On Purpose Productions detached garage studio

[onpurposeproductions]

Well the sliding glass door issue worked itself out! When I told the guy that $2300 was really stretching my budget and I'd have to figure out what I'd like to do he called me back and said he'd run a quote through another supplier who he expected to be far less expensive. He came back with a quote for $1412 plus tax for a solid wood vinyl-clad frame, double glazed thermal unit with each pane being 6mm laminated.

Seems slightly suspicious. Whether they just thought they could get more money out of me or this other supplier is truly that much more affordable I don't know, but the specs are right and the door is ordered.

I also finally ordered the glass for all my windows. Each window gets a pane of 15mm and a pane of 12mm laminated glass with about 6 inches between them. The guy actually said he could drop it off at my house for no extra charge because I'm actually right between where he lives and his shop. Nice! Should be ready in 1-2 weeks.

I finished up the window jams and stained the portions that will be between the two panes. And also stained the new thresholds - oak for the two entry doors and pine for the interior thresholds. I'm not sure how the interior thresholds will look next to the flooring I've chosen - we'll see.

For electrical I ran all the cables and installed the boxes and I'm currently waiting for the electrician to get out and connect everything up. We ended up running a 3 conductor Romex wire for each outlet to achieve the isolated grounding. Apparently the local authority prefers this method over using standard 2 conductor wire plus a separate insulated ground cable when going for an isolated ground.

[onpurposeproductions]

I wasn't going to install my audio runs until after the electrical was inspected but since I'm waiting on my electrician I've decided to move ahead.

I was going to run conduit up the wall at the front of the CR and then through the 2x6 ceiling joists to my equipment room. I needed to put in at least 1 1/2" conduit in order to fit a DigiLink connector through (the largest connector going through). So I bought all the stuff and then found that the 90s were just too big to go in like I had planned

I could use plumbing piping instead with the small hard-turn 90s (I don't think the electrical inspector is going to be at all concerned with that) but then I may not be able to fish cables through in the future - and that's really the only reason I want to use conduit at all.

I might just run all of my expected cabling through the ceiling joists without any conduit and then put in an empty plumbing conduit run with those hard 90s for the possibility of future runs. But in order to actually be able to fish cables through I might not be able to run them to the ideal locations - I might have to have the conduit exit at the ceiling and then have any cables run down the wall (exposed) to my desk.

[petrovinksy]

lol, "another supplier".

So you will be grounding the 3rd conductor to the outlet and the bare ground to the box?

[onpurposeproductions]

So you will be grounding the 3rd conductor to the outlet and the bare ground to the box?

Exactly.

[onpurposeproductions]

An update is much overdue. I passed the electrical inspection without issue and got straight to work installing all remaining cable runs and putty pads.

Pics 1&2 show the pads installed. I left the front portion of the boxes unputtied in order to have a surface to tape the vapor barrier to when it goes in. Hopefully the drywall will but right up against the putty.

Pic 3 shows a 500' roll of 14-gauge in-wall rated twisted pair to be used for 5.1 speakers in CR as well as 2 speakers in the LR for talent listen-back.

Pics 4&5 show the cable runs in the equipment closet - speaker cables come out the box on the far right, all other connectivity in the middle and a CAT5e ethernet port that will connect to a port in the CR on the far left (to network my iMac with my G5).

Pic 6 shows the CR side of the cable runs (except ethernet)

[onpurposeproductions]

More;

Pics 1&2 show the cable runs from the equipment closet to the CR. I couldn't get conduit to make the 90 degree turn up into the ceiling that was large enough to fit the connectors through so I did without. Its worth noting that I'm REALLY glad that I used 2x6s for the CR ceiling joists - everything that I've run in the ceiling is above the lower 3" of the joist which means my insulation can sit nicely below everything.

Pics 3-6 show the empty 'future-proofing' conduit run. It comes out in the ceiling of the CR which means if I need to run anything in the future I'll have to run the cable down the wall exposed for all to see! I couldn't see any way round this.

[onpurposeproductions]

BTW - the cable boxes in the previous pics will also get putty pads (in case you were worried )

Pic 1 shows the XLR main monitor feeds - haven't settled yet on what my mains will be - quite possible JBL LSR4328p but we'll see.

Pic 2 shows the back of the two LR mic panels with putty

Pic 3 shows the two CR 20 amp boxes for everything that will go in my desk racks. 3 of my 10 electrical outlets were 20 amp runs - the other went in the equipment closet along with a standard 15 amp.

Pic 4 shows the mic panel in the booth

Pic 5 shows one of the 5.1 speaker boxes. These are going to be Totem Dreamcatcher speakers (I've got 11 of them and two matching subs!)

