Legionreturns builds a new studio... an epic tale of mishaps and glory

Legionreturns

Snags said:

It would be spendy - don't have the time/tools/mates to self-build, so would be paying the builders to do it. And still need space for stuff that lives in there. But ... some thinking shall be done.

Way back up this thread someone recommended a book. 

Get it. It's brilliant!

Note; very few builders will have a real clue about decoupling, so you'd have to dictate exactly what you want. 

spark240

Are you going to use those mute clips on the stud walls as well?

Legionreturns

spark240 said:

Are you going to use those mute clips on the stud walls as well?

No, because the stud walls are already decoupled. I'm building them 1" off the existing walls with no contact points. 

My only compromise is really the floor. I don't have enough height to do a proper floating floor, so I'm using 3mm sound reduction underlay (20 db apparently but I'll not hold my breatg!) with thin hard ply and carpet tiles on top. This shouldn't be a huge problem though as the building is A ) 30m away from any houses, including my own B ) a good 10m lower down the hill and C ) half buried on the uphill / houses side. The window wall I just painted slurry around is in solid concrete up to just below the window. 

Legionreturns

Many things have moved on in the last day or so...

First, the Sparky has put the cabling down to the studio. As the house is still being rewired, this isn't live yet, but it's to my specification ready for me to put a second consumer unit in the studio. He's put down a 6mm armoured core and a Cat 6 for me to network with the house computers and broadband from my music workstation. 


We've fitted the air vents to the outside of the old door, just a low and high positioned vent to remove warm air and draw in cooler. These will be housed in baffle boxes to reduce sound transmission in a week or so, when I get around to it!


The other cable you can see coming out is the studio's dedicated earth, which will be buried and attached to a buried spike under the flagstones. 

We finally started fixing the stud walls in position today, adding a layer of plastic sheet to the rear of each section, and the neoprene strips to the bottom.




We're now just going around and putting noggins in, and feeding the electric cable around to the various points it's needed for my 3 electrical circuits and one lighting ring.

Should finish that tomorrow and get the insulation in before starting the long process of double boarding everything. 

Legionreturns

Ok, huge update time...I've been busy! 

Hat rails installed...



Most of the ceiling boards done, and wiring begins...


Insulation starts going in...

Knockout boxes installed and wires fed through...

Put the rest of the insulation in...

First layer of plasterboard on the walls...



Finishing the cutouts for the plugs tomorrow, then banging on the second board layer and taping ready for skimming.

Really feels like I'm on the home stretch now. 

To do: 

Finishing boarding
Skim
Paint
Fit and terminate consumer unit and test all electrics
Fit trim and inner door
Underlay, plyboard and carpet tiles
Acoustic treatment
Furniture
Install all my gear and test everything

Moominpapa

This is the proper shit. Great photos - I can practically smell that plasterboard.

Legionreturns

Moominpapa said:

This is the proper shit. Great photos - I can practically smell that plasterboard.

I can currently smell AND taste a heady cocktail of plaster dust and insulation. It's not great! 

Legionreturns

Today I am having a day off. 

By which I mean I'm doing DIY repairs and packing at our old house, ready to actually move in. 

Did I mention that I've been doing this studio build alongside renovating an entire 4 bedroom house? 

23 days in...5 ceilings knocked out and reboarded, bathroom ripped out and wall smashed and rebuilt 2 feet further out; 7 rooms stripped of wallpaper, a hideous 70s stone block fireplace removed and tidied...oh, and a full electrical rewire! 

mrkb

Legionreturns said:

Today I am having a day off. 

By which I mean I'm doing DIY repairs and packing at our old house, ready to actually move in. 

Did I mention that I've been doing this studio build alongside renovating an entire 4 bedroom house? 

23 days in...5 ceilings knocked out and reboarded, bathroom ripped out and wall smashed and rebuilt 2 feet further out; 7 rooms stripped of wallpaper, a hideous 70s stone block fireplace removed and tidied...oh, and a full electrical rewire! 

Sounds like a busy morning, what did you do in the afternoons

digitalkettle

Legionreturns said:

Today I am having a day off. 

By which I mean I'm doing DIY repairs and packing at our old house, ready to actually move in. 

Did I mention that I've been doing this studio build alongside renovating an entire 4 bedroom house? 

23 days in...5 ceilings knocked out and reboarded, bathroom ripped out and wall smashed and rebuilt 2 feet further out; 7 rooms stripped of wallpaper, a hideous 70s stone block fireplace removed and tidied...oh, and a full electrical rewire! 

Infinite 'man points'.

I'm still on a total of 7 from back in 2014 when I fixed a valve amp and put up a trellis in the same week.

Legionreturns

@digitalkettle those trellises can be a right wormhole! You start off thinking it's just banging in a few nails or screws, then realise the fence you're trying to fix it to is rotten and has to be stripped back, then work out the posts are fucked too. Before you know it, you've hired a mini JCB to dig out solid postcrete and hammering in new posts. 

hassleham

Looking good! I've got a load of carpet tiles if you need any.

Snags

Looking really good.

Without wishing to be an arsehole (quiet at the back!), if you're running copper not fibre between the house and the studio, and have separate earths, have you checked there's no issues with different earth potential?

Note this not my specialist subject, but having had "some" interaction with data cabling through work, those that know can get a bit sniffy about using wire not fibre between buildings with separate earths, as there is a (small, I think) risk of Bad Shit.

Legionreturns

hassleham said:

Looking good! I've got a load of carpet tiles if you need any.

I've already got my tiles sitting in boxes, but cheers anyway mate

Legionreturns

@Snags I've read that twice, and done some internet searching and I'm none the wiser. 

Small words. Imagine I'm a complete idiot. (Easy at the back!) 

Snags

OK, bear in mind I'm reciting half-rememberee wisdom from the guy I used to use to do all data cabling jobs for our clients, and don't really know WTF I'm talking about.

It's something to do with differences in earthing and elecktrickery between building A and building B being able to cause a sufficient inducted current in the copper wire of the network cable to send the sockets at each end live to a degree you would not want.

Using fibre de-couples the buildings Because Light not wire.

However, whether that still applies if the mains is on a spur from the main building I don't know. Other cabling people I've worked with have been less concerned about it, but it's a question worth asking whilst it's trivial to pull a new run. If I'm talking bollocks or it doesn't apply in your situation, hurrah!

Musicwolf

Legionreturns said:

@Snags I've read that twice, and done some internet searching and I'm none the wiser. 

Small words. Imagine I'm a complete idiot. (Easy at the back!) 

Your two buildings may have seperate electrical earthing points (i.e. the earth from the fuse box will be attached to either a metal pipe or a spike into the ground).  Because the Earth isn't a great conductor, and there may be differences in the chemical composition of the soil / moisture content at the two locations, there may be a small potential difference (a minute voltage) between the two.

Apparantly this could be an issue for data transmission although I have no experience in this as IT and data transmission is witchcraft as far as I'm concerned.

Legionreturns

Ok, thanks both. 

I can confirm that the studio electrics are a spur from the main board, but also have an independent earth spike buried outside. 

I've got two separate electricians looking at the house and studio respectively who are obviously both aware of the entire setup and plan, and neither has mentioned this potential problem. I'll ask the question. 

Snags

Well, like I said,   one cabling guy I used would insist on a fibre link,  another just shrugged when given the same scenario.

As told me by the first (who is also a friend and not risk averse,  having nearly killed himself racing motorbikes) it's a safety issue not a transmission one.  But it's reported wisdom, so take the advice of your pros.

Keefy

Legionreturns said:

...

... neither has mentioned this potential problem...

I see what you did there!