MASONIC LODGE STUDIO BUILD IN NEW ZEALAND

[Lord Echo]

Hello from New Zealand everybody.

I’m at the outset of the design and build of what for me is a dream come true in a small town in rural New Zealand, where I’ve moved from the city in order to buy this building.

It’s a former Masonic Lodge with a concrete floor, built partially of concrete block, and comprising of two hall sized spaces, a foyer and various other small rooms. I will live in one half and build a control room/live room in the other half.

I’m a reasonably successful solo artist - so at this stage, the purpose of the studio is not commercial in nature in the sense that it won’t be for hire. I will produce and record my own music here, mostly on my own, but will also have groups come through - either friends or music I believe in or want to support. So it’s primary set up will be for ease of solo tracking and mixing, with the capacity to accommodate larger groups.

I make music that sonically takes all its cues from the mid 60s to the mid 70s, and which is often played by DJs to people dancing in clubs (well…when that was still a thing). So in terms of loudness, I don’t mix particularly loud but I do have my sub set at a high level emulating what the most sub heavy club or festival system will do. And when I’m trying to get my low end balance, or engineering kick and bass I do have that loud so I can hear what I’m doing. And the other thing is that I do prefer to work in the early hours of the morning!

So all that said - my dream for the control room is to be able to do what I want, when I want without fear that the outside world can hear what I’m doing, and certainly not be annoying anyone at 3am. The live room can be more tilted towards acoustic concerns over isolation, though the isolation will need to be improved some.

The nearest neighbours are about 35 meters away, which is the best I’ve ever had. After months of repairing the outside of the building and getting the inside liveable, I caved and starting making some music in the last couple of weeks - and got a noise control notice at midnight last week. Which was a shame - I HATE annoying people - but which has also been a useful catalyst in propelling me into this next phase, which I must say I’m feeling fairly daunted by.

I’ve had a bunch of different studios over the last 20 years - I’ve done most things wrong at least once already, and have learnt a modest amount in the process. I have been reading over the site off and on over the past couple of months and have gone back to the Master Handbook of Acoustics, which is the only other acoustics material I have read (out of pure desperation it must be said.) My brain is okay for mechanical type things, but physics and a high degree of abstraction is not my strong point. So, like so many others, I’m very grateful to everyone that patiently gives their time here. I have, though, at least arrived at the point where I’m willing to accept that there’s no point in someone like me maintaining any assumptions or hunches about physics or acoustics, and there’s no point in substituting or improvising on common design strategies. I plan to attempt to follow the advice I’m given to the letter.

My budget for the whole thing is I guess around 20k, spread over a year or however long it takes. Like everyone, I would like it to be a lot less than that but I’m reconciled with the fact this is just what achieving the kinds of things I want to achieve (reasonable isolation in the control room, good acoustics in the live room) in a space this size may cost. This is just my hunch and is not based on costing anything up.

My initial focus will be the control room - where I spend the vast majority of time, and where I can do some music once its done - alternating between that and working on the live room.

I’ll share a bunch of pics and drawings I’ve made up to try and get people enthused, then I’ll detail the dimensions of the room (which are in the drawings as well) for easy reference, then I’ll get into the specific questions I have.

Here is the layout of the whole building. I’m lucky that there’s plenty of room for living space (I have a whole hall as a living room lol)

LODGE FLOOR PLAN 3.jpg

Here’s a detail of the exterior wall construction of the West and South walls (partial concrete block) and the North wall is similar but uses a double layer of brick instead of the concrete block. This is the most confounding and annoying part of the building in that the lower half of the wall is off to a great start with the concrete block, but the upper part is basically nothing - a thin sheet of asbestos on the exterior screwed directly to the internal timber frame and what we call Pinex or soft board on the corresponding interior. (A very light weight, pulpy, and flammable type of 60s building product)

EXTERNAL WALL CONSTRUCTION DETAIL (1).png

There is a 55mm air gap between the concrete block and the internal timber framing. The framing is braced to the blocks by wire in the mortar which is nailed to the frame, which you can see in this photo. This gap does not extend to the upper 3rd, where the asbestos is screwed directly to the frame.

FRAMING ATTACHMENT.JPG

Here you can see a photo of the North wall exterior (Brick and asbestos panel) - note the windows, the only ones in the control/live rooms and very high to the stud (for Masonic SECRECY), which will be potentially irritating later. Thankful for any natural light tho.

LODGE EXTERIOR NORTH.JPG

And the West wall exterior (Concrete block and asbestos panel)

LODGE EXTERIOR WEST.JPG

Here’s a 3D mock up looking at the control room, showing the proposed wall to section off the control room from the living quarters in red.

