On Purpose Productions detached garage studio

[onpurposeproductions]

looking good

Hey, thanks John!

More pics and descrips;

Pics 1&2 - Just yesterday I cut out and built an attic access door in the gable end (access from exterior) for servicing the HRV. It still needs to be painted, weatherstripped, trimmed and caulked on the outside and a doorstop on the inside. Having the access point in the gable end means I don't have to penetrate my layers of soundproofing

Pics 3&4 - This is the design of the silencer box that I'll likely be building very soon. I would build two, putting one on each port in the live room. The second pic attempts to show how I plan to position them. Half of the trap is above the outer leaf with the flexduct attaching directly into the side. The bottom would be flush with the lower edge of the inner ceiling studs so that the finish drywall would actually go right up against the bottom of the trap. The dimensions of the trap makes a 14"x14" square which allows it to sit in between the 16"OC inner ceiling studs without touching them. I'll likely use 1/2" OSB for the outside of the box and 5/8" duct liner covering the inside.

Honestly, I've wondered whether I actually need the silencers or not. The flexduct isn't going to carry sound well at all and there is quite a bit of length with many bends as it is. And of course, adding the silencer would really increase the restriction of air flow which may result in the HRV having to switch to its 'high' speed. I'm not really concerned with leakage from the live room to the control room but rather leakage from the live room outside. But I just don't know....Any thoughts?

[onpurposeproductions]

pics and descrips (sorry for the blurry pics );

1. I Installed a flexible conduit (FlexPlus Blue ENT) through the soffit on the exterior, through the attic space and ending at what will be my equipment room. This conduit is for the cable company to run their coaxial line into the studio for phone and internet.

2. I completed the attic access door.

3-5. I built the duct silencer boxes using 1/2" OSB and 1/2" duct liner.

[onpurposeproductions]

and more.....

1. I temporarily installed one of the silencers and powered up the HRV to test airflow. True to what I've heard, the HRV is essentially silent when on its low speed. And I was really happy with the velocity of flow on the exhaust port, which is what I hooked the silencer up to.

I think I might wrap the silencers in 2 layers of drywall on all sides once they're fully installed. That should minimize sound traveling through the walls of the silencer into the attic, and out to my neighbors.

2. I got the 13 sheets of OSB and 26 sheets of drywall required to close in the ceiling. That's going to be a lot of work and it starts in about 5 minutes!!

[petrovinksy]

Looking Good. where did you buy the duct liner from?? I having trouble finding it.

[onpurposeproductions]

Looking Good. where did you buy the duct liner from?? I having trouble finding it.

North York Plumbing & Heating in Aurora. They have 4' wide rolls of 1/2" and 1" in their shop for their own use. I don't think they usually sell it to the public. They charged me $2.00 per square foot and I needed 12.

I'm sure one of the larger plumbing and heating shops in Hamilton should have some.....

[onpurposeproductions]

moving right along.....

Pic 1. The OSB starts going in. I tried to make my cuts a tight fit so I often had to use a planer shave edges here and there.

Pic 2. Since I was a one-man crew putting up the OSB I put together this simple frame to hold up one end of the sheet while I held and screwed the other. Worked like a charm!

Pic 3. Gettin' there. I sanded down the edges of the duct cut-outs and wrapped them in aluminum tape to protect the flex duct.

Pic 4. I ended up covering the portion of the silencers that would be above my outer leaf with one layer of drywall.

Pic 5. Once the OSB was up I caulked around the bottom edge with acoustical caulk.

Pic 6. Done!

I wasn't planning on caulking any of this layer but there are a few large gaps that I'll probably fill with some backer rod and caulk before starting on the drywall layers.

One thing I really noticed while closing in the ceiling was how hot it gets in the attic when the sun is out. WOW! It made me wonder whether I should be adding a couple more vents in the outermost layer of the ceiling. There's only one currently for the just under 400 sq ft garage....I mean....studio I'll possibly add these from the outside the first time the shingles are replaced.

That also made me wonder how much coolness will be lost through the run of refrigerant pipe that runs approx. 15 ft. through the attic? Although it is wrapped in an insulator...

[NativeLuv17]

Looks great, Im in the same process of putting my OSB up now too, and cutting around those damn trusses, sure does get hot up there huh? Loving the silencer too, u have inspired me to do my own, great work.

[onpurposeproductions]

Hey Luv,

Thanks a lot for the kind words. I've read through your thread as well - you've got an amazing space and I dig your layout. I had really been hoping for a space more that size but compromised in order to stay within town. Ultimately I feel incredibly blessed with what I've got.

