the concrete bunker

[seancook]

So, myself and a few friends that are in bands have been talking about building a shared space, studio for me during the week and rehearsal space/studio for them on the weekends and nights.

They take on the lease and build with their label advances, I pay the bulk of the rent bills with the work, we all benefit from a nice space and a nice community

so we found a nice concrete bunker, besa block walls, 14m x 6.5m x 3.8m with a angled back wall which cuts one of the side lengths down to 11m (if that makes sense to anyone I am impressed!)

it seemed a good, it was pretty quiet whenever people went and inspected and measured the place. (i havent really been around much its someone else's hobby project not really mine) but all seemed well, build a room within a room, air condition it and get going.

UNTIL (we all knew this was coming right?)

we got the keys this week and have since discovered that they has huge commercial sewing machines bolted into the floor (our roof) which run from 8 am to 4pm weekdays pushing about 70dB of sub 30, 60, 120 down to us. These were conspicuously never mentioned and never on in any of the visits to check the space out.

I feel we should probably cut our loses and get out of the lease asap, but we are looking at if it is feasible to make a dent in that bass transference without mortgages the entire country!

also, we are calling around a few studio build guys, Steel/Sayer to come and see the space and quote on some builds if it could work.

Any other names to through in the mix?


your chiding and generally muffled laughter at the predicament would be appreciated!

[rick]

rubber-mounts-250x250.jpg

ok here is the way forward

have a chat to the sewing machine place .. see if they will let you put industrial rubber mounts on their machines
you need 4 for each "table" they are around $70-80 each foot..
you must knock the noise out before it hits the slab or its hopeless

If they will let you come in and do that ( at your expense ) it will all be fine

If they wont . you are going to waste a shitload of money .. you just cannot remove structure bourne noise after it hits the slab .. especially that amount without spending a house worth of money .. walk away

so ask if you can get some mounts put in on their tables ?

this advice is free .. and worth 10000 times what you just paid for it !

[seancook]

Yep

thanks for the advice, it would seem that this is the only viable solution

the guy who own the place is out of town, and his assistant doesn't seem to understand whats going on,

he says there are rubber feet underneath them, but i highly doubt that they are proper isolating feet.


also, where did you find that photo? who would be the best source for these? Is there anyone local?
Bet you saw those last questions coming a mile off!?

[rick]

thats just the first web photo that looked about right when i typed in industrial isolation mounts
I have bought some through hare and forbes machinery in parramatta ..and i always take note of them when i see them about the place or in various catalogs i read ( machine stuff )

its a common thing for factories to install..

so shouldnt be too hard to round something up ..the catch will be when you need 300 of them in a hurry !
err hopefully you dont need 300 ..

the only way to solve it is to keep it out of the slab .. so dont buy the cheapest rubber ones you can find
do some research and see if you can get the shop to let you try out one table after hours

.. or walk away ..

cause its a BIG problem

[cLoudBase]

Sounds like a nightmare.
You have serious regrets already, rightfully so, & you haven't even begun.
Put it down to experience & walk away.

[jasound]

Megaphon studio and its b room Airmotion had the same problem 15+ years ago.
They did what Rick has suggested and it worked pretty well for the most part.
It depends on what your recording, band stuff will be fine, strings an acoustic music might have to wait until the evening.
Watch out for the power as well, I remember there being some noise issues from all those little motors getting into the audio path. Installing 3phase power an some rewiring for the studio and factory fixed it.

[DarkSky]

...your chiding and generally muffled laughter at the predicament would be appreciated!

Definitely no laughter here. Commiserations are in order, though!

Hard to say (from what you've told us) whether you were duped (the machines deliberately silenced whenever an inspection of the premises was imminent) or whether there was simply not enough diligence in checking out the suitability of the site. Either way, it's more than a tragic PIA!

I agree with others that improved mechanical isolation of the sewing machinery *plus* a floating room-within-room, if done properly, may get you into an acceptable range. Hard to say for sure until you've tried, and by then you'll have a fair wad of cash buried in the project (in addition to what has been spent so far).

Tough call, however you look at it. My inclination would be to challenge the owner/agent about the lack of disclosure about (and/or misrepresentation of) the property and see if the lease can be amicably set aside with no - or at least minimal - financial impact.

Or ... take a deep breath and start stockpiling rubber iso pads...

[wez]

You almost certainly have legal grounds to get out of the deal.

The important bit... did you tell the agent at any point what you were planning to use the space for? Was the agent present while you discussed your plans? Was the agent aware of the adjoining business? If so, it can be argued that they have a duty to inform you of any aspect that would make the premises unsuitable. Did they set the appointment times, or did you?

you need to talk to a lawyer, but you have a few avenues to explore -

misleading conduct (contract law)
misleading conduct (trade practices act)
negligence (tort law)

you might need to do some googling to find out the 'test' for each of these areas of law. but from what you have said, it sounds like you have been mislead and you probably have more rights than you think, regardless of whether or not you exercised due diligence in procuring the lease.