSB I was using. I also made the chambers longer and added another baffle layer. After reading some of the posts that Brien (xSpace) linked to, I wasn't happy with my first set of silencers. I will not wrap the 703 in plastic this time, as per Soundman2020's recomendation. The thicker OSB seems to be working much better and should hold in more sound.

In making the silencers, I have been glueing the boards and then screwing them together. I think that could be the name of my next album, "Screwed & Glued".

The contractors, John & Butch, have finished hanging drywall in the hallway outside the studio rooms. The 5/8" drywall for the studio rooms arrives Tuesday.

I posted a picture below of the ceiling lights I'm considering getting for the control room. They use GU10 halogen bulbs. I think there is also a GU10 LED bulb that could be bought for this fixture.

[xSpace]

I live around a bunch of rednecks, so I had to modify the saying they used to make it more, shall we say, contemporary?

Screwed, glued and tattooed!


That's the way we like it

Feel free to use that.

[britune]

I worked on the studio Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I built new HVAC silencers and did some electrical wiring work. I'll post pictures Monday. But more importantly, the WVU Mountaineers are in the Final Four! It is my ultimate sports dream that WVU would win a national championship in football or basketball. GO EERS!

[britune]

As I was rebuilding the new HVAC silencers this weekend, I realized that I didn't have enough 1" OC 703 rigid fiberglass. The closest place to get more was a 2 hour drive away and closed on the weekends. I had to get these done before Monday.

So after I paniced, I realized that I have loads of 2" 703. If I could just find a way to rip the 2" into two 1" pieces. After calling my Dad and brothers, my brother Brad had a sword that he sharpened and let me use. So I ripped a 2x8 into two 1" pieces and mounted them on a sheet of OSB on sawhorses. One of my daughters held the 703 down in the rig while I cut it with the sword. It was a little rough where it was cut, but it worked well. I put the cut piece on the glued side, where no fibers can get out.

After that, all 3 girls had to get their picture taken with the sword.

[britune]

So now I had enough rigid fiberglass to complete the silencers, which I did by Sunday night.

I can't believe I spent about 6 days building silencers!