3D VIEW.jpg

Here is a photo of the control room (with a bunch of my stuff cluttered in there)

CONTROL ROOM NORTH WALL.JPG

Here’s a photo of the live room

LIVE ROOM.jpeg

Here is a photo looking in the opposite direction showing the wall separating the live room and control room which is currently just timber framing (And after I moved in a bunch of my stuff sorry) The east wall in the live room is an internal wall with timber studs, no insulation, and a mix of essentially hardboard and the aforementioned Pinex. The ceilings are different - the control room is slightly lower and flat, the live room is a partial A frame on the east and west ends of the ceiling and a flat centre running north to south.

LIVE ROOM NORTH WALL.JPG

Here’s a photo of some golden pillars! (Don’t worry, these aren’t in the build zone)

MASONIC PILLARS!.JPG

Here are the dimensions of the rooms - there’s a bunch more info here than maybe relevant sorry, just for my purposes of costing up different scenarios.

CONTROL ROOM SPECS.jpg

LIVE ROOM DIMENSIONS.jpg

TOTAL STUDIO DIMENSIONS.jpg

So to summarise - a simple control room/live room set up - isolation priority in control room, acoustics priority in live room.
Concrete pad floor.
External walls are 2/3 concrete clock/brick below and 1/3 thin asbestos sheet above.
Internal timber framing with studs at roughly 460mm centres. Air gap of 55mm between concrete clock and framing, above that asbestos screwed directly to frame. Framing is braced to concrete blocks by bits of wire in the mortar which is nailed to the frame. Currently lined with hard board and soft board. No insulation.
Ceiling flat in control room, partial A frame in live room. Ceiling comprised of layer of soft board, timber framing (though the live room has 3 steel beams as well) and then polyester heating insulation, ceiling cavity and corrugated iron roof.
Three windows at ceiling height (!) in the control room, and an air conditioning unit with a big fan unit outside and the delivery fan/brains inside joined by ducting. Formerly two small high windows in the live room, currently boarded up.
Neighbours 35 meters away, sub bass heavy music production at all hours of day/night.
Budget 20k.
A further quirk in passing - I mainly mix through a single speaker and sub in summed mono at distance of 5m, with additional near fields above the console. (Just to avoid embarrassment if someone got insanely carried away and played around with layout!)

And now to questions - I’ll focus exclusively on the control room in this first phase.

Given the sub bass music at all hours, neighbours 35m away, do I go all the way and build new internal walls and ceiling in the control room or might I be okay with upping the mass on the existing walls and ceiling if I’m smart about it?

If I had to build new internal walls I’d look at building the modular walls/ceilings designed by John under the walls/ceilings tab here :

http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/Titles/Acoustics3.htm

I have quite a lot of room so the size savings are not really important to me, but being able to build modular on the floor by myself is a big help.

If I had to add mass to the current wall set up, I’m still uncertain of the best way to achieve that given the problems detailed below with mixed materials.

The big problem is what to do in regard to the external walls, given that they’re constructed of two different materials. The lower half of concrete block is obviously good, but any benefit at this stage is totally negated by the fact that there’s barely anything in the upper third at all! What would be ideal I guess is if I could get the top third to be as good as it possibly can be before moving on to the inner walls.

With that in mind, does anyone have any radical ideas on how to best deal with the upper third? I could stuff this cavity with insulation of course but …but given that it won’t do much on its own and that the STC rating of hollow concrete block is quite good, could I achieve better over all results by filling in the upper part with concrete somehow or removing the asbestos and building the concrete block up to the ceiling height for instance (if that were possible)?

What also confuses me is that with the hollow concrete blocks, I currently have mass/air gap/mass (within the blocks themselves) then air gap between the block my inner leaf. As I understand it, I ideally only want one air gap between two leaves. Because of the concrete blocks in this set up, I kind of inevitably wind up with two air gaps and threes leaves - but only in the lower 2/3rds.

I guess I could attempt to fill the concrete blocks in with concrete, so at least there will be only one air gap, which would still be of a different size in the lower 2/3 (55mm air gap + 95 mm frame depth) compared to the upper 3rd (just the frame depth of 95mm)

Ay ay ay. Given this instance of 2/3 concrete block exterior, a flimsy upper 3rd, and the existing air gap between blocks and frame which doesn’t extend to the upper 3rd…I’m stumped sorry.

I would like to add a theory of my own, but I’m not sure if there’s much point given that after a bunch of research I feel less certain about anything than I did previously, which is probably a good thing I guess.

