John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Keep up the good/hard work dude! You inspire so many of us!

Greg

Merry Christmas all,

I textured the fourth wall last night. One wall is sanded. Ceiling will get textured on or after New Year's Day as I will be out of town for a few days. I'm sure the ceiling will be more challenging and time-consuming due to gravity and ladder, so I'm not looking forward to the work, but I really am looking forward to being done with it and finally ready to prime and paint.

I'm pretty satisfied with the texturing. As I have progressed on the job, I have learned some things about the process. I used to worry about the ridges left behind from the trowel and knives, but I learned not to stress about it. Worst case, they can get sanded down, but even easier is shaving them off after they dry with a dry 12" texturing knife, and even better is smoothing it down with the knife after it starts to harden but is still malleable. I have gotten more skilled at creating voids in the texture -- and I think that will be something I notice in the finished product -- each wall I have done looks progressively better, but that means each wall is a little different and inconsistent with the next. That's OK though -- it's part of the story and journey, and the kind of thing hardly anyone will notice and nobody will criticize.

I'll shoot and post a video after the ceiling is textured and everything is sanded.

Texture is done and now ready for primer and paint! Here is a video of my textured interior walls.

Painting just about done. I just have a bit of touch-up to do on the ceiling. I was hoping the paint was going to make the texture look better, but it doesn't really, but that's OK. It'll bug me a little as the perfectionist that I am, but there will be so much stuff on the walls and ceiling that I don't think it will get any attention. I do wish I could have gotten a pro to do it, but two contractors I contacted were unresponsive.

Laminate flooring has been acclimating for 48 hours, so I plan on installing that tomorrow. My original plan was to do polished concrete, but again, two contractors that specialize in that didn't return my calls. Most of the floor will be covered with rugs anyway, so I went with a product I knew would look pretty good and that I knew I could install without much trouble.

Cleaning up the switches and outlets and putting covers on them will take a while since there are so many of them. Tomorrow will be busy.

It looks awesome! And that flooring is going to be gorgeous!

Greg

Thanks, Greg. Didn't start on flooring today, but I did finish painting (but for some thimbleful of paint touch-up here and there at the end) and I got the wall sconces installed, plus got covers on front and rear switches, and it's looking great.

I didn't start installing flooring this weekend as I had hoped, but I got a pesky chore out of the way -- installing the door thresholds. They are aluminum with ridges underneath them so that they don't bend when you stand on them -- but they are hollow, and I was concerned about the thresholds being a weak point in my isolation. I needed flexible mass to mold into them. What can I mold into shape like clay?.Ah, that's it! Modeling clay!

It was challenging drilling the holes in the concrete to accommodate the screws. I chewed through several concrete and masonry drill bits. Plastic screw anchors went into the holes.

Flooring goes down this week!!

I seem to have lost my concrete slab.

Once the transition pieces, baseboards, and door casings are in place, it's time to beef up those doors and then paint them. I can also get my final inspection done soon. Normally one need not have floors done before a final inspection, but I need to because of that gap.

A side benefit of having a separated room with great noise isolation, even if not completely done, is that it affords me the opportunity to be a link in a chain of animal rescue.

"Riley" had a private plane ride from Murietta (about 40 miles south of Riverside) to Sacramento with a short stop in La Verne (near Pomona) where the pilots picked up a cleft pallette puppy as a fellow passenger. I picked up Riley at Sacramento McClellan Airport (former Air Force Base air field, now civilian) and brought him home with us and in five days he will ride transport up to Southern Oregon where Oldies But Goodies already has a forever home lined up for him. Sweet boy.

Baseboards and door casings are in place! Looking great I think.

Video Update, February 16, 2020

Today I am beefing up the doors.

I scheduled an inspection appointment for Monday!

Doors are done! Even the self-closing hinges are adjusted and close and latch the door consistently, as long as the inner door is open. Hopefully that passes. The vacuum effect is significant when the inner door is closed.

Lots of touch up paint to do but I will wait until I am done with acoustic treatment and other stuff I will be doing.

So proud, I got it framed.

I am so stoked for you. What a journey you've been through. This is so inspiring for all of us. Thank you!

Greg

We did some "yell tests," and, as expected, the doors appear to be the weakest link in the isolation chain. But the performance is amazing. While standing directly by the door, the yell sounds so faint, like it's coming from several houses away. And if standing around the corner in the garage by the laundry room, it's even more faint, eminating from the studio door and not the walls. Standing outside in the side yard, dead silence.

Of course the moment of truth will be bass guitar and kick drum, but it's so satisfying to have a sense of actually achieving the goal. And if the doors end up needing improvement, there are tricks up my sleeve in terms of additional mass and seals.

Never give up, Never surrender
Where most would have given up, you have persevered
Congrats Keith