Yeah - cutting that OSB to fit snug between the studs was fun! Are you working mostly by yourself as well?

Actually, In cutting the OSB I encountered my first consequence of buying cheap tools (I noticed you have a sweet Dewalt miter saw). My Ryobi 7.5" handheld circular saw started going all wobbly during cuts making it impossible to cut a straight edge. I've only had it since Christmas! I had to switch to my Ryobi jigsaw (also the cheapest I could get ) about 1/3 the way through the job. Oh well.....you do what you can.

[onpurposeproductions]

Question:

While closing in my ceiling and feeling how hot it gets up in the attic when the sun is out I started thinking about the wisdom of my mini split refrigerant lines running through the attic. It seems that in the summer I'll be running my refrigerant through an oven to get to the air handler unit and in the winter the pipes might be freezing....

Its possible to still pull them down at this point and I could probably run them within the 1" gap between my outer and inner leaf ceilings. In that case the insulated sleeves would be compressed a bit between each leaf but I'd think that would be fine.

Any thoughts?

[NativeLuv17]

Hey Onpurp,

I'm pretty much working by myself as you are, not too fun when its comes to getting those sheets up there. I'm actually in the same boat you are, since the dewalt only cuts about 12" across, so all mine have been done with the circular saw as well, ill tell you what tho, I went through 4 reciprocating saws just trying to tear the floor up!! Not too mention the dewalt is on loan from my uncle. But again the place looks great, maybe you can give me some pointers if i get caught in a bind.

Keep those pics coming!!

Ian

[onpurposeproductions]

maybe you can give me some pointers if i get caught in a bind.

I certainly will if I can. I'm Greg by the way.

[John Sayers]

Nice work Greg - and I thank you for sharing your experiences building that damn studio .

cheers
john

[onpurposeproductions]

Those are damn kind words John! Although it was Ian who brought out the 'damn'

I'm actually considering a significant change to my layout. I've been really concerned that the control room is going to feel cramped and tiny. I've been wondering whether I should do away with the small room to the right of my mix position which was to be my equipment room. This would allow me an extra 2 feet of width in the control room.

In this case I would use the one remaining closet as my equipment/mic/everything else closet. I'd probably have just enough room to get behind the equipment rack in that little closet...

However, this brings the width and length dimensions of the CR really close to square, even though the walls are angled and I plan on building a large cloud panel above the console that will effectively angle that part of the ceiling.

I've been mulling this over for quite some time and I'm really torn. Framing isn't far off so I've got to make a decision!

[Soundman2020]

I plan on building a large cloud panel above the console that will effectively angle that part of the ceiling.

The cloud won't change the room ratio, though! The dimensions of the room for figuring your ratio are taken from the finished interior hard surfaces of the walls. IE, from the inner leaf walls, floor and ceiling. Not from any acoustic treatment that you might have attached of those. The reason is because room modes are related to the standing waves that form between those boundary surfaces, and the most important (most detrimental) waves are low frequency waves, which implies long wavelengths. Waves are not affected much by objects that are smaller than the wavelength, and the waves just "wrap" around those relatively small objects. At the low end, wavelengths are around 1.7 to 17 meters. So anything smaller than that just isn't really visible to the wave, which includes most types of acoustic treatment. A cloud isn't really big enough (in terms of relationship to wavelengths) to have much effect on room modes. It does absorb mids and highs, though, which is what you want it to do. But it does not change your room dimensions.

- Stuart -

[Soundman2020]

However, this brings the width and length dimensions of the CR really close to square, even though the walls are angled

Try nudging the walls a bit, here and there, until you get close to a good ratio, then stick with that. You could slide over the let hand wall of your CR towards the right just a little, to improve your ratio and get you more space in both your LR and your rack closet.

You could also move that wall between your rack closet and live room up the page a little, to give you more room in there. From decades of personal experience designing and installing video post facilities, I can tell you that you do NOT want to have a rack where there is barely enough room behind it to stand up behind it!!! Give yourself plenty of room behind the rack, or cabling it will be a nightmare. Also, do yourself a huge favor, and permanently install a couple of long strip lights (tubes) vertically up the corners behind the rack, to give you plenty of light while you work there. Get the kind that has both a transparent plastic cover and also a metal mesh grill over the front, so you don't break them while moving around... I learned that trick from the smartest video engineer I ever met, many years ago.

And don't forget to allow for HVAC in that rack closet! Real small space, lots of equipment.... Heat will build real fast in there.

- Stuart -