In short, please help! Any theories on this mixed materials mess gratefully accepted. Firstly on whether I should be aiming for new internal walls and ceiling given my requirements, secondly on how to best tackle the existing walls either way.

Thank you kindly,

Mike.

[gullfo]

welcome!
some interesting challenges ahead for you. one - is the asbestos going to be an issue? here in the US it would all have to be "remediated" (a terms meaning the company who is licensed to remove it will spray it with water and pack into special evidence bags signed off by the EPA and then tossed somewhere...)

on the framed third - you can simply add mass to the exterior portions in between the studs - often stripping off existing drywall and reusing it to beef up your exterior walls. based on your experience with the law already, you'll likely need to build a room within a room approach for the control room and live room.

on the control room - you've managed to create a non-symmetrical space for the room which needs the most symmetry. you may consider that space by the bedroom to be walled up and become an airlock/iso booth so your control room is symmetrical.

once you get around to sealing everything up, you'll find even musicians by themselves require oxygen - so plan your HVAC sooner rather than later. a single heat pump may suffice for temperate control but you'll have humidity, filtration, and outdoor ventilation to address. so if there is space above the control room and live room for ducting, plan now.

one the amount of isolation, you should run tests to determine where the issues are - pump up the PA to the loudest levels you'll be using - drums and bass are a good test but overall full spectrum music and noise (sometimes the same thing depending on what generation you're from) at say 110db inside, then using a sound level meter, record the volume levels at about 1m from the building - esp windows, doors, framed sections etc. then at your property lines as well.

do this during the day to avoid arrest.

once you have a map of the sound levels exiting your building, you'll have an idea of how much isolation you'll need and can plan your budget from there. if you're planning on taking a year to do the work, then consider day light hours as more conducive for loud work to avoid getting shutdown. ensure you have all the proper work permits etc needed as you don't want complications from the building officials and neighbors.

[Lord Echo]

welcome!

Thank you!

some interesting challenges ahead for you. one - is the asbestos going to be an issue? here in the US it would all have to be "remediated" (a terms meaning the company who is licensed to remove it will spray it with water and pack into special evidence bags signed off by the EPA and then tossed somewhere...)

Yes, if the asbestos is removed then theoretically this is what must happen.

on the framed third - you can simply add mass to the exterior portions in between the studs - often stripping off existing drywall and reusing it to beef up your exterior walls. based on your experience with the law already, you'll likely need to build a room within a room approach for the control room and live room.

Ah, okay. So you're saying adding multi layers on the building exterior is the way to go? That makes some sense.

on the control room - you've managed to create a non-symmetrical space for the room which needs the most symmetry. you may consider that space by the bedroom to be walled up and become an airlock/iso booth so your control room is symmetrical.

Okay, this is good to know! The bedrooms (formerly cloak rooms for masonic robes and what have you) were already here, and I did toy with other designs which would have seen the bedroom dimensions continue across the whole front of the building, giving me a workshop. The other option is take out the bedroom, which gives me a larger control room and would probably be my ultimate preference.

once you get around to sealing everything up, you'll find even musicians by themselves require oxygen - so plan your HVAC sooner rather than later. a single heat pump may suffice for temperate control but you'll have humidity, filtration, and outdoor ventilation to address. so if there is space above the control room and live room for ducting, plan now.

Fantastic! I'll read up on HVAC approaches and see what's going to work best in this space.

one the amount of isolation, you should run tests to determine where the issues are - pump up the PA to the loudest levels you'll be using - drums and bass are a good test but overall full spectrum music and noise (sometimes the same thing depending on what generation you're from) at say 110db inside, then using a sound level meter, record the volume levels at about 1m from the building - esp windows, doors, framed sections etc. then at your property lines as well.

do this during the day to avoid arrest.

once you have a map of the sound levels exiting your building, you'll have an idea of how much isolation you'll need and can plan your budget from there. if you're planning on taking a year to do the work, then consider day light hours as more conducive for loud work to avoid getting shutdown. ensure you have all the proper work permits etc needed as you don't want complications from the building officials and neighbors.


This is great advice thank you, I will go ahead and map it out.

Much obliged!

[DanDan]

Wow. Reminds me of a U47 on my workbench, which the Ayatollah used to use.
In the Noise Control side of things I frequently use iOS stuff, keeping the posh gear at home for safety etc. You don't wave around a Bruel and Kjaer in a NightClub on Saturday night.
So if you have iPhone etc. The Best and the Freeest https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/app.html

[John Steel]

Great post Lord Echo - Marvelous to have so much space available and I'm looking forward to following your progress. Big thanks to Dan Dan for sharing the Niosh download link. May I ask which type of external mic you use with your iPhone? ATB John.