Songwriter's Studio - Family/Live Room

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 1:16 am

Here is the first room of my proposed studio. Anyone interested will find a complete layout of both rooms in the Studio Design section under Songwriter's Studio. Please note this is not intended to be a commercial or even a project studio. I will be using it to record song demos, my son and his electric, my daughter and her singing, and my wife's classical piano playing. I'm not trying to produce an acoustically perfect and maximally isolated room.

This room will actually be a family room with wall mounted widescreen TV and surround sound, sort of a home theater/music listening room. But I also want to set up an amp or mic and record in a live environment. Once again, I'm not reaching for perfection, just making the room more acoustically pleasant.

PLAN - includes a preliminary layout of basic wiring plan

SECTIONS - I'll post pics this weekend that will clarify my intentions

ISO - I intended to reroute the water and gas lines, but it was too expensive: $3000 with a permit and $1600 without. For that much, I can live with them running thru the traps/resonator.

Sorry the drawing are a bit large - I couldn't shrink them more and maintain legibility. More comments later...

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:46 pm

Here is the exterior of what will be the live recording room /family room, after I replaced the entire wall - all the siding, windows, doors, and a lot of the framing was rotten - water damaged. I could pull handfulls off with little effort. I built a temporary wall a couple of feet inside of the existing to support the roof load, then removed the rotten wall. I framed a new wall, set it in place, added sheathing, a new 6'0 steel french door with internal blinds, then Hardi-Plank siding.

When I removed the existing, several (about 20) bricks fell off, so I had a mason come in and replace them, matching the mortar, for $200. I intended to do it myself, but for that price it seemed worth the savings in time for me. It took him about 3 hours.

I also had to add a 2x6 subfacia. The original was 1x6 facia with no subfacia, which is why the gutters would not stay attached for long and failed, hence the extensive water damage. When I put the new wall down I used neophrene roofing cement to glue down the tar paper under the sole plate, then a generous bead before I set the wall on the tar paper, also under the threshold of the door.

I added a concrete step to support the front of the threshold and will also add an inch if concrete topping mix in front of the wall to level the patio slab with the foundation slab (you can't really see it in this pic).

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:56 pm

This shot shows the pipes I intended to move, but decided it wasn't worth $2k - 3K. This room was a patio until the previous owners enclosed it. You can see the header of the original window opening behind the insulation.

The new framing members are 2-2x10 beams. You can see where I added studs at the ends to carry the loads to the original foundation beams and used joist/beam hangers for all connections. Man was that a chore driving 3 1/2" galv. hanger nails by hand - even with a 28 oz framing hammer

.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:03 pm

The other end of the new beam. Notice the new wall header and additional studs - a column of sorts. To the left of the new column, just above the broken bricks, you can see a temporary support I added under the original 2-2x6 beam that carried the entire roof load across a 14'-6" span. Needless to say that is woefully undersized. Perhaps there was a post in the center of the span before the area was enclosed.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:09 pm

Here is another view of the same end that shows the existing 2-2x6 beam and the 2x4 lookouts which originally spanned 10' to the opposite wall and supported the plywood ceiling. When the patio was enclosed they placed a layer of drywall over the plywood. I cut the lookouts off and attached them to the new beam. They will frame the soffit on this side - I'll add new one on the opposite side.

Dan Fitzpatrick · Post by **Dan Fitzpatrick** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:40 am

Don,

keep those pix and commentary coming, it's great to see work done by someone who knows what they're doing ... it's much appreciated.

Dan

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:51 am

I didn't finish as much as I wanted to this weekend. I wanted to frame the raised portion of the ceiling, but nither HD or Lowes had any decent 2x4x12' - everyone of them was crooked or bowed or twisted. I needed eight but could only find two. I mentioned it to the manager and decided I'd wait till next weekend.

So all I accomplished was a bit of electrical rough-in. This house is wired so screwy. I need to go through and redo several circuits. For example, the bathrooms should have a dedicated 20 amp circuit, but they are on a 15 amp along with the hall light, the pantry light (on the other side of the house!), the fireplace lights, and the master bedroom ceiling fan. The rest of the circuits are similar. When this house was built it was in an unincorporated area of the county, so little is to code, even by 1973 standards, much less today. I'll just update as I go along.

The original breaker box was made by Federal Pacific which is long out of business. So when the main breaker died, it would have cost $300 just for the replacement - if one could be found. Unfortunately, it died on a Friday afternoon in July. I put the family up in a local motel and bought a new 125 amp box w/ all breakers for $100 from HD and installed it over the weekend. It was mounted outside - on the west wall - so it would overheat somedays and the AC breaker would trip. When I replaced it I flipped it inside. The space is a little more cramped than it should be, but I had intended to replace the waterheater with an on-demand wall-mounted unit, which would have given the required room easily, but couldn't afford the unit when the time came to replace the old heater. I can still move the new heater over a couple of inches and plan on cutting back the shelving when I remodel the laundry to achieve the required clearance.

I added an access panel to run new wires to the box - otherwise there was no way to get back in the eave to snake new ones down.

I bought the lightboxes for the recessed lights. I didn't realize they were so expensive: $20 for the box, $30 for the eye insert, plus the bulb. They'll come out to about $60 per light x 6 lights.

More next weekend...

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:00 am

Here's the panel from RCI. They were fast, friendly, and helpful.

The mic inputs are combo jacks, the volume is for the headphones, the coaxial is for the cable TV, the LAN is for when my son has his HALO 2 LAN parties.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:18 am

I decided to run a ridge beam down the center -I even had it installed - but realized it would be too difficult to attach the rafters on the side that follows the roof slope. So i removed it and simply used the roof as one half of the ceiling as I had originally intended. I also installed vent channels to ensure proper air flow for attic ventilation.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:18 am

I finished the framing today and installed the light boxes. All I have to do now is install the outlets and wire them along with the lights, then I can begin the drywall.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:21 am

The Pit. It started out as an archaeological dig for fossils by my daughter and her friend. When they were finished, the mutts took over.

Anybody want a dog?

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:50 am

The first sheet of drywall goes up. I hope to finish all the drywall this weekend - it depends on the weather. If it rains like it's suppose to, I may not be able to pick up the additional drywall I need. Also I need to run the speaker wire for the surround sound and the 4 ch snake, make up a LAN cable, and wiring for the headphones.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:54 am

Mogami 4 pair snake EZ ID Multicable x 85' - $96.90 from Performance Audio ($1.14/lf)

This will run from the studio to the panel in this room.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:33 am

Progress pics...

Back wall ready for RC and drywall.
Bass trap with thermal insul.
Soffit w/ lights, AC vent, and speaker outlet for surround sound
Close up of box w/ speaker wire.

Sandersd · Post by **Sandersd** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:38 am

Use an adjustable depth outlet box for walls with RC.

Surround sound and CATV wiring on left, Mogami 4 CH snake on right. I still need to fab the LAN cable and install before I insulate and drywall. (Hey, that rhymes

)