John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello, I'm getting ready to start construction.
The space I am working with is about 30 ft long X 20 ft wide and 20 ft high.
The floor is concrete.

I am building a room within a room inside this space, however, this existing space will not be used at all for what I am building (The floor is the obvious exception here). I am renting and I am not allowed to use or permanently alter the existing structure, including the floor.

The room I am building will be about 21 ft long X 14 ft wide X 12 ft high.

2 of the walls (a side and the back) will be about 1.5 ft away from the existing structure. The other 2 walls will have significantly more space, for walking and other uses.

The outside wall will be framed 2X6's and the inside wall 2X4's (at least that's the plan at this point)

We will be having live and loud band rehearsals in this room, think rock music.

I am trying to do this whole project for less than $10,000

One wall will have the door and a window.

My question is this. If I am not allowed to drill into the concrete floor to fasten my frames securely, what are my options?

I am not a contractor and I am having a friend of mine help me with the project who has been involved in construction for many years.
He's concerned about not bolting the frame to the floor (and I can understand why).

Any help is appreciated (I hope I followed the rules) I did read them. Please let me know if I need to give more information.
Thanks for your time!
Dan Welby

Welcome!

Your walls need to be securely fastened to the floor in some way. Can you glue the walls to the floor? The glue is insanely strong and from what I've heard, it's a huge job to remove it. I assume it may be somewhat destructive to the concrete when removed.

If that's the case, maybe your only solution is to make a box type room. The floor of your room would not be anchored at all to the existing floor. But, to make it sound remotely good, you'd maybe have to fill it and seal it REALLY well with dry sand. That's the only thing I can think of.

Greg

Hey Greg, thanks for the reply!

Glue is what we are considering doing, we both really weren't sure if that would be strong enough though. It seems you think that would suffice? Any particular brands you have used and found to be very strong?

I don't understand what you said about a box type room, but that seems like it would be far more complicated and involved. This would probably increase the budget a good amount too, and I gotta watch that!!

As far as the removal of the glue, I suppose that's a risk I'm going to have to take. I may lose my security deposit in the end, but honestly, if it gets to the point when we need to leave, I'm hoping it's because we are growing and ready to expand.

Again, thanks for your time and input, truly appreciated!!

Dan

I'm not sure what is available to you where you live, but any extra strength industrial grade glue should work. Not preschool Elmers glue of course! With a good glue, it will rip the wood apart before it detaches itself. Strong enough, yes.

If you're willing to glue your walls to the floor, then ignore my box comment and build it the way everyone else does

Share pictures of your progress, I'm excited to see it!

Greg

Whatever you decide to do here, I would check that it meets code, and also get a structural engineer to give it his blessing. You live in LA: Can you say "earthquakes"? There are some quite strict measures in the building code for earthquakes. Where I live (Chile), gluing a structural wall to the floor would not be allowed, for the same reason: earthquakes. I've been through a few big ones myself (the biggest was a magnitude 8., so I'm well aware of just how much things move in a big quake. You do not want your walls and floor parting company when the next one hits your studio! I think you'll find that in LA, you do need mechanical anchors for structural (load bearing) walls. Either anchor bolts or tap-cons are probably acceptable, but I'd be surprised if glue is an option. Your best bet is to discuss this with your local authorities, or a qualified local structural engineer, and found out what the law says.

- Stuart -