Pic 6 shows the front of one of the two LR mic panels. The other has 4 XLR and 4 TRS. You can see the first layer of drywall in the background - 44 sheets ready to go!

[onpurposeproductions]

and a couple more...I took the pics so why not post them....

Pic 1 shows the final conduit run from the outside soffit - the cable company came and ran a coaxial cable as well as a phone cable through here from their box on the side of the house. I had hoped to set up a second wireless network in the studio but as it turns out I'd have to pay for a second account to do that - not cool. So they ran these lines and I'll have to bring my modem and router out to the studio to set up wireless out there (moving it back and forth from the house). That's obviously not cool either so I also ran my own 100' ethernet cable from the wireless router in the house through this conduit which will terminate in a wall outlet so I can connect at least one computer - this will probably be sufficient.

Pic two shows the internet and phone boxes. Top left box will be an ethernet port. Bottom box will be phone port and coaxial cable port. Right box is an ethernet port connecting to the port in the equipment room - so I can network the two computers.

Hopefully there's also enough room left inside that conduit if I every need to run another cable from outside the studio.

[onpurposeproductions]

I just realized I made a fairly significant oversight. I've made no accommodation for getting power to my main monitors!

I've never been completely sure what my mains would be so it's been something only in the back of my mind, but I have always assumed they'd be powered - hence the XLR connector. As it stands I'd have to run their power cords directly down the wall!!

I think this is my first major blunder , at least that I know about. CRAP! There's still time of course to figure it out but the electrical has already been inspected so adding a couple outlets would mean paying for another inspection....

[Ro]

That's not too bad; I'm sure you can add a few extra outlets without doing another inspection.
XLR doen't carry any mains so.. gheh.

Thanx for the update, looking good (except for that MAJOR blunder haha, just kidding)

[onpurposeproductions]

Thanks Ro!

Of course....I should probably allow for the option of powered or passive monitors since they're not confirmed. I'll confirm with my electrician that two more outlets won't be a big deal and probably run some speaker cable as well.

You lost me with this line though:

XLR doen't carry any mains so.. gheh.

I've started wondering whether or not I need to bothering putting up vapor barrier. My building inspector didn't think it would be a big deal if I didn't because of the double wall/ceiling design but also implied that I may as well. My HVAC guy certainly thought the mini-split will do a really good job at controlling humidity levels and didn't think vapor barrier would be missed either....

Since acoustically I'd probably be better off without it I'm wondering......Any thoughts on that for my southern Ontario climate?

[Ro]

You lost me with this line though:

XLR doen't carry any mains so.. gheh.

Must be the language barrier.
What I mean is that XLR wires (and I'm purely talking audiocables here) are not for powering monitors or anything like that. They only carry the audio signal.

[onpurposeproductions]

What I mean is that XLR wires (and I'm purely talking audiocables here) are not for powering monitors or anything like that. They only carry the audio signal.

Ahh - gotcha!

Hopefully it'll be no problem to put in a couple more outlets right at the main monitor position. Also - that ethernet run that I put in from the CR to the equipment closet to network my computers - I thought it was a crossover cable but its not. I'll be replacing it hopefully in the next couple days.

My glass should be ready any day now and my doors are ready for pickup at HD so I'm going to be busy!

I've been able to get discounted pricing on most of my materials purchases so far, which I'm pretty pleased about. I've got most of my stuff at Lowe's but went to HD for insulation as Lowe's doesn't carry Roxul. It turns out the store manager has his own video production business on the side and was more than happy to offer me 10% off the insulation! (they say HD doesn't negotiate prices...)

Despite all the discounts personal finances are quite a bit tighter than my wife and I had anticipated due to various circumstances. I'm feeling the pressure to get it done ASAP so it can earn money instead of eating it! Thankfully, there are projects lined up for when its completed!

[snowdog99]

Regarding vapour barrier...

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I would think that any time you can prevent moisture from coming in contact with the paper on your drywall, you're going to want to do it. Mold loves to eat paper.

And anytime you have a warm interior air of a building meeting the cold exterior air, you're going to have vapour. Doesn't matter how many layers of drywall you put up.

But, I'm just an IT guy. Not a builder...

My two cents.

Andy

[onpurposeproductions]

Thanks Andy!

I've always thought that the room-within-a-room design shouldn't have any impact on the necessity of vapor barrier but the mini-splits control of humidity levels did seem like a valid point....

As far as paper on the insulation - there isn't any. These are open-faced Roxul Safe-n-Sound bats - nothing on either side. And they're also moisture/mold resistant. The studs on the other hand could probably grow mold nicely.

The other consideration is from an acoustical standpoint I'd probably be better off without the vapor barrier.....