New Build In Old Cow Shed

[sei046]

Hey Guys,
So I am in the infancy stage of my studio build and am just trying to work out the logistics to a studio build in one of my sheds.

The overall space is 16m x 5.5m with a sloped ceiling from about 2.4m to about 5m.

I was looking to have a control and live room and for the minute am just giving them equal space. You can see my initial plan in the attached.
Budget is absolutely a concern as money is obviously tight in the entertainment industry with COVID and I dont want to sink more than I have to into the project.

At the minute the concrete floor is very uneven so I am not sure whether to put in some joists and cover them with OSB then floor it or just get it levelled and go from there.

Any thoughts on two equal sized rooms stepped out from the interior walls, with a drywall,GG,drywall,insulation, fabric setup? Leave maybe a 300mm gap between the two rooms?

And I presume I would be better off building new ceiling joists to make use of the height that is there currently which would give me approximately 3m at the highest point, potentially more as Im not sure what angle I can get away with yet. I presume that would be better than going with the easier option of a new flat roof at about 2.4m straight across.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Ideally I will incorporate a machine closet and potentially a small iso booth in the live room if there was enough space.

Thanks guys

[Paulus87]

Hey Guys,
So I am in the infancy stage of my studio build and am just trying to work out the logistics to a studio build in one of my sheds.

The overall space is 16m x 5.5m with a sloped ceiling from about 2.4m to about 5m.

I was looking to have a control and live room and for the minute am just giving them equal space. You can see my initial plan in the attached.
Budget is absolutely a concern as money is obviously tight in the entertainment industry with COVID and I dont want to sink more than I have to into the project.

At the minute the concrete floor is very uneven so I am not sure whether to put in some joists and cover them with OSB then floor it or just get it levelled and go from there.

Any thoughts on two equal sized rooms stepped out from the interior walls, with a drywall,GG,drywall,insulation, fabric setup? Leave maybe a 300mm gap between the two rooms?

And I presume I would be better off building new ceiling joists to make use of the height that is there currently which would give me approximately 3m at the highest point, potentially more as Im not sure what angle I can get away with yet. I presume that would be better than going with the easier option of a new flat roof at about 2.4m straight across.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Ideally I will incorporate a machine closet and potentially a small iso booth in the live room if there was enough space.

Thanks guys

Hi,

You have potential for a great space, though to do it justice it's going to need more than just a little work. Budget will need to be big.

Floor:

Your existing concrete is likely cracked and damaged in several places? And it's unlikely there will be a damp proof course or membrane installed. The lack of damp proof course is going to be your biggest problem starting out since there isn't really a viable option to retrofit one - it needs to be installed under the walls.

You could tank the walls with a liquid damp proofing paint, it needs to be completely continuous without any gaps and you'll need to do a couple of coats. Then remove all the damaged parts of the concrete floor, fill in any gaps with concrete, wait for it to dry and then lay a damp proof membrane over it making sure it goes up the walls around the perimeter. Lay some 100mm rigid insulation such as kingspan or celotex, use some 50mm up the walls a little around the perimeter, and then cover that in another plastic membrane (this is because concrete react with the foil facing on the insulation).

If you want you can make some wooden cable troughs (this requires a lot of pre planning) and then pour a brand new concrete slab on top. Tamp it down and level it to the height of the cable troughs. You'll want it to be at least 125mm deep, and completely level.

Walls:

You didn't mention how the existing walls are constructed. I assume stone or concrete block? Once you tell us we can advise you more.

Roof:

How is the existing roof constructed? Depth of rafters? Tiles or sheets? Any roof ventilation?

Other questions:

Do you have any height restrictions?

How much isolation do you actually need? (Are there neighbours near by? Train tracks etc)

Also consider:

A bathroom/toilet?
Storage?
Kitchenette?

[sei046]

Paul,
Thanks so much for the in depth reply. Its hugely appreciated.

So in the picture below you can see a walled off section before it was cleared out.. I will be removing that wall but it gives you an idea of the concrete that is there. I will obviously have to repair the ground where that wall was taken out.


Here you can see what is behind the wall to the left of the first image. So when the right wall below is taken out it will open it all out into one room but you can see the concrete flooring there again and the walls. You can also see that the wall height on the left is around 2.5m and then stops and over the other side of it is just the same size again of which I will not be using...(yet)...(probably ever). Hopefully this gives you an idea of the concrete. You can see the current steel beams that are what would restrict my ceiling height.


So if you were to walk down that corridor it would open up into the space below. I only have an image of it before it was cleared.
Underneath all that old farm debris was concrete but you can see in the middle at the end a raised concrete section that I will have to kango out and repair.


With regards to isolation I have no neighbours and I am well away from my house. I also am 2 miles down a country lane with almost no traffic as I am the end house on the lane. I have no concerns with regards to soundproofing, only that I want reasonable isolation between my control room and live room. When I say reasonable, I want to be able to comfortable eq a snare drum without hearing much or too much direct sound. I completely understand I wont be building blackbird.

As for bathrooms I think I will build a standalone room outside down the line. The plumbing etc. should not be a huge issue. However it is not a big deal to have clients use the house as there is a bathroom right inside the back door without having to go through the house. As for kitchenete I was considering not partitioning it off and having a small unit at the back of the control room where I can just have basic tea and coffee facilities. 99% of the time I work on my own and this will never be a commercial facility.

With regards to Storage I would like a machine closet in the control room just to keep wiring for my computers and server all tidied away. In the Live room I just want a cabinet or closet to keep mics etc. In general I like leaving my mics on stands and covered out in the corner of my current live room.
Im not concerned with long time storage of rarely used items as I do have a lot of storage on my land.

Also, I see that the current height of the beam at the center of the room is at around 3.5m

Thanks again Paul.

[DanDan]

What is that roof made of? People sometimes forget about Rain Noise....

[sei046]

Tin! Im well aware of the roof noise as my house extension has one!

I was hoping that by stepping my roof down from it and with the double drywall I might be ok?

[Paulus87]

Tin! Im well aware of the roof noise as my house extension has one!

I was hoping that by stepping my roof down from it and with the double drywall I might be ok?

This is a big job, requires not only knowledge of acoustics/isolation but also construction. There are many specific and complicated things that need to be done in order for you to not only have a functional space, but a safe space. My advice is hire a studio designer such as John Sayers, or failing that one of us on the forum.

It will save you time, effort and believe it or not a whole load of money.

Paul

[sei046]

I mean absolutely, that would be fantastic. But I’ve spent the last 7 years working out of a studio that is almost identical to this situation. Exactly the same starting point. The studio is there 15 years now and in my time renting that space it has been absolutely perfect. Certainly not from an internal acoustics point of view but structurally and sound proofing etc.

So it’s not that I am disagreeing, it’s just that at some point, considering that is a personal work space with the occasional tracking session and not for commercial or rental use, I’m not pumping 70